The Niagara Region’s CAO has confirmed that the report looking into the process used to hire him contained incorrect information.
The report presented to regional council last week by lawyer Marvin Huberman stated that CAO Carmen D’Angelo’s memory was affected by two important events: One, being a stolen cell phone in October of 2016, and the other being that at the time he was also involved in a recruitment process for CAO for the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Huberman, in his report, stated common sense suggested D’Angelo’s answers were “improbable” but he could not find they were not credible or unreliable because they were consistent with other statements by him.
When interviewed earlier this week, Huberman indicated that he took no steps to verify the veracity of D’Angelo’s statements.
Further investigation by CKTB News confirms there was no process to hire a new CAO in NOTL in October of 2016. Then CAO Milena Avramovic did not vacate the position until November of 2016.
Regional Council called for the report after an investigation by the the St. Catharines Standard claimed D’Angelo received a digital memo that contained the biographical information of candidates for the Region’s CAO in 2016 while applying for the position. The Huberman report purports that D’Angelo did receive biographies and names of candidates but for the CAO position in NOTL while he was a candidate for that position.
CKTB News contacted Mr. D’Angelo regarding the statement earlier this week. “I was involved in two recruitment processes in 2016 so I could not recall the specific documents related to the Spring NOTL recruitment versus the Fall Region recruitment, but as typical, would include opportunity briefs, job description, etc. To clarify, NOTL process involved Odgers and Berndtson and would not include other candidate information.”
Huberman’s report in section 74 states D’Angelo referenced receiving information “containing names and biographies of candidates for that position”.
When pressed to explain why that statement would be included in the report Mr. D’Angelo said, “I did not state I received NOTL candidate information” and he advised CKTB to ask Mr. Huberman why that was included in the report.
CKTB News has reached out to Huberman for further comment and he has so far not replied to our request.
Image courtesy Niagara Regional Council Agenda