An arbitrator has cleared Brampton Mayor Susan Fennell of many of the expense policy violations identified in an audit by Deloitte Canada released this past summer.

It showed she violated spending rules over 260 times over seven years.

Outside her home, Fennell said some of her critics claimed she owed nearly $170,000.

She repeatedly denied that, saying she respects the rules.

”The arbitrator has now agreed and found that all that is owing is a fraction of that, just over $3,000.”

The arbitrator’s report comes just three days before the election.

”The arbitrator finds that the Deloitte forensic audit and the Toronto Star and my partisan opponents were just plain wrong.”

The latest poll shows Fennell trails frontrunner and former MPP Linda Jeffrey by 23 %.

”We have three days to make sure the people of Brampton know the truth.”