Exclusive: D’Angelo said he is victim of ‘proxy war’
Former Niagara Region CAO said he is a casualty of political battle, like Cambodia during the Vietnam War
“It’s brutal.”
That was how then-Niagara Region CAO Carmen D’Angelo described the pressure he was under as details of the tainted 2016 CAO hiring process consumed regional council last summer.
In a marathon closed-door council meeting on July 26, 2018 — the same day The Standard published an exposé showing D’Angelo downloaded confidential documents about the CAO job during the recruiting process — the embattled bureaucrat claims he was a victim of a “proxy war” between councillors.
“You have China. You have the United States. And I’m Cambodia,” says D’Angelo on a recording of the meeting provided to The Standard. “You’re fighting with each other in a proxy war. And you’re using me sometimes to fight with each other.”
On the recording, which was verified as authentic by The Standard, D’Angelo can be heard pleading with councillors to work as a unit instead of infighting.
“When yous [sic] guys vote together, you do great things. You got GO train. You did that together,” he says. “My point is you’re in a war and I’m Cambodia. I don’t like being Cambodia, but I understand that is part of the job.”
D’Angelo has declined or not responded to multiple interview requests, including one for this story, from The Standard over the past 11 months regarding the CAO hiring process and his lucrative contract extension, both of which are under investigation by the Ontario Ombudsman.
The July 26 meeting was a fulcrum point in the hiring controversy. The recording is the first time D’Angelo can be heard answering questions about the hiring process. The meeting was also the first time shocked councillors learned of D’Angelo’s lucrative new contract.
Three weeks before the July 26 meeting, councillors passed a motion calling the hiring issue “closed” and another apologizing to D’Angelo.
When councillors returned to open session on the night of July 26, they voted to reopen the hiring investigation.
In addition to claiming to be a casualty of a political war, D’Angelo See the extended version of this story on our website tells councillors he could not recall if he received documents from then-regional chairman Alan Caslin’s staff, and claimed he “saved” Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority when he was the agency’s CAO.
During the meeting, Caslin can be heard denying he gave D’Angelo a new contract in 2017 without council’s knowledge.
“I know my responsibilities. I know my limitations. That is not
something I would do,” he says.
Four weeks later, however, Caslin admitted publicly that he unilaterally extended and amended D’Angelo’s contract because he thought he was doing the best thing for the Region.
Caslin, who was the chair of the CAO selection committee, did not respond to interview requests for this story.
D’Angelo, who left his job earlier this month after being on sick leave for eight weeks, is suing the Region for $1.15 million for constructive dismissal.
Under investigation
The Ombudsman’s probe was launched in August after months of reporting by The Standard that found before and during the CAO hiring process, D’Angelo downloaded at least six documents a candidate for the job should not have.
Those documents included interview questions, confidential information about other candidates, confidential drafts of chair’s reports and answers to a written submission to the hiring committee. Most were created by two members of Caslin’s staff.
On the recording, D’Angelo is pointedly asked if he downloaded the documents created by Caslin’s staffers — his policy director Robert D’Amboise and his then communications director Jason Tamming.
On the recording, D’Angelo admits to councillors he turned to Tamming for help in preparing his written submission to the committee.
Candidates were given five questions to answer in writing by the Phelps Group, the firm that ran the hiring process. D’Angelo said after he wrote a draft he consulted with several people, including Tamming.
“He is a communications expert,” D’Angelo says. “And I said, ‘Hey Jason, what do you think?’ But I’m the one who put it together. Me. Carmen D’Angelo.”
The Standard found that D’Angelo’s written submission contained verbatim passages from a Tamming memo.
In the recording, then-Thorold councillor Henry D’Angela asks D’Angelo if turning to someone in Caslin’s office for help, given the chair’s involvement in the hiring process, showed poor judgment. D’Angelo replies if he had known the issue would end up in the press, he wouldn’t have done it.
However, D’Angelo says, turning to people involved in the hiring process for help or information is normal.
“I would have turned to Alan Caslin and asked ‘What do you want in a candidate?’” he says. “I was going for the job.”
Under questioning from councillors, D’Angelo says he could not recall if he received other documents from D’Amboise because his phone was stolen in October 2016.
D’Angelo says the same thing in the July 5 report written by Toronto Lawyer Marvin Huberman, who was hired by regional council to examine the hiring process following The Standard’s first exposé in April which had found D’Angelo had downloaded the D’Amboise memo containing candidate information.
During the July 26 meeting, D’Angelo says he could not “trace back” what documents he received at the time because his phone was stolen during the 2016 Balls Falls Thanksgiving Festival, and then deleted all his personal emails because the phone was compromised.
That festival was on Oct. 10, 2016. The Standard found D’Angelo downloaded documents between April 19, 2016, and Oct. 10, 2016. The last document — a list of 11 interview questions — was downloaded two days before his final interview for the CAO job on Oct. 12.
The fate of D’Angelo’s phone was not a part of The Standard’s investigations and was not a source of information found by the newspaper.
The Phelps Group has told The Standard candidates were not to get interview questions until 15 minutes before the interview. Other candidates told The Standard they did not receive any materials from Caslin’s staff.
Candidate information was to be kept confidential to protect the integrity of the hiring process as well as the privacy of candidates, who may not have informed their present employers they were looking for work elsewhere.
The candidate memos created by D’Amboise contained information about the work history and experience of the candidates.