Senior Toronto parking execs suspended during land deal investigation

Parking authority president, VP put on paid leave, watchdog board now in charge as probe into now-cancelled deal at Finch Ave. West and Arrow Rd. in North York gets underway.

Thestar.com
July 10, 2017
By Jennifer Pagliaro

A watchdog board temporarily in charge of the Toronto Parking Authority has suspended senior executives following an auditor general’s investigation.

President Lorne Persiko and Vice-President of real estate, development and marketing Marie Casista, have been put on paid leave pending further investigation into a land deal that was being pursued by the parking authority, an agency of the city.

Andy Koropeski, the parking authority’s current vice-president of operations, has been named interim president.

The decision was made by senior city staff currently overseeing governance of the parking authority, chaired by top bureaucrat, city manager Peter Wallace, an extraordinary measure that saw those staff meet for the first time at city hall Monday.

Their oversight follows a report from Auditor General Beverly Romeo-Beehler on a now-cancelled North York land transaction that raised significant questions at council last week.

Council voted to temporarily suspend the eight-member board and put Wallace, deputy city manager Giuliana Carbone and chief corporate officer Josie Scioli in their place.

After a private session of the board Monday that lasted less than 10 minutes, Wallace moved several motions, including the appointment of Koropeski until an investigation is complete.

The board also directed Koropeski to retain a third party, selected by the city manager, to conduct the investigation.

Messages left with people who answered the phones at the homes of Persiko and Casista were not returned Monday.

The auditor general began looking into the proposed land deal at Finch Ave. West and Arrow Rd. near Hwy. 400 after concerns were raised by Councillor John Filion, a member of the parking authority board.

Romeo-Beehler’s report, the result of a nearly 10-month investigation, found the parking authority would have overpaid for the nearly five-acre parcel by $2.63 million.

The deal, she told council, resulted from a “hairball” of relationships and potential conflicts involving Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, the Emery Village BIA, a lobbyist working for the BIA, the TPA executives and a sign consultant working for the TPA.

“It’s our responsibility to determine what happened and to determine what lessons should be learned to determine if there was any misconduct or incompetence or both,” Mayor John Tory said on the floor of council last week in moving the motion for a temporary takeover of the board.

Council also voted to have the city’s two other watchdogs - the integrity commissioner and the lobbyist registrar - further investigate the deal and those involved.

Read more:Toronto council should get the police involved in the parking authority land deal: Keenan

This is not the first time Persiko’s role at the parking authority has come under question.

When he was real estate director in 2001, Persiko was ordered to vacate a parking authority-owned home slated for development as a parking garage following a Star investigation that revealed he had been living in the Yonge-Eglinton area cheaply for several years while also subletting the basement apartment.

City spokesperson Wynna Brown confirmed both Persiko and Casista are being paid while on leave, but could not confirm their salaries.

The Star could not independently confirm Monday what their current salaries are.