Brampton’s former mayor says she feels vindicated after a judge ruled in favour of the city in a $28.5 million-dollar lawsuit brought by a local developer more than seven years ago.

Susan Fennell, who served as the city’s mayor between 2000 and 2014, broke her silence on the matter in a recent interview with The Brampton Guardian in the wake of Ontario Superior Court Justice John R. Sproat’s dismissal of Inzola Group Limited’s lawsuit against the city.

“I have always maintained the Southwest Quadrant procurement process was fair,” said Fennell. “I am also proud of fine, skilled and highly competent city staff who made this project happen. The dismissal of this lawsuit vindicates me as mayor, and vindicates those staff who, by simply doing their jobs, paid a terrible price by unjustly losing their jobs.”

Former CAO Deborah Dubenofsky did not have her contract renewed and project evaluation co-chair Mo Lewis resigned. Others were either let go or left their jobs with the city amid the years-long controversy surrounding the lawsuit, and Fennell believes the lawsuit played a role in their departures.

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The suit brought by Inzola Group Limited and its owner John Cutruzzola in 2011, accused Fennell and members of her former staff of bias and political interference in the city’s 2009 $500 million Southwest Quadrant Renewal project procurement process. Only the first phase of the project — the City Hall West Tower expansion — was completed.

The company claimed it would have been the preferred respondent had it been allowed to continue in the process, and claimed it was owed lost profits. The city claimed Inzola violated the rules outlined in the request for procurement (RFP) process and was disqualified as a result.

In his Jan. 11 ruling, Sproat sided with the city and dismissed the case.

Fennell said she believes the controversy reported in the media surrounding the lawsuit played a large role in her loss to now-former mayor Linda Jeffrey in the 2014 election, while also causing unnecessary damage to the city’s reputation.

The lawsuit was one of several controversies dogging Fennell in her final years as mayor, all of which she is happy are now behind her.

“From the OPP clearing me of any allegation of wrongdoing during my last two terms of office, to the Leiper Report finding the Deloitte forensic audit erred and cleared me of any financial mismanagement as mayor, to Justice Sproat’s recent ruling I had no bias against the Inzola Group and the disqualification of Inzola from the tender was justified, my name has been fully cleared,” she said.