Brampton’s former chief administrative officer Deborah Dubenofsky admitted under oath previous testimony she gave in a $28.5 million lawsuit against the city was “incorrect.”

Brampton developer John Cutruzzola, owner of Inzola Group Inc., is suing the city for alleged damages and lost revenue stemming from the company’s disqualification from bidding on the City Hall expansion project and now cancelled Southwest Quadrant (SWQ) renewal project.

Inzola alleges former mayor Susan Fennell and senior members of city staff at the time, including Dubenofsky, conspired to unfairly disqualify the firm due to bias against Cutruzzola and Inzola. Dominus Construction was eventually awarded the West Tower City Hall expansion contract in 2011.

Dubenofsky, who served as city manager (CAO) between 2007 and 2012, is one of several former high-ranking city employees to take the stand in the expected eight-week trial.

Under examination by city lawyers, Dubenofsky denied any bias and defended the city’s controversial 2009 competitive dialogue request for proposal (RFP) process.

“I had no role in the disqualification of Inzola,” she told court, describing her relationship with Cutruzzola as “cordial and professional.”

The competitive dialogue process put almost the entire procurement process in the hands of city staff, removing city council from all elements beyond accepting or rejecting staff’s recommendation of the preferred respondent. It was the first time the process had ever been used in Canada.

“We were pleased to put forward a process that met council’s objectives,” she said on the stand. “I was a champion for this project. I was proud of the achievement.”

Inzola claims Fennell, Dubenofsky and others violated the RFP rules in several regards, and actively sought to ensure Dominus would eventually be awarded the project.

One of the stated reasons for choosing competitive dialogue was to eliminate possible political bias. Both city council and staff — outside a chosen staff-only steering and evaluation committee — were supposed to remain completely independent of the process.