Caslin trio form joint legal defence against Niagara Region
Three key players in the 2016 Niagara Region chief administrative officer hiring scandal have opted to form a united legal front in response to an $850,000 lawsuit brought against them by the municipality.
Former regional chair Alan Caslin, former policy director Robert D’Amboise and former communications chief Jason Tamming have filed a joint notice to mount a defence against the lawsuit filed in February.
The notice was filed with the St. Catharines courthouse on March 11, giving the trio an additional 10 days to file their statement of defence.
That document has not yet been filed with the courts due to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and a request for documents the Region referenced in its statement of claim, The St. Catharines Standard has learned.
The Region is working on a response to that request from the trio’s lawyer. It is not clear when Caslin, Tamming and D’Amboise will file their statement of defence given current limitations on court services.
In a statement of claim filed with the courts in February, the municipality alleges Caslin “acted in concert” with D’Amboise and Tamming to ensure
Carmen D’Angelo “would be hired as the Region’s new CAO and to provide Mr. D’Angelo with certain beneficial terms of employment without the knowledge or approval of council.”
“In doing so, Mr. Caslin committed misfeasance in a public office and/or abuse of public office in his position as regional chair,” says the claim. “The Region has suffered significant reputational harm and monetary damages as a result of the defendant’s concerted efforts.”
The suit says the men manipulated the hiring process, including feeding D’Angelo confidential information, giving him aid other candidates did not have and keeping council and the human resources department in the dark about contract details. D’Angelo was hired in October 2016 and held his post until February 2019, when he quit and filed a $1.15-million constructive dismissal suit against the Region. Shortly before the pandemic, D’Angelo asked the Region to settle for $500,000, but regional council rejected the offer.
Caslin is being sued for $500,000 and Tamming for $100,000. D’Amboise, the central actor in the statement of claim’s narrative, is being sued for $250,000.
While D’Angelo figures prominently in the claim, he is not listed as a defendant.
The Region’s claims, which have not been proven in court, leans on the conclusions of November’s report by the Ontario Ombudsman about the scandal and nearly two years of reporting by The Standard. The documents the statement of claim mentions are materials D’Angelo downloaded before and during the CAO hiring process, including confidential drafts of chair’s reports, interview questions and documents created by D’Angelo showing his plans to become the Region’s chief bureaucrat.
Almost all of these documents have been published by The Standard and were key pieces of evidence used by the Ombudsman during a lengthy probe. Ombudsman Paul Dube called the hiring of D’Angelo “unreasonable, unjust and wrong,” and labelled the entire scheme an “inside job” perpetrated from within Caslin’s office.
The Region’s plans to hire a new CAO have been placed on hold because of the pandemic. The municipality will revisit the issue once the crisis has abated. Acting CAO Ron Tripp will continue in the position until then.