Time for Caslin to resign

Watching last Thursday’s special meeting of Niagara regional council was nothing short of surreal.

The meeting, called by Regional Chair Alan Caslin to update councillors on the investigation into the 2016 hiring process of chief administrative officer Carmen D’Angelo, as well as to provide information about the CAO’s contract, was not short of surprises.

Caslin has been in the eye of the storm during a series of events this council term, ranging from floundering around on the need for an integrity commissioner (remember when he spearheaded the effort against having a commissioner and determined he could himself serve as the Region’s arbiter on ethical behaviour?), the Burgoyne Bridge investigation, his inability to control fellow traveller Coun. Andy Petrowski, questions over his and council’s expenses, and so much more.

Over the past 10 months, Caslin’s problems have intensified.

Things really hit the fan following the disastrous meeting Dec. 7, 2017, when he and D’Angelo led the charge to have Standard reporter Bill Sawchuk and citizen blogger Preston Haskell tossed from a council meeting and their equipment illegally seized. An investigation by the Ontario Ombudsman’s Office castigated the Region for the events of that night.

Since then, reports by The Standard over the hiring process of the CAO in 2016 have further exposed the ethical malaise at Niagara Region and weakened Caslin’s position.

Those reports show members of Caslin’s personal staff assisted D’Angelo, who also downloaded confidential documents they wrote, tainting the hiring process.

Two regional council investigations into the hiring have led nowhere.

On Thursday, council finally did what it should have done months ago, and asked the provincial Ombudsman to investigate.

But in the course of that remarkable meeting, council also learned more about an extension of D’Angelo’s contract first reported upon by The Standard following an in-camera meeting on July 26. It seems Caslin, unilaterally and without telling council, approved a twoyear extension of the $230,000 per year contract, and added an extra year to it.

He did so, he said, to save council from having to deal with the contract in the last months of the next term.

“Whether I had the authority or not, we can talk about that,” he said. “If I didn't, I apologize. I thought I was doing the right thing for the corporation in extending it to the new council session.”

To be clear, Caslin has no authority to arbitrarily extend the CAO’s contract. Council’s approval is necessary, in the form of a bylaw, to either extend that power to the chair or specifically approve the contract. No such bylaw has been passed. He should know this.

This week, making things even worse, we learned Caslin approved the extension in October 2017, less than a year after D’Angelo was hired. Not only that, Caslin added a provision extending a golden parachute to the CAO — a full year’s salary in case he wasn’t given a new contract at the end of the extended deal in 2022.

Caslin’s actions make those of the Niagara police services board, in which it bought out the contract of former chief Jeff McGuire for close to $1 million, look rather quaint. At least the police board’s move was legal coming as it did from the board.

Caslin’s actions have no such official imprimatur and leave the Region in an uncertain position with its CAO. Will D’Angelo sue the Region if it refuses to honour the new terms? Only time will tell.

What is not ambiguous, is Caslin’s position. He should no longer be leading this council. He has lost the moral authority to do so.

If he doesn’t resign, council should take action to have him removed from the chair’s position.