Tamming, Region settle lawsuit for $30,000
A key figure in the tainted 2016 Niagara Region CAO hiring affair reached a settlement with the municipality ending his wrongful dismissal suit.
The Standard has learned that Jason Tamming — the former regional communications director and former spokesman for ex-regional chair Alan Caslin — is walking away with a fraction of the $500,000 he was suing for.
The Region issued a statement Tuesday morning saying the lawsuit was “resolved on mutually agreeable terms,” but that the details of the agreement are confidential.
Acting CAO Ron Tripp declined to discuss the details of the deal, saying only that it resolved the lawsuit “without any further cost to the taxpayers.”
He would not elaborate on what that means.
However, multiple sources within the regional government say the agreement between Tamming and the Region ended the lawsuit for $30,000 — substantially less than it would have cost either party to litigate the case had it gone to court.
That figure is also close to the amount of money Tamming was entitled to when he was fired in December under the terms of his original employment contract.
The Standard agreed to withhold the names of the sources so they could speak about a confidential legal matter.
Regional chair Jim Bradley would not discuss the details of the agreement with Tamming — which includes a non-disclosure agreement — but did say the matter was settled by regional staff and was not brought before council for approval.
This is because the amount paid to Tamming is well below the $1,000,000 threshold that requires the chief administrative officer to get approval from regional council.
Tamming and the CAO
Tamming was one of four managers fired on Dec. 17, 2018 along with former human resources director Peter Wadsworth, former general manager Chris Carter and former economic development officer Dominic Ursini.
Tamming was hired as communications director in August 2017 by then CAO Carmen D’Angelo. For two years prior, he was the communications director for Caslin.
In 2016, regional council struck a committee, lead by Caslin, to hire a new CAO. That process resulted in D’Angelo landing the $250,000 a year job as Niagara’s top bureaucrat.
The Standard has learned that before and during that hiring process, D’Angelo downloaded at least six documents a candidate for the post should not have. These documents included confidential drafts of chair’s reports about the CAO post, information about other candidates and interview questions.
Most of those documents were created by members of Caslin’s staff.
One of the documents was created by Tamming and contained answers to a written submission for the hiring committee.
In July 2018, after The Standard published a story about the documents, D’Angelo admitted to regional councillors that he asked for, and received, Tamming’s help in crafting his written submission.
Secret deals
In 2017, Tamming was promoted by D’Angelo, bumping his annual salary from $75,000 a year to more than $123,000.
After only three months into his new job, D’Angelo offered Tamming a new $137,857 a year contract.
Tamming’s original deal gave him a month’s pay for every year he worked in the job if he was fired without cause. The amendment changed that to a minimum of 18 months’ pay.
That contract, created the same day as augmented deals for Wadsworth and Carter, was locked in Wadsworth’s office instead of being filed in the Region’s employee records as required by regulations.
D’Angelo own secret and augment contract granted by Caslin in October 2017 was also kept in Wadsworth’s office.
The Ontario Ombudsman is investigating both D’Angelo’s hiring and his contract.
Duelling lawsuits
When Tamming was fired in December, the Region offered him three months salary — around $30,000 — as per the terms of his original contract.
When he filed his wrongful dismissal suit, Tamming argued he was fired in a manner to “inflict maximum mental distress” and that the Region should have known about the altered contract. He also said he would have difficultly find another government job.
In May, Tamming was hired as the communications director for the City of Brampton.
In response, the Region said as a senior government manager, Tamming should have known his new contract was “unconscionable” and “unenforceable.”
The Region also filed a thirdparty claim in the lawsuit against D’Angelo and Wadsworth, saying that if a judge ruled in Tamming’s favour they should have to pay any money he was awarded due to the contracts.
Tripp would not discuss the status of the third-party claim Tuesday, saying he wants to brief regional council before making any public statements.