Toronto lawyer, arbitrator leading Region CAO probe
The law firm hired to investigate the tainted 2016 Niagara Region chief administrative officer hiring process has appointed an experienced litigator, mediator and arbitrator to lead the probe.
The online resume posted by Toronto lawyer Marvin J. Huberman, assigned to the case by ADR Chambers, does not list any experience as an investigator or municipal ombudsman.
Huberman, whose personal website says he is a specialist in commercial litigation and arbitration, is a lawyer with 36 years’ experience. The author and coauthor of several books and articles on legal issues, including arbitration, Huberman advertises services in commercial litigation and arbitration and mediation on his website.
He did not respond to interview requests Thursday.
On April 12, regional council voted to hire ADR Chambers, the Toronto firm that currently provides integrity commissioner services for the Region, to conduct the investigation with all the powers of a municipal ombudsman.
The vote followed The Standard’s months-long investigation, published on April 6, that found that confidential information about candidates for the chief administrative officer position was leaked to Carmen D’Angelo, the man who eventually got the $230,000-a-year job.
The information was contained in a memo, authored by Regional Chair Alan Caslin’s policy director Robert D’Amboise, which was sent to D’Angelo in September 2016.
Candidate information is supposed to be kept confidential and not shared with other candidates for the position.
D’Angelo was interviewed for the post on Oct. 12, 2016, and council voted on a motion from the CAO selection committee to hire him during a hastily scheduled midday meeting on Oct. 31, 2016.
ADR Chambers provides a range of services for its clients, including acting as an ombudsman. The firm would not discuss how it conducts ombudsman investigations other than to identify Huberman as the man leading the probe.
“Due to the highly sensitive nature of this investigation, we are unfortunately not able to comment on our process. Our report, once released, will speak for itself,” an unidentified representative of ADR wrote in an email to The Standard Thursday.
The firm would not discuss its investigative methods or how it will maintain independence from its client during the probe.
The motion that hired ADR said the acting regional clerk, Ann-Marie Norio, will act as a “facilitator” to the investigation.
In an email Thursday, Norio said her role is limited to “any requested support to assist ADR Chambers in their investigation and provide access to Niagara Region materials, in order to satisfy council’s direction in the motion passed on April 12.”
“The corporation will have no further comment on the investigation while it is ongoing.”
It is unclear if Huberman’s investigation will be limited to the municipal corporation of Niagara Region, or if it will include related board and agencies.
On April 12, Fort Erie Mayor Wayne Redekop added a clause to the motion that hired ADR to include specific sections of the Ontario Municipal Act.
Those sections — sections 223.13 to 223.18 — give ADR the same powers as an ombudsman to investigate in an independent manner “any decision or recommendation made or act done or omitted in the course of the administration of the municipality, its local boards and such municipally-controlled corporations.”
According to the act, a local board is any agency that receives most of its funding from or whose board members are mostly appointed by the municipality’s council.
At the time he was hired as regional CAO, D’Angelo was CAO of Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority, an agency that receives the lion’s share of its funding from the Region. Of the 15 people on NPCA’s board of directors, 12 are appointed by Niagara’s regional council.
Huberman’s investigation must be brought to regional council by the end of June.