2015 Newsmakers in Vaughan: Drama at Vaughan City Hall over complaint against Deputy Mayor
Reporter Adam Martin-Robbins recalls some of the big local news items from 2015
Yorkregion.com
Jan. 1, 2016
By Adam Martin-Robbins
Even the most ardent wonks will concede that city council meetings can be extremely dull at times, but that certainly wasn’t the case in Vaughan for about two weeks back in April.
There were hints beforehand something big was brewing.
The Citizen learned and reported April 9 that Integrity Commissioner Suzanne Craig would be tabling findings from an investigation into a code of conduct complaint against Deputy Mayor Michael Di Biase.
But it wasn’t clear what she’d uncovered.
Then, on April 10, Craig released a damning report containing preliminary findings from a four-month investigation stemming from a code of conduct complaint filed by Di Biase’s longtime political rival Richard Lorello in December 2014.
The report, posted on the city’s website late on a Friday, stated Di Biase used intimidation and abusive language to pressure city staff who opposed his interference in the tendering process to secure municipal projects for local construction firm, Maystar General Contractors, identified in the report as company A, (Craig didn’t investigate Maystar and there’s nothing in her reports to indicate the company did anything wrong.)
Her report described Di Biase, a longtime councillor and former mayor, as a seasoned politician who openly defied the city’s code of conduct, repeatedly tried to obtain confidential tendering information in direct contravention of city procurement rules, and used his authority to intimidate staff who pushed back.
“I find that when city staff responded to the respondent’s requests for information ... by advising him that there is a process that must be followed, they were met with defiance, abusive language and intimidating actions,” Craig wrote.
The report focused on contracts for the Father Ermanno Bulfon Community Centre and the Civic Centre Resource Library (CCRL) where Maystar did not pre-qualify for construction contracts.
Craig interviewed 32 city staff or board members and included comments from 14 of them in her report.
According to the report, one city staffer said: “I was approached by Regional Councillor Di Biase at (a meeting) and he asked me about the CCRL. When I told (Di Biase) there was a procurement process that had to be followed, he told me to stop wasting time and don’t be a troublemaker and cause problems.”
Many staffers took their concerns to the Commissioner of Strategic and Corporate Services and the city solicitor, both of whom abruptly parted ways with the city in February - while Craig’s investigation was ongoing.
According to Craig’s report, Di Biase was told numerous times by the city solicitor and others about the “risk to the city” when a councillor intervenes in the procurement process.
Moreover, the report states, Di Biase sent emails containing confidential information to a private citizen, and used the information he received back almost verbatim to criticize two competitors bidding on the project and the procurement process.
He later tabled a motion at council, essentially written by the outside party, to review the pre-qualification process, the report says.
National media outlets, relatively scarce around here since the Linda Jackson-era ended, pounced on the story.
It became clear that April 14, the day Craig was to officially present her preliminary report to council would be filled with drama.
Di Biase hired high-profile lawyer Morris Manning to defend him.
Manning argued passionately that, among other things, Di Biase wasn’t given a “fair and reasonable” opportunity to respond to the allegations in Craig’s report.
Manning said Di Bias should be given the names of all the people interviewed, copies of their statements and any documents they provided.
“You cannot respond to allegations unless you know who made them and what the exact details of the allegations are,” he said. “That’s fundamental to our system, it’s been fundamental for a hundred years, and it was breached by the integrity commissioner in this instance over and over and over again.”
He called on councillors to halt the probe and hand the matter over to an “independent person.”
Craig shot back that she followed the rules laid out in the Municipal Act and Vaughan’s complaint protocol, which require her to protect the identity of people she interviews.
Councillors, who’ve witnessed many controversies at city hall over the years, were stunned by the findings.
“This is not one of Vaughan’s finest hours, at least not since I’ve been mayor of the city,” Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua said at the time.
Thornhill Councillor Alan Shefman, meanwhile, called the report “extraordinary, shocking and disturbing.”
In the media scrum that followed, Manning had little to say, but Lorello called for a judicial inquiry to dig deeper into goings-on at city hall.
A week later, Craig presented her 97-page final report with a recommendation to dock Di Biase’s pay for three months, the maximum penalty allowed under the Municipal Act.
Councillors unanimously supported her.
It didn’t end there.
A week later, The Vaughan Citizen revealed police were investigating contracts signed off by city officials during Di Biase’s 24 years in office, including his time in the mayor’s chair.
That probe is ongoing, OPP recently confirmed.
Di Biase, meanwhile, has applied to the courts to have the integrity commissioner’s findings quashed and to overturn the penalty imposed by council.
Manning’s argument is similar to the one he made to city council, according to a factum filed in early December.
