Council calls on Ombudsman to investigate hiring of CAO
If Niagara Regional council gets its way, staff from the Ontario Ombudsman’s will be headed back down the QEW for the second investigation this year.
Council voted unanimously to call on the Ontario Ombudsman’s Office to investigate the hiring of chief administrative officer Carmen D’Angelo in 2016.
Thursday’s vote represents the third time Council has tried to determine if the process was tainted by information leaked to D’Angelo.
Toronto lawyer Marvin Huberman made the first attempt starting in April. His July report raised more questions than it answered because Huberman declined to use the full scope of the power granted by council.
At the end of July, council tried again and hired University of Western Ontario professors Andrew Sancton and Timothy Cobban to supervised a document search by Regional staff.
Neither Sancton nor Cobban have any advanced computer expertise for the task; and, with the council-imposed deadline fast approaching, have yet to begin a key component of their investigation, which involves searching for documents on Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority servers, which is where D’Angelo was employed.
Sancton updated councillors Thursday and said investigation has found some of the documents, which contained confidential information and were written by members of Chair Alan Caslin’s staff. The documents would have given D’Angelo an unfair advantage over other applicants.
“We have heard from Dr. Sancton that it will be challenging to achieve the expectations set out by council,” said St. Catharines Mayor Walter Sendzik. “Rather than sending him down a rabbit hole in which he won’t have the opportunity to properly weigh and explain his findings, this motion will give us the confidence of bringing in the Ontario Ombudsman.”
With that process stalled, councillors turned Thursday night to the Ombudsman, who was called upon in December to investigate the Region’s illegal seizure of a reporter’s computer and notes during a meeting in December.
Thursday council dealt with two sticking points before the question was called.
The first was its “lame duck” status with an election scheduled for October. Under the Municipal Act, a council becomes a lame duck if less than three-quarters of its members are running again. A lame duck council cannot hire or fire staff and faces $50,000 spending limit on projects.
Should the Ombudsmen grant Niagara’s request, Regional staffers would be entitled to outside legal advice, and the bill for that would almost certainly surpass $50,000, said Toronto lawyer Paul Demelo, who was called in by staff to provide councillors with an outside opinion but Pelham Mayor Dave Augustyn said council could find the funds without upsetting the spending limit because the provisions allow it to spend the money already budgeted.
“Knowing that we have a budget of almost a billion dollars, I am sure we have a line where we can draw on to get us through should there be a challenge, or should we require legal assistance,” Augustyn said.
The second stumbling block was an amendment proposed by Port Colborne Coun. Dave Barrick that dealt with leaking.
“This council, the entire term, has been dealing with leaks after every single meeting,” David Barrick said. “That’s what has eroded public trust. I would like to broaden the scope and do a catch-all. We are asking the Ombudsman to look at this one leak, but ignore the other 50 that have occurred and been publicly reported.”
Fort Erie Mayor Wayne Redekop said leaks were an “egregious” violation of the councillor’s oath of office, but he couldn’t support the amendment.
“It’s a diversion from the real purpose of this motion,” he said.
Council voted 14-10 to defer debate on Barrick’s suggestion to the next meeting.