City of Brampton documents released this week appear to contradict embattled Mayor Susan Fennell’s statement that airline passes she used on more than a hundred expensive trips were purchased “at the economy fare that allows flexibility.”

Among them are receipts from Air Canada, provided by chief administrative officer John Corbett, showing that between 2008 and 2013 the “North America Latitude” flight pass was purchased nearly every time for use by Fennell and her staff.

Fennell has come under increasing fire in recent months over her lavish spending on airfare and hotels, high salary, generous car allowance and other expenses big and small charged to city taxpayers, much of it without a full accounting to council.

City policy on air and train travel says the lowest fare available must be booked. The Latitude fare class is not the lowest-priced pass, according to Air Canada spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick.

In fact, according to the airline’s website, for the North America group pass, the Latitude class is the higher of two fare levels. It provides automatic seat upgrades, access to exclusive lounges, and 100 per cent air travel rewards points. It also offers free rescheduling of flights. (Flight passes are pre-paid credits for future travel, often used by frequent travellers who need flexibility. At the lower fare class, rescheduling costs $50.)

Currently, the 30-credit Latitude pass sells for $31,933, compared with $23,730 for the Flex pass, a difference of more than $8,000.

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Fennell was asked last week to provide receipts for her air travel. Her office did not respond, nor did she provide details, as the Star requested, about the specific fare category she and her office had purchased.

Documents previously obtained by the Star under freedom of information law show Fennell and her staff expensed $185,000 for travel between 2008 and 2013, including several short flights for trips to Ottawa, Bagotville, Que., and Saskatoon that cost $1,850 each.

Invoices provided Tuesday by Corbett show that the Latitude pass was purchased with 30 credits (one credit buys one leg of a trip) for $28,260 last February. Each leg cost $958.58, so each of the 15 trips taken in 2013, including Fennell’s travels to Halifax, Regina and other cities, cost $1,917 for airfare alone. In 2012, the same fare category was purchased, resulting in charges such as Fennell’s $1,850 trip to Ottawa, a flight of just over an hour.

Fennell’s office responded by repeating her earlier statement that the flight passes were purchased “with a full review and estimate of the work travels ahead” and chosen “because there are no additional costs or fees to change flights.”

As to whether Brampton staff using the passes earned frequent flier points on their trips, chief corporate services officer Peter Simmons said there was no policy prior to last March prohibiting that practice. But a new policy in effect since then prohibits acquiring such points from travel on behalf of the city.

Fennell, asked whether she or any of her family or friends have ever used such reward miles, responded simply in an email: “Miles/points are not used.”

“That’s not answering the question,” Fennell critic Councillor Elaine Moore responded. “What happened to the thousands of points that were collected in the past? Where were they used to fly to? Here’s another example of this mayor not being straight with the taxpayer.”

Staff responding to the Star’s questions said they would need more time to gather details on more than a dozen flights taken by Fennell and former city manager Deborah Dubenofsky that were charged to the city but later reimbursed.

After the Star began reporting on Fennell’s costly travel expenses, she told the Toronto Sun that she would reimburse the city $3,030 for her first-class fare to Iqaluit in 2010, stating: “I don’t believe in business-class fares while flying in North America.”

Brampton council, confronted with the high cost of Fennell’s three first-class flights to Asia between December 2012 and April 2013, voted last month to eliminate all first-class travel. It has also asked staff to review the expense policy and introduce a requirement that expenses be approved by the treasurer or deputy treasurer.

Moore listed various revelations brought forward by the media or Corbett since he took over from Dubenofsky when her contract was not renewed at the end of 2012: $175,000 in ticket purchases for senior staff to attend Fennell’s private events; salary disclosures showing that at $213,000 she was Canada’s highest-paid mayor in 2012; her city-paid $1,400-a-month lease of a Lincoln Navigator SUV, on top of a $46,000-a-year limousine service; $186,000 in discretionary expenses in less than three years — and the $185,000 in travel expenses, including $700-a-night hotel stays, since 2008.

“Put simply, it’s time to tell the truth,” Moore said.

Councillors have slashed almost 70 per cent of Fennell’s discretionary expense budget, tried to cut $10,000 from her $22,000 car allowance but were stymied by the lease; called for a review of the salary formula; banned first-class travel and voted unanimously for a forensic audit of her spending.

Councillor Grant Gibson is hopeful the audit will do what council hasn’t been able to in the past: “She has to be accountable to the public. I hope the forensic audit will get to everything.”

Councillor John Sprovieri, one of Fennell’s sharpest critics, says the mayor’s spending habits may be hard to curb.

“I’ve seen how much she enjoys all this expensive travel. In India, at the airport in New Delhi, she invited me into the first-class lounge.”

Sprovieri flew economy on a trip to India in January 2013, while Fennell upgraded her seat to first class, charging an additional $3,200 on her discretionary expense budget.

“This mayor has no regard for hardworking taxpayers’ money. Nothing surprises me any more about this mayor,” Sprovieri said.

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