D’Angelo misses China trade mission
Embattled CAO did not go to Shanghai import expo, citing medical reasons
After all the political drama, the speeches and a tied vote at Niagara’s regional council, embattled Niagara Region CAO Carmen D’Angelo did not go to China, The Standard has learned.
D’Angelo was set to attend a trade mission in Shanghai last week after out-going Regional Chair
Alan Caslin, in his last act in office, voted to send him. But the CAO was a no-show.
Regional spokesman Peter Criscione said D’Angelo “received medical advice recommending against international travel at this time,” and that the Region is trying to “recoup as much of the travel costs as possible, including a refund for airfare.”
D’Angelo did not respond to an interview request from The Standard Monday.
Although D’Angelo’s hiring and contract extension are under investigation by the Ontario Ombudsman, he was scheduled to attend the trade mission.
Councillors were not made aware that D’Angelo had decided to attend the publicly funded trip — it costs at least $4,200 — until The Standard reported on it on Oct. 25.
After the story broke, St. Catha-
rines Mayor Walter Sendzik, Welland Mayor Frank Campion, Lincoln Mayor Sandra Easton and Fort Erie Mayor Wayne Redekop signed a joint letter, sent to Caslin and D’Angelo, objecting to sending D’Angelo to China.
During a Nov. 1 council meeting, D’Angelo said he was invited to the expo by “Chinese businesses” he did not identify, and that Dominic Ursini, the Region’s director of economic development, could not go because he was attending a conference in Toronto at the same time.
That conference, the HwyH2O conference, is being held three days after the trade mission, from Nov. 13 to Nov. 15. The Chinese import expo was Nov. 6 to 10.
At that meeting, D’Angelo told councillors he told the trip organizers that he had decided not to go because of the “distraction that’s occurred” — a reference to The Standard’s coverage.
“I apologized that there was a distraction taking away from the good business, and I did provide the [Region] notice that I would not be attending,” D’Angelo said.
All three Niagara Falls councillors — out-going Couns. Selina Volpatti and Bart Maves, along with Bob Gale — and out-going Grimsby councillor Tony Quirk rose to D’Angelo’s defence, insisting that he be allowed to go to Shanghai.
Quirk put forward a motion directing D’Angelo to attend the trade mission, subject to the approval of the businesses attending.
The vote was evenly split between rival voting blocs at council, with 12 voting to send him and 12 voting not to.
Caslin, saying that “this council made a statement that we want to be open for business from the very start,” voted to send D’Angelo.
At the import expo, the Region was represented by economic development staffer Jayesh Menon.
Local immigration consultant Sean Polden attended the event and said Menon was a “tremendous resource” in providing support to Niagara businesses and interested international investors at the event.
Ontario’s ombudsman is investigating the tainted 2016 hiring process that resulted in D’Angelo being hired to the $230,000 a year job. That investigation follows a series of stories by The Standard that found D’Angelo downloaded at least six confidential documents about the CAO position, interview questions, and other candidates information that someone applying for the job should not have had.
Those documents were created by members of Caslin’s staff, including his policy director Robert D’Amboise and his then communications director Jason Tamming.
The ombudsman is also investigating D’Angelo’s lucrative contract extension that was approved by Caslin without the knowledge of regional council in 2017. That deal grants D’Angelo three years’ pay if fired with cause and a golden parachute of a year’s pay if council does not extend the contract, which ends in 2022.
D’Angelo’s original contract, set to expire this month, included an optional two-year extension to be approved by council. To date, no bylaw extending his contact has been passed.