Staff with answers miss meeting
Councillors trying to probe hiring of CAO Carmen D’Angelo
There were plenty of questions, but no answers.
The people who might have been able to provide the answers were not present at the special council meeting, Thursday — held as a result of a petition signed by a majority of Niagara councillors to discuss issues regarding the 2016 recruitment of Niagara’s chief administrative officer Carmen D’Angelo for the $230,000 a year job he now holds.
Chair Alan Caslin was away on vacation, and two members of his staff at the time, Jason Tamming and Rob D'Amboise — have been implicated in allegations that Caslin’s office interfered in the recruitment process — were absent too.
And so was D’Angelo.
Human resources director Peter Wadsworth said D’Angelo was given Thursday off. He said D’Angelo’s day off was approved by Caslin.
“If I knew that something like this was going on and I was the Chair or CAO, I would be here,” said Lincoln Mayor Sandra Easton.
Their absence, she added, is an “intentional disregard for the authority of council.”
“We do not even have the support of our chair,” Easton complained.
Although St. Catharines Coun. Kelly Edgar, who led the meeting as regional vice-chair, said he asked that appropriate staff be present for the meeting, regional clerk Ann Marie Norio said she did not ask Tamming or D'Amboise to be present — instead forwarding the request to both the human resources and legal departments. Tamming has since been promoted to director of strategic communications and public affairs.
And both Wadsworth, as well as Niagara’s legal and court services director Donna Gibbs, said they didn’t inform them either.
Gibbs, however, later added that both would have received notifications that the meeting was taking place.
“I guess these people were invited, they’re not here and we’re compiling questions which I think we have every right to ask,” said Pelham Mayor Dave Augustyn.
Augustyn provided a list of several questions he said he’d like to ask — such as, “Did you send (D’Angelo) confidential information regarding the other candidates that were trying for this position?” and, “Were you directed by the regional chair to assist this particular candidate or another candidate with questions and answers?”
“I don’t know when that’s going to come, but we obviously need that,” Augustyn said. “These are really important questions that are being asked in the public. It goes to the basis of the whole process of hiring.”
Wadsworth warned councillors about putting regional staff on the spot, in a meeting that might more closely resemble a legal hearing.
“At some point, questions could move into almost a hearing-type process, and that could be arguably dangerous,” Wadsworth said.
But several councillors hope to learn the answers to their questions, even if it means bringing in a third-party investigator to ask them.
“I hoped that we would be able to ask those questions, not in an interrogation way … but in a factual way. It’s unfortunate that those people couldn’t be here to answer those questions. I don’t know why they’re not here,” Augustyn said.
“I guess they report eventually to the CAO, and we don’t have that individual here either.”
St. Catharines Mayor Walter Sendzik, who launched the petition that resulted in the meeting, said it’s necessary to get to the bottom of the issues to rebuild public trust in the regional government.
Referring to dozens of people who sat in the audience for the meeting, and numerous others in the community who are concerned about the regional leadership, Sendzik said “the reason there’s so much public interest is because there’s so much ambiguity around this process.”
“The process was flawed, and we have to act on it,” Sendzik said, adding he hoped to set a direction for the Region by the end of the meeting.
“Until we get a definitive answer as to, was the process in anyway compromised, the public will not have faith in the governing body of the Region,” he said.
“I’m telling you, you can ignore the newspapers all you want, you can turn off the radio, you can switch off your computer, but the chatter in the public is beyond belief. And I, as a, councillor would rather get to the bottom of it than to simply put my hand over my ears, my hand over my eyes and just continue to ignore it.”
The issue stems from information leaked to The Standard after a July 26 in camera meeting, about the involvement of Caslin’s office in the CAO hiring process.
When Caslin refused to call a meeting to discuss the issue, councillors took action themselves — circulating a petition demanding Thursday’s meeting.
Meanwhile, Caslin called a special council meeting himself for next week including an update on an investigation into the hiring of D'Angelo, as well as to receive legal advice on the CAO's contract.
Councillors deferred issues they hoped to discuss this week to next week’s special meeting, while also taking steps to ensure the people with the answers will be available at that time. That meeting is scheduled at 5:30 p.m., next Thursday.
Several councillors questioned the need for the meetings, pointing out that council has previously discussed issues related to the CAO’s hiring.
Port Colborne Coun. David Barrick, for instance, called the meeting “election politics at its finest.”
“It's like a Salem witch hunt trial. It's awful. Lame duck legislation exists for this type of thing,” he said.
And several councillors, including Selina Volpatti and Bob Gale from Niagara Falls, and St. Catharines Coun. Bruce Timms, said they hoped to avoid going behind closed doors too, claiming that information would be leaked to the newspaper, anyway.
Nevertheless, councillors ultimately approved a motion by Welland Coun. George Marshall to do so, and spent the next two hours behind closed doors.
Emerging from the in camera session, Edgar said council shares the concerns.
“In the absence of answers to many of council’s questions ... we will continue to pursue appropriate answers on Aug. 23,” he said.