Fired Region manager contracts hidden from official records
Documents for three former staff leaders were not put in official employment files
Employment contracts at the centre of multiple lawsuits against Niagara Region were signed on the same day in 2017 and were not included in the employees’ official files, The Standard has learned.
When three regional managers connected to ex-chief administrative officer Carmen D’Angelo were fired in mid-December, they were given basic severance payments of three months’ pay based on contracts in their official files.
According to multiple sources familiar with the situation, when acting CAO Ron Tripp fired the managers — communications director Jason Tamming, human resources director Peter Wadsworth and general manager Chris Carter — he didn’t know they had amended contracts expanding their termination clauses.
Instead of being part of their official files — as required by the Region’s document retention policy — the contracts were locked in Wadsworth’s office. There were also no electronic copies of the contracts found on regional servers or computers.
It was only when the trio were fired on Dec. 17, 2018, that the existence of the revised contracts were disclosed.
Regional council was informed of the revised deals during a closed-door meeting last month.
The Region’s document retention policy requires relevant information about an employee — including employment contracts, amendments of those deals, commendations and disciplinary letters — be filed in that employee’s official record.
The records are kept in a secure office at regional headquarters and can only be accessed by a limited number of senior managers, including the CAO and human resources.
Sources say information not properly filed isn’t considered part of the official record as per the policy.
Tripp declined an interview request with The Standard, saying he cannot comment on human resources issues.
The amended contracts for all three former managers were signed on Nov. 2, 2017, and approved by then-CAO D’Angelo. They were finalized a few weeks after D’Angelo was unilaterally given an expanded contract by then-regional chair Alan Caslin.
D’Angelo was hired in October 2016 in a selection process now under investigation by the Ontario Ombudsman.
D’Angelo’s revised contract, signed by Caslin on Oct. 10, 2017, was negotiated without the knowledge or consent of regional council — an unusual circumstance because changes to a CAO’s employment must be determined by council bylaw.
The new deal extended D’Angelo’s employment from 2019 to 2022, and gave him a golden parachute of three years’ pay even if he was fired with cause. D’Angelo’s contract extension is also under investigation by the Ombudsman.
On Dec. 28, 2018, the recently elected regional council declared the Caslin contract void. D’Angelo, who had been on medical leave for months, resigned his post and is suing the Region for $1.15 million in a constructive dismissal suit.
Within a month of the ink drying on D’Angelo’s new, and that point secret, contract extension he approved new contracts for Tamming, Wadsworth and Carter, all of whom had been in their respective positions for less than a year.
Also fired on Dec. 17, 2018, was economic development director Dominic Ursini. After he was fired, Ursini, who was hired in July 2018, sent a lawyer’s letter to the Region claiming he was renegotiating his contract at the time he was terminated. D’Angelo was on medical leave at the time, and it is not clear with whom Ursini was negotiating.
Tamming and Carter have both filed wrongful dismissal suits against the Region and are citing their amended deals. Under his revised contract, Tamming was to get 18 months’ pay if fired while Carter was to get 24 months.
In his statement of claim, Carter says he understood his amended agreement was comparable to what other senior leaders at the Region were given and that the deal would be included in his official file.
Tamming’s statement of claim does not mention where his amended contract was kept, but does allege Tripp “failed to take reasonable steps to inform himself of the existence of a number of employment agreements.” The claim does not say who these agreements pertained to or where they were kept.
Neither claim has been proven in court.