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Whitby councillors in public fight over $235K with ex-mayor Pat Perkins

Past and current members of Whitby's town council are embroiled in a very public spat over the fate of hundreds of thousands of dollars in public funds, CBC Toronto has learned.

The problems began back in 2011, when then-mayor Pat Perkins set up an arms length association to run a special fund-raiser, called the 2013 Mayor's Gala.

The idea was to raise money that could help build an arts and culture hub in Whitby.

The town eventually provided about $235,000 to the so-called Association in Support of the Whitby Performing Arts Centre (ASWPAC) to help set up the mayor's gala.

The fate of that money is what's at the heart of the controversy now. The town says it has never been accounted for properly. Perkins insists it was, when she opened her books to the town auditor three years ago.

"Not sure what their end game is here but everything has been accounted for," Perkins told CBC Toronto on Monday. "I have no reason to trust these people."

Shortly after the event, Perkins ran — and won — in a byelection to replace the late Conservative MP and former finance minister Jim Flaherty.

The dream of an arts centre came to an end at about the same time that she left for Ottawa.

And ASWPAC began, according to Perkins's husband Bob, who sat on the board, to distribute the proceeds among three organizations: The Whitby Courthouse Theatre, the Optimist Club of Brooklin and the Whitby Chamber of Commerce.

Those funds were to be used by those organizations to promote local arts and culture among the community's young people.

But some time in late 2016, Coun. Joe Drumm says, the town came to the conclusion that the $235,000 that had been given over to the association had never been properly accounted for.

"There isn't anyone on council who's ever said this 235,000 was ever justified," he said last week.

The town council brought in Ernst and Young to review the association's transactions, at a cost of about $13,000, earlier this year. According to a town report, the accounting indicated it would require a more in-depth analysis to determine exactly how the money given to the association was spent.

But that in-depth review would have cost the town an additional $60,000.

Last Monday, council voted to abandon that review, and instead "clearly articulate Council's position that the 2013 Mayor's Gala funds are public funds and a full and public accounting still needs to be provided."

But on Monday, Perkins said she's reluctant to open the books again to the town.

"Who knows what it is they're going to extract?" she said. "I don't trust them."

She said she would be prepared to show her records to an independent third party.

Later Monday afternoon, the town announced that current Mayor Don Mitchell will make a public statement about the controversy.

The veracity of the allegations raised on both sides has not been verified by CBC Toronto.