Top parking execs refuse to release salaries
Figures for president and VP censored on management list that city agency made public
The salaries of the two top players at the Toronto Parking Authority remain a secret despite all other senior executives voluntarily releasing their pay.
The parking authority released a list of salaries of senior management to the Star on Friday. The salaries of president Lorne Persiko and Marie Casista, vicepresident of real estate and marketing — both of whom are on paid leave pending an investigation into a questionable land deal — were censored.
“Where there are individuals for which the information is not provided, the individual did not give consent to disclose,” said a letter from the parking authority accompanying the list of salaries. The only information provided about Persiko’s remuneration is that he is afforded a leased vehicle.
Persiko and Casista were put on paid leave after a damning auditor general’s report in June concluded the parking authority was planning to overpay for a parcel of land in North York by more than $2.5 million.
The authority, which manages all Green P parking in Toronto, is under new direction from interim president Andy Koropeski. The board is now chaired by city manager Peter Wallace, who, in an extraordinary measure, was put in place by city council following the auditor’s report.
The Star has tried for more than a year to find out how much Persiko and other parking authority executives are paid, but the city agency hired an employment law firm and spent more than $5,000 to thwart those requests.
Typically, the salaries of heads of city agencies and corporations can be found on the province’s public sector salary (Sunshine) list. The parking authority is exempt, the city has said, because even though it collects hundreds of millions on behalf of the city, it receives no public funding.
In July, Mayor John Tory told the Star he believed the salaries should be public and asked staff to find a way to make that possible.
“All the money in the Toronto Parking Authority (TPA) is public money,” Tory told the Star then.
Persiko did not return a request for comment Friday. Casista’s husband, Real Casista, told the Star on Friday that her salary was “personal information.”
The following annual base salaries and taxable benefits for 2016 were released by the authority Friday:
Andy Koropeski, vice-president of operations: $203,310; $2,230
Robin Oliphant, vice-president of finance: $203,310; $2,595
Remy Iomanaco, vice-president of design and construction: $203,310; $2,230
Ian Maher, vice-president of stra- tegic planning and IT: $203,310; $2,230
Michael Konikoff, head of marketing: $185,000
Arlene Yam Fritz, head of human resources: $185,000
More than a year ago, the Star filed an access-to-information request for the salaries of Persiko and the other top executives. The request was rejected by the parking authority on the grounds that salaries were “employment-related matters.”
The Star appealed that request to the province’s information commissioner and a decision is expected in the fall. (A subsequent access-toinformation request revealed the authority spent $5,346 in legal fees fighting the appeal.)
In the meantime, the authority released the above salaries voluntarily.
Auditor General Beverly Romeo-Beehler released her report in June about the now-cancelled land deal. It followed a10-month investigation by her office after concerns were raised by authority board member John Filion about a land deal at Finch Ave. W., and Arrow Rd., near Hwy. 400.
Romeo-Beehler’s report found the parking authority would have overpaid for the nearly two-hectare parcel by $2.63 million.
The deal, she told council, resulted from a “hairball” of relationships and potential conflicts involving Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, the Emery Village BIA, a lobbyist working for the BIA, the TPA executives and a sign consultant working for the TPA.