D’Angelo, D’Amboise on leave as council tackles CAO hiring
Two of the key figures involved in the tainted Niagara Region chief administrative hiring process in 2016 are on medical leave, The Standard has learned.
CAO Carmen D’Angelo and Robert D’Amboise, policy director of former regional chair Alan Caslin, are both on leave as the newly sworn-in regional council prepares to deal with the issue.
Regional councillors and some staff were informed this week that D’Angelo will be on leave for the next two months. Rino Mostacci will continue to serve as acting CAO.
Regional council is expected to meet behind closed doors this evening to receive advice from an external lawyer about how to handle D’Angelo, whose hiring and contract extension are under investigation by the Ontario Ombudsman.
That investigation was launched after a series of stories in The Standard that found before and during the CAO hiring process, D’Angelo downloaded at least six documents a candidate for the job should not have. Those documents included confidential memos about other candidates, drafts of confidential chair’s reports on the CAO and interview questions.
Those documents were created by members of Caslin’s staff, including D’Amboise and Caslin’s thendirector of communications Jason Tamming. D’Amboise was the creator of two candidate memos and the interview questions document downloaded by D’Angelo.
Tamming, meanwhile, assisted D’Angelo in preparing a written submission to the CAO hiring committee, of which Caslin was a member.
After D’Angelo was hired as CAO in October 2016, Tamming was promoted to director of communications for the entire municipal corporation. Unlike D’Angelo, who works for council, D’Amboise worked directly for Caslin and his contract expires soon. Newly appointed Regional Chair Jim Bradley has yet to hire his own staff.
The Ombudsman launched its investigation in August and also includes a probe into the lucrative contract extension Caslin unilaterally awarded D’Angelo.
In October 2017, without the knowledge or consent of regional council, Caslin extended and amended D’Angelo’s contract. The terms of that deal included a golden parachute of one year’s salary and an unusual termination clause that gave D’Angelo three years’ pay if he were fired with, or without, cause.
As CAO, D’Angelo is paid more than $230,000 annually plus benefits.
He cancelled a planned trip as part of a trade mission to China in October, citing medical reasons.
D’Angelo also missed the swearing-in and first meeting of regional council last week due to a “cardiac-related procedure.”
Several councillors have said they wanted to place D’Angelo on administrative leave while they awaited the Ombudsman’s report. However, regional sources say if D’Angelo is on medical leave, council’s options will be limited.
Mostacci, the Region’s planning and development services commissioner, was one of the candidates for CAO in 2016 and named in a memo downloaded by D’Angelo.
The CAO selection committee decided to exclude all internal candidates for the job but, according to one of the memos created by D’Amboise, Mostacci was included on the list of candidates.
The memo indicates Mostacci was not seriously being considered for the job, but was added to the list as an opportunity for him “to seek further development within the Niagara Region.”