Interference from Mayor Rob Ford’s office that “compromised” the process for citizen appointments to 120 city boards and agencies included an attempt to stop staff from targeting “diverse” candidates in recruitment ads.

That’s the conclusion of city ombudsman Fiona Crean in a scathing report released Thursday — the results of which, compiled through dozens of interviews given under oath, were quickly contested by Ford and his allies even as they accepted all four of Crean’s recommendations.

Crean found, among other things, that Ford’s office ordered staff not to place the ads in the Toronto Star because “we do not like the Star,” and that a councillor pointed at staff during a closed-door meeting and shouted: “I’m going to get you” after they raised concerns over the fact his favoured candidate had a conflict of interest.

The report says the mayor’s office initially rebuffed staff requests to quickly begin the process of recruiting, vetting and selecting citizens to fill 428 positions on boards and tribunals of city agencies, including the police services board, Toronto Hydro, the library board and the parking authority.

But in June 2011, the unnamed Ford aides suddenly took a keen interest. They demanded that two months be shaved off the selection process, then abruptly asked for the application period to be extended for one week.

That reduced staff’s time to screen and evaluate roughly 1,700 applicants to one week instead of the customary month.

“It will look to cynics as if the fix is already in for appointments and the process is just for show,” Crean quoted one bureaucrat as writing to city manager Joe Pennachetti. “We now have a governance process that is no longer based on any recognizable principles.”

Staff in the city manager’s office told Crean’s investigator “they were asked by the mayor’s office to remove the statement in the (recruitment) advertisement that encouraged applicants from the city’s diverse population to apply,” in keeping with the city’s official policy of striving for representative boards.

Staff refused, Crean wrote, and left the diversity wording in.

But the bureaucrats heeded Ford’s aides’ order to not buy space for recruitment ads in the Star, although staff noted the paper “has a diverse readership, the largest circulation in Toronto and the ‘best demographics.’”

City manager’s staff “expressed surprise by the direction from the Mayor’s staff but did not feel in a position to challenge or refuse it,” the report states, adding that both the city manager’s office and city clerk’s office “expressed concern about the level of direction from the mayor’s office.”

Aides in Ford’s office, which officially refuses to send the Star official communications from the mayor’s office, denied giving such directions for the ad.

Crean also expressed concern over a Nov. 16, 2011, meeting of the civic appointments committee. A councillor strongly favoured a businessman to be appointed chair of a committee that grants exemptions for lucrative billboards that otherwise don’t conform to city rules.

When staff said the applicant should be disqualified because he was a senior executive of a company in a business related to the committee’s work, and had appeared before it as an applicant, the councillor became very angry.

“Attendees reported that the (councillor) pointed at staff, saying: “I’m going to get you.’ He was reported to say in a raised voice that staff had other councillors fooled, but not him.” Staff described the process as “gruelling and humiliating.”

The unnamed councillor, whom the Star has learned is Giorgio Mammoliti, did not deny the words to Crean’s investigator but said he was “frustrated” by the process and felt “intimidated” by staff.

Mammoliti did not return the Star’s calls Thursday, but told Global News he did not say “I’m going to get you.” He accused Crean of listening “to staff that want to deflect their mistakes and make it political.”

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Ford, speaking to reporters at a Pan Am Games event at the University of Toronto Scarborough, flatly denied his office did anything wrong.

“No I didn’t interfere in any process. I actually cleaned up the process that we had before. It’s a very clean, transparent, above-board process,” the mayor said, refusing to elaborate.

Councillor Frances Nunziata, chair of the civic appointments committee, said in an interview: “I’m not aware of any direction or interference by the mayor’s office or committee members in the recruitment process.

“I believe that the committee did a wonderful job.”

Councillor Adam Vaughan, a staunch Ford critic, said he personally saw a Ford staffer hand out “cheat sheets” of Ford’s preferred candidates to some members of the civic appointments committee.

“It’s not about talent or merit; it’s about who you know and if the mayor approves of your views,” Vaughan said. “It’s cronyism, and it’s not acceptable in a public hiring process using taxpayers’ dollars.”

With files from Robyn Doolittle

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