Voters deserve answers from Caslin

The steady drip of information relating to the hiring of Niagara Region CAO Carmen D’Angelo continues and yet numerous questions remain unanswered.

Among the most important of these, as we head into a municipal election, is what role if any did the current Regional Chair Alan Caslin play?

This question became even more urgent after a story by reporter Grant LaFleche on Wednesday which revealed that D’Angelo told councillors during an incamera meeting that he received help from staff in Caslin’s office in 2016 to aid his candidacy for the $230,000-a-year CAO job.

Multiple sources who attended that July 26 meeting say D’Angelo told councillors that when he was asked to prepare a written submission for the CAO hiring committee, he asked for and received help from Jason Tamming, Caslin’s then personal communications director. D’Angelo confirmed he asked for Tamming’s help because he is a “communications expert,” those sources said.

As a candidate for the CAO’s job, D’Angelo was sent five questions from the Phelps Group, the firm running the recruitment process to be answered in a written submission for the hiring committee at his final interview. According to councillors in the closed meeting, D’Angelo said he sent the questions and some of his suggested answers to Tamming, who provided feedback in a memo. Language in that memo, in turn, was used, nearly verbatim, in D’Angelo’s written submission.

In 2016, Tamming worked directly for Caslin, who was also the chair of the hiring committee. After D’Angelo was hired, Tamming was promoted to the director of corporate communications for the Region and answers to the CAO.

Tamming’s involvement in aiding D’Angelo was first reported on July 26 in a story which revealed D’Angelo downloaded at least four memos from two members of Caslin’s staff during the hiring process.

In addition to the Tamming memo, which was only about the written submission, D’Angelo downloaded three memos written by Caslin’s policy director, Robert D’Amboise.

Two of those memos contained confidential information about other CAO candidates, and one the questions for the oral CAO interview. The documents were written between Sept. 20 and Oct. 10, 2016, and were all downloaded by D’Angelo before his Oct. 12 interview with the selection committee.

Caslin has not responded to interview requests from The Standard.

Why not? Caslin, when asked about the CAO hiring process during a Tuesday radio broadcast, said he was unaware of The Standard’s stories on the hiring process because he doesn’t read the newspaper. He also pointed to the July 5 report by Toronto lawyer Marvin Huberman, which said the investigation had found no evidence the D’Angelo hiring was improper.

However, the Huberman report has since been rendered moot, thanks to new investigative work by LaFleche which led to regional council voting to re-open the investigation.

All this leads back to Caslin, whose campaign for regional chair was pre-empted by Ontario’s sudden move to cancel the at-large election. Caslin is now seeking re-election as a regional councillor in St. Catharines, and is no doubt still hoping to win re-appointment as chair.

Was Caslin aware members of his personal staff were aiding D’Angelo in this manner? Was he directing them to do so? If he wasn’t aware, why not?

Hiding behind the Huberman report is no longer a tenable position for the regional chair to take.

Voters in St. Catharines, and indeed across Niagara, deserve better than the obfuscation they are currently being served by Chair Caslin.