Becoming Citizen Bill
Standard investigation shows NPCA report used to censure Bill Hodgson was flawed
There is no fight left in Bill Hodgson.
For 25 years Hodgson was a believer. He had a deep and abiding faith in the inherent good of public service. Politics could be an honourable path to that service.
It is why he first ran to be a school board trustee, which lead him to the mayor’s office in Lincoln and eventually to a seat at Niagara’s regional council table.
But Hodgson doesn’t believe anymore.
After what he describes as a relentless campaign of bullying and intimidation by members of the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority board of directors that culminated in a false accusation of corruption, Hodgson had a crisis of faith.
He is leaving politics behind him.
By early 2017, NPCA, where Hodgson sat as a board member, was in the deep waters of public controversies surrounding its hiring and business practices. Calls for a comprehensive audit of NPCA operations grew steadily louder. The Ontario Auditor General offered to conduct an audit, but the board declined, declaring an audit unnecessary.
Hodgson, who had already clashed with board members over senior staff raises, promotions and the decision to launch a $100,000 libel suit against one of its loudest critics, pushed for NPCA to hire an auditor. It was the only way, he felt, to restore public confidence in the embattled agency.
Hodgson’s motion for an audit was accepted, but soon he was embroiled in an argument over changes to the wording of the motion and so the purpose and intent of the audit. An angry Hodgson accused the board of inserting “weasel words” into this motion to blunt the audit — the phrase so offended acting NPCA CAO Peter Graham that he broke down in tears during a public meeting.
Hodgson later toned down his criticism and apologized, but that did little to calm the waters.
On April 26, 2017, the process ground to a halt. In a board meeting hidden from public view because NPCA staff papered over all the windows, Hodgson
was accused of tampering with the hiring process. The evidence for the accusations levelled by NPCA chair and Fort Erie regional Coun. Sandy Annunziata were contained in a report authored by the Toronto law firm Gowling WLG.
Hodgson said he did not know about the report until that day and Annunziata would not show it to him. Nevertheless, Annunziata sent letters to several municipalities saying the NPCA board had voted to censure Hodgson for corrupting the process. NPCA, he said, would ask the Auditor General to do an audit.
Annunziata’s letter contained no evidence of corruption nor the Gowling report, which he refused to release publicly.
Publicly humiliated, Hodgson’s health began to fail. He wasn’t sleeping. His hands shook.
For the sake of his own wellbeing, he stepped down from the NPCA board and decided he wouldn’t seek re-election. After voters go to the polls in October, Coun. Hodgson will become Citizen Bill for the first time in more than two decades.
“I mean, I’d love to believe. I can tell you for sure there’s a lot of people that know me personally who are unhappy that I’ve made the decision I’m not going to run. They are saying, ‘Then we lose,’” says Hodgson.
“My whole spirit of community service is crushed. I just feel discouraged. I don’t see an end to the nasty, self-serving people.”
The entire affair was “cooked up,” says Hodgson, but bled his political will dry.
An investigation by The Standard has found the Gowling report, authored by lawyer John S. Doherty on April 25, 2017, is missing key information about the allegations. It also found that Doherty never spoke to or otherwise contacted Hodgson when he produced the report. Although it formed the basis of censuring an elected official, NPCA has not released or discussed the Gowling report.
Hodgson wasn’t even allowed to read it.
At the time Annunziata sent out his letters, he steadfastly refused to explain exactly what he believed Hodgson had done. He would only say he investigated information about alleged impropriety in the auditor hiring process. He never disclosed what his investigation entailed but engaged Gowling to review his findings. In public statements, Annunziata insisted the accusations against Hodgson were not allegations but “facts” because of the Gowling report.
A copy of the report obtained by The Standard leans heavily on an email sent by Hodgson to then NPCA acting CAO Peter Graham on Jan. 20, 2017, and a followup email the report claims Hodgson never sent.
Hodgson had received a message in his Niagara Region inbox from Don Perron of Froese Forensic Partners, asking for an opportunity to discuss how his company can “be valuable costeffective consultants” and an auditor for NPCA.
Hodgson replied with a single paragraph email that was forwarded to Graham at 1:41 p.m. on Jan. 20, 2017.
“Thank you for your interest in the process to undertake an operation review at the NPCA. I will be pleased to forward your email to acting CAO Peter Graham. He has been directed by the board to initiate a competitive procurement process to retrain the services of an independent third party.”
However, Perron’s original message was not included in the email forwarded to Graham.
“But then, I knew right away that [Graham] should also see the request I was responding to,” says Hodgson.
Niagara Region email records obtained by The Standard show that at 1:42 p.m. on Jan. 20, 2017 — less than a minute after he sent the first email to Perron and Graham — Hodgson forwarded Perron’s original message to Graham.
However, the three-page Gowling report says “Mr. Hodgson did not include any such forwarded email.” It then says that by forwarding a message to Graham, Hodgson “could well and reasonably be seen” as endorsing Froese Forensic Partners and thus violated NPCA’s code of conduct that says staff are to make recommendations “without undo influence from any individual member or faction.”
The report does not explain how Hodgson’s message could be interpreted as an endorsement, nor does it suggest that Graham felt he was being influenced to favour Froese Forensic.
Doherty, the author of the report, did not respond to interview requests from The Standard, in which he was asked why he was unaware of Hodgson’s second email, why he never interviewed Hodgson, or why he believes forwarding Perron’s message to Graham influenced the hiring process.
In an email to The Standard, a spokeswoman from Gowling, said any questions should be directed to NPCA.
Annunziata has not replied to multiple interview requests from The Standard for this story. The paper asked Annunziata about his directions to Gowling, why Doherty was unaware of the second email sent to Graham and if he thought the lawyer should have interviewed Hodgson.
Hodgson said he was never shown a copy of the report. He only obtained a copy more recently from a journalist with Niagara This Week, which first published an account of the document.
Although the report was apparently missing vital information and was not released publicly, it was nevertheless used to publicly censure Hodgson.
Hodgson felt humiliated by NPCA and Annunziata, whose accusations questioned the councillor’s integrity without providing evidence.
The stress worsened Hodgson’s health.
His wife and two sons were increasingly worried. Hodgson stepped down from NPCA in May 2017 shortly after Annunziata’s letters were sent out.
“That’s when I realized that there was a mental aspect to it. That’s what I was worried about. I started feeling some pain and I have to do something to that stress and reduce it,” Hodgson says. “That’s why I quit the board.”
Even now, nearly a year later, talking about what happened upsets Hodgson. His breath shortens and the arthritic tremors in his hands worsen.
“It’s like PTSD. I never really understood what PTSD is, then all of sudden, I’m upset again.”
Stepping away from politics to preserve his own health is not how Hodgson saw his career ending.