A former Niagara Regional Chair says no head of Regional Council has ever had the authority to unilaterally extend a CAO’s contract without the consent and support of the majority of council.
Debbie Zimmerman, Regional Chair from 1997 to 2003, weighed in on last week’s controversy in which current Regional Chair Alan Caslin admitted extending the contract of embattled Chief Administrative Officer, Carmen D’Angelo, to 2022, without the knowledge or consent of council.
Zimmerman says the CAO himself should have known the action taken by Caslin was wrong: “The one person in the room, who should know the direction of which council should be taking and advise council, accordingly, is the CAO. You can dismiss the chair saying he doesn’t understand his role, but in this case the CAO, of all the individuals in the room, should have known this was wrong.”
Niagara Falls Regional Councillor Selina Volpatti, over the weekend, in a post online, subsequently deleted, defended Caslin. Volpatti wrote that the process Chair Caslin followed was the same process that previous Chairs Gary Burroughs and Peter Partington used with their CAO’s and that the process has remained the same since the Region was created in 1971.
Pelham Mayor and Regional Councillor Dave Augustyn quickly countered the statement, calling the action unprecedented: “Under previous Chairs, the Chair would ask for feedback from Councillors. The Standing Committee Chairs/Vice-Chairs and the Regional Chair would agree on the performance appraisal of the CAO. In some instances, like under Chair Burroughs last term, this performance appraisal was presented to all of Council. Further, in all other cases, any employment contracts, for the CAO or for Commissioners (Department heads for Public Work, Public Health and Finance), have also been approved by Council.”
Noted municipal lawyer, John Mascarin, a former integrity commissioner to the Niagara Region, says without a vote of council, the CAO’s contract is null and void.
CKTB News has reached out to CAO Carmen D'Angelo for comment on the process used for the contract extension.
Below is the now deleted facebook post by Councillor Volpatti: