The Niagara Region CAO contract unilaterally extended by regional chair Alan Caslin guarantees Carmen D'Angelo a $1 million payout even if he were to be fired with cause, The Standard has learned.

Sources familiar with the contract — which was extended by Caslin in October 2017 without council approval — said the unusual termination clause dictates D'Angelo will be paid his full salary and benefits for 36 months should he be fired.

When councillors got their first look at the contract last week they were shocked, sources say, because it is not typical for an employment contract to guarantee such a substantial payout if an employee is fired with cause.

"It's outrageous in any context," said Toronto employment lawyer Howard Levitt. "That kind of clause incentivises misconduct. It is exactly the wrong kind of incentive. It is nearly unheard of. I have seen it a few times, but it is very rare."

Levitt, who has not seen D'Angelo's contract, said an employee who is fired "with cause" is someone who has been let go for serious misconduct like theft or fraud. That type of firing is rare, he said, because clear evidence of wrongdoing is required. Contracts may define what "with cause" means, but usually someone fired with cause gets no pay, Levitt said.

"The kind of clause you are talking about means someone could blow up the building and still get paid."

Levitt said it is common for employment contracts to contain provisions for someone to be fired "without cause."

"That can be nearly anything. A personality conflict, a lack of work, a reorganization," he said. "This is being fired for a reason that is not a serious infraction."

He said with cause clauses are included by employers specifically to limit how much they have to pay a fired employee.

Under the terms of his original 2016 deal, D'Angelo — whose hiring and contract is now the subject of an Ontario Ombudsman's investigation — is paid $230,000 annually plus benefits, a $800-a-month car allowance and six weeks vacation. The three-year deal was set to expire in 2019, with an optional two-year extension that needed the approval of regional council.

During a special council meeting on August 23, Caslin revealed he unilaterally amended and extended D'Angelo's contract. He enacted the optional extension and added a year to it. This deal expires in November 2022.

The Standard learned this week that part of the deal also includes a golden parachute of a year's pay if regional council does not renew D'Angelo's contract when it expires.

Caslin apologised to council if he overstepped his authority, saying the extension "made sense to me" and that he believed he was doing the right thing.

Decisions of regional council have to be made via bylaws voted on by council members. No bylaw extending the CAO's contract has been passed.

Council has asked staff to hire an external lawyer unconnected to either D'Angelo or Caslin to advise them on the contract, which former regional integrity commissioner John Mascarin told The Standard should be "null and void" because it was not approved by council .

Neither Caslin nor D'Angelo responded to interview requests for this story.

Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dubé announced Thursday he is investigating D'Angelo's hiring and contract.

The announcement follows months of stories by The Standard on the tainted 2016 hiring process.

The newspaper has reported D'Angelo downloaded at least six documents about the CAO position before he was hired for the job, including a working draft of a confidential regional report and confidential information on other CAO candidates and interview questions written by Caslin's staff.

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Grant.LaFleche@niagaradailies.com

905-225-1627 | @GrantRants