Council waits to move against CAO
Regional councillors vote to wait for Ombudsman’s report before taking action
Niagara’s regional council has decided to wait until an investigation into the hiring and contract of the municipality’s chief administrative officer is complete before taking any action against him, The Standard has learned.
During a 90-minute-closed session of regional council Thursday night, external lawyers gave councillors five options to deal with Carmen D’Angelo — whose hiring and contract extension, unilaterally granted by regional chair Alan Caslin, is under investigation by the Ontario Ombudsman.
Councillors were told the cheapest short-term option was to do nothing and allow the contract extension, which was enacted by Caslin without the knowledge or consent of council, to stand.
However, many councillors question the validity of the extension and the tainted hiring process that put D’Angelo into the $230,000 position.
Councillors voted 15 to 4 to wait for the Ombudsman report, which may directly influence what council decides to do.
An Ombudsman’s investigations can take months before a report is issued. Until then, D’Angelo’s status will be unchanged. The Standard has learned the 2016 CAO hiring process was tainted by leaks of confidential documents to D’Angelo.
In April 2016, months before the hiring process began, D’Angelo downloaded drafts of confidential chair’s reports about the CAO position.
In the fall of that year, D’Angelo downloaded four memos written by members of Caslin’s staff that candidates for the job should not have had access to.
Three of the documents — two memos containing confidential information about other CAO candidates and one containing interview questions — were written by Caslin’s policy director Robert D’Amboise.
The four documents contained answers to a written submission D’Angelo had to make to the hiring committee and were created by Caslin’s then director of communications Jason Tamming.
In August some councillors began to consider firing D’Angelo, but were told it would cost more than a million dollars to do so — a figure well beyond D’Angelo’s contract which expires in 2019 with an option for the council to extend it for two years.
Caslin then admitted he unilaterally amended and extended
D’Angelo’s contract to 2022, and added a clause giving him three years pay if he was fired with or without cause. It gives D’Angelo a golden parachute of a year’s pay if his deal is not renewed in 2022.
On August 20, Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dube launched an investigation.
Councillors asked for an external lawyer not connected to either Caslin or D’Angelo to advise them on the contract extension, which former regional integrity commissioner John Mascarin said should be “null and void.”
Some councillors who spoke to The Standard said there is an appetite to fire D’Angelo. However, they want to be guided by what the Ombudsman’s report says.
Four councillors voted against waiting for the report before acting.
However, councillors cannot hire or fire staff during an election due to “lame duck” provisions in the Municipal Act. Council’s ability to change the employment of the CAO won’t be restored until after the election.