Two top executives at the Toronto Parking Authority are “no longer employed with the Toronto Parking Authority” as a cancelled $12.2 million North York land deal continues to be investigated by provincial police, the Star has learned.

President Lorne Persiko and vice-president of real estate and development Marie Casista had been suspended with pay for more than eight months. City spokesperson Jackie DeSouza refused to confirm Wednesday night if they were fired, citing privacy concerns.

DeSouza said their departure was effective Wednesday and no other employees are effected. She also would not comment on whether the two received any kind of severance or package.

What Persiko and Casista made while working at the authority continues to be kept secret thanks to a loophole in provincial disclosure rules and despite statements from Mayor John Tory that they should be made available. The Toronto Parking Authority is a public agency of the city. The city previously provided base salary ranges of $246,500 to $333,500 for Persiko and $168,969 and $202,772 for Casista.

The executives’ departure comes after the auditor general was tipped to the pending land sale by Councillor John Filion, previously a member of the parking authority board.

Auditor General Beverley Romeo-Beehler found in a subsequent report to council that the Toronto Parking Authority was about to overpay for a five-acre (two hectare) piece of land by $2.63 million.

A memo sent from acting city manager Giuliana Carbone, who is also the interim chair of the Toronto Parking Authority board, to all members of council Wednesday confirmed the news that they were no longer employed by the authority.

A team, which included former Supreme Court judge Frank Iacobucci, from Toronto law firm Torys LLP was hired by the parking authority to investigate the deal after top city staff took over control of the board at council’s direction.

That investigation, Carbone’s memo says, is now complete. “I am writing to advise you that Lorne Persiko and Marie Casista . . . are no longer employed with the Toronto Parking Authority (TPA) as of today,” the memo then says. A further update to council is expected before the end of the term.

The land in question is in Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti’s Ward 7 (York West) near the Hwy. 400 entrance at Finch Ave. West and Arrow Rd. Owned by Katpa Holdings Inc., public records show, the auditor general reported the negotiated deal resulted from a “hairball” of relationships between the local councillor, the Emery Village BIA, a lobbyist for Emery Village, parking authority executives and others.

Mammoliti and the BIA, of which the councillor is a board member, has long been pushing to build a giant flagpole on the land in question, a deal earlier scuttled by city staff over land prices they called “not realistic”.

During new negotiations involving the parking authority, a sign lobbyist advising the public agency, Blair Murdoch, said the potential for a second, lucrative billboard on the property would raise the value of the land to $12.2 million.

But the $12.2 million price had already been agreed upon.

A lobbyist hired by the BIA, former North York councillor Paul Sutherland, came to the parking authority with a deal for $12.2 million. An appraisal ordered by the parking authority had priced the land’s value at $7.5 million.

Casista, who was working on the deal, told the auditor general’s office during their investigation that she did the calculations to determine the value of the sign “on the back of an envelope.”

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In June 2017, Romeo-Beehler said the deal, now cancelled, should be investigated by police. An Ontario Provincial Police investigation is still ongoing, a spokesperson confirmed last week.

Andy Koropeski, who was appointed interim president when Persiko was suspended, remains in that role, Carbone wrote.