The Regional CAO hiring: What we know and what we don’t
A lawyer's probe into the hiring of Carmen D'Angelo as Niagara Region's chief administrative officer was presented to regional council on July 5, leaving many with more questions than they had before.
Marvin Huberman, a lawyer with the Toronto firm ADR Chambers — the firm that also provides integrity commissioner services for regional council — found nothing improper with the 2016 hiring of D'Angelo to the $230,000 a year a job.
Huberman was hired after The Standard's April 6 expose found the CAO hiring process was tainted by a breach of important confidentiality rules.
While some councillors said Huberman's report is evidence that the controversy surrounding D'Angelo's hiring was phoney, others are asking questions about what stones Huberman may have left unturned.
Here is what we know, and what questions remain unanswered.
What we know:
What happened? In September 2016, a digital memo that contained confidential information about CAO candidates was written by regional chair Alan Caslin's policy director Robert D'Amboise. It was later obtained by Carmen D'Angelo, the man who eventually got the job. Digital information obtained by The Standard shows D'Angelo had the memo in September 2016, nearly a month before interviews.
What does the memo say? The memo profiles five CAO candidates including D'Angelo.
Why does it matter? Obtaining information about candidates can give a person a leg up on the competition. Moreover, candidates were given assurances the application process was confidential partially for their professional protection.
What happened after The Standard's report? On April 12 the Region hired ADR Chambers to investigate and gave Huberman the power of a municipal ombudsman. He was given until the end of June to file a report.
What did Huberman find? Huberman cleared the process of impropriety based on the testimony of D'Angelo, D'Amboise and others. He said a printed copy of the memo was never given to D'Angelo.
The report also confirmed D'Amboise wrote the memo and used it to brief Caslin on CAO candidates.
Did Huberman use the powers he was granted? It does not appear so. He had the power to subpoena witness and evidence but declined to do so.
What we don't know:
Who sent D'Angelo the memo? Digital data obtained by The Standard shows who created the memo and where it ended up and when but it is not clear who gave it to D'Angelo.
What did Caslin know? Caslin received a briefing based on the memo. He told Huberman he does not know if D'Angelo received it.
Can D'Amboise or D'Angelo explain what happened? Huberman said D'Angelo's memory was "affected" by other events in 2016, including the theft of his phone.
Huberman found these comments “improbable” but did not discount them.
D'Amboise told Huberman he doesn't know how a digital copy of his memo was leaked.
Does D'Angelo dispute some of Huberman's finding? Contrary to Huberman's report, D'Angelo says he did not receive biographical information about Niagara-on-the-Lake CAO candidates when he applied for the job in 2016. Huberman has refused to discuss the discrepancy between his report and D'Angelo subsequent statements.
Why didn't Huberman reference the digital memo? Huberman said he was only aware of the printed copy, and declined to speak to sources who reached out to him to provide information if he could protect their identities. He said shielding sources would “fetter” his ability to conduct his investigation, but said his conclusions may have been different if he had access to other information.
For more on this story, see The Standard's annotations to Huberman's full report at www.stcatharinesstandard.ca