Is Region CAO a million dollar man?

Councillors scramble for information told contract extended

It could cost Niagara taxpayers nearly a $1 million to terminate the employment of embattled regional chief administrative officer Carmen D’Angelo, regional councillors have been told.

The Standard has learned that councillors are scrambling to get more information from regional staff after they were told during a closed Niagara Region council meeting on July 26 that a king’s ransom would be needed to buyout D’Angelo’s contract.

According to multiple sources from within the meeting, the figure came as a shock to many councillors since D’Angelo’s $230,000 a year contract expires in 2019.

However, they were told by regional human resources staff that D’Angelo’s contract had been extended to 2021 — something many regional councillors say they never voted for.

Regional spokesperson Peter Criscione told The Standard that regional council has not passed a bylaw respecting an extension to the CAO’s contract.

The reveal of D’Angelo’s contract extension happened during the same meeting where he told councillors that he asked for and received help from regional chair Alan Caslin’s office in 2016 during the CAO hiring process.

Investigations by The Standard found D’Angelo downloaded at least four documents written by Caslin’s staff during that hiring process.

Three were written by Caslin’s policy director Rober D’Amboise that contained confidential information about other CAO candidates and interview questions. D’Angelo also obtained a memo written by Caslin’s communications director Jason Tamming that provided suggested answers for five questions D’Angelo had to address in a written submission to the CAO hiring committee.

Sources told The Standard that during the July 26 closed meeting D’Angelo said he asked Tamming for help because he is a “communications expert.”

Regional council has voted to order staffers to search government computers for the documents and have asked the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority, where D’Angelo was working as CAO in 2016, to do the

same.

The NPCA has not responded to questions about how, or if, it will conduct a search.

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

Caslin and D’Angelo did not respond to interview requests for this story, or answer questions about the contract.

When D’Angelo was hired in October 2016, councillors voted to pay him $230,000 a year for three years, with an option to extend his contract for an additional two years.

The CAO is the only member of regional staff that works directly for the politicians, answering to the entire council. All other members of staff answer to the CAO.

In most municipalities, the option to extend a CAO contract cannot be done without a vote from council. Neither the head of a council — a regional chair or mayor — nor a council committee typically has the authority to grant an extension.

Councillors at the July 26 meeting, shocked that D’Angelo had an extension, asked human resources staff for details of his contract, but were denied.

Some councillors want to know if the contract allows Caslin to extend the contract unilaterally, or if a recommendation extending his contract was slipped into a group of motions that were voted on in a block without debate during one of several marathon council meetings.

If D’Angelo’s contract was extended, the cost of removing him from his post could be similar to what the Niagara Region Police services board paid to buyout former NRP chief Jeff McGuire.

The services board, lead by Niagara Falls councillor Bob Gale, paid McGuire $870,000 to leave his post in June 2017, three years before his contract expired. Gale and members of the board wanted to hire their own chief and although McGuire said he intended to serve until the end of his contract in 2021.

As a result of the buyout, Niagara taxpayers paid for the salaries of two police chiefs in 2017, costing more than $480,000.