Cronyism scandal buffets City HallPoliticians' friends and relatives abound on licensing department's payroll

[Are Be]

Cronyism scandal buffets City Hall
Politicians' friends and relatives abound on licensing department's payroll
Headshot of John Barber

By JOHN BARBER

Thursday, September 29, 2005 Page A1
...

TORONTO -- City Hall has been rocked by a scandal centring on allegations of cronyism and sexual misconduct among senior officials, some with close political links to Mayor David Miller. As they prepared to debate more than 200 recommendations from the hard-hitting Bellamy report on municipal corruption, prominent politicians, including Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone, are struggling to explain the presence of friends and relatives on the city payroll.

The revelations are among dozens that have come to light following the sudden dismissal of Pamela Coburn, executive director of the Municipal Licensing and Standards department, and Joseph Carnevale, the department's director of investigations and the former elected chair of the Toronto Catholic District School Board.

While they investigate the conduct of Ms. Coburn and Mr. Carnevale, who have been placed on unpaid leave pending resolution of the matter, city officials are also negotiating the reinstatement of three senior managers whom Ms. Coburn, working closely with human resources officials, had suspended earlier this summer.

The earlier, unexplained suspensions of the three managers inspired at least one whistle-blower to complain that the department, which enforces municipal bylaws and property standards and regulates such industries as taxis and restaurants, had degenerated into a "honey pot of cronyism" under Ms. Coburn and Mr. Carnevale.

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"It made me so sick I just couldn't take it," said one long-time licensing official, who played a key role in exposing the department's hiring practices and asked not to be named. So many unqualified people had risen to prominent positions, while professionals were ousted on false pretenses, that working at the department "had become like babysitting," he said.

Among those recently hired by the department was Teresa Colonna, Mr. Pantalone's niece, who now works as a bylaw enforcement official in Scarborough. Emilio Leonardis, who is married to another daughter of Mr. Pantalone's sister, Grace Russo, trains taxi drivers for the licensing department, while his brother, Joey Leonardis, works in the same department to implement Mr. Miller's Clean and Beautiful strategy.

"I had nothing to do with [the hirings]," Mr. Pantalone said yesterday, denying that they have placed him in a conflict of interest. "As far as I know, nobody has made any accusations against Joe Pantalone. Just because I happen to have relatives that happen to live in the city and I breathe the same air as a lot of other people doesn't mean there's anything wrong."

Prior to joining the MLS department, Ms. Colonna (then known as Teresa Pantalone) worked as a junior assistant to Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti.

Ms. Coburn also recently hired Rose Burrows, a long-time political aide to various politicians and the fiancée of Councillor Peter Milczyn, who began as a bylaw enforcement official and was quickly promoted to the position of acting senior policy and research officer at the department's headquarters on the 12th floor of City Hall.

Like Mr. Pantalone, Mr. Milczyn strongly denied seeking favours on his fiancée's behalf. "I don't think references from politicians necessarily help," he said.

Others recently hired by the department include one individual, formerly a caretaker and union official with the Catholic school board, who began as an entry-level enforcement officer and was recently promoted to acting senior policy and research officer.

"They just handed the guy a job on a silver platter," the MLS official complained.

But none of the new employees rose faster than Mr. Carnevale, a lobbyist who, before joining the licensing department, worked at a firm named City Hall Group with his brother, Frank, who played an important role as a witness against fellow lobbyist Jeffery Lyons at the Bellamy inquiry.

Joseph Carnevale entered the civil service as a temporary bylaw enforcement officer less than a year ago. Soon he too rose to the position of senior policy and research officer, working under Carlos Martins, director of investigations. When Mr. Martins left on secondment to another department, Mr. Carnevale was named acting director of investigations -- the No. 2 official in the department under Ms. Coburn.

"Joseph Carnevale has no knowledge of enforcement," the whistle-blower said.

But he did come to know Ms. Coburn well, according to investigators currently combing through the alleged honey pot: Several sources confirmed yesterday that some of the allegations that led to the pair's provisional dismissal centred on an inappropriate personal relationship.

It is Ms. Coburn's dismissal that has shocked most onlookers, however. A lifelong city employee who first came to attention a decade ago when she laid a complaint of sexual harassment against former city engineer Nick Vardin, Ms. Coburn has been MLS executive director since its creation after amalgamation in 1998. More recently she came to prominence as the leader of the city's campaigns against illegal massage parlours and a key figure in the rollout of Mr. Miller's Clean and Beautiful City Initiative.

City officials, including Auditor-General Jeffrey Griffiths, are also investigating charges that Ms. Coburn's department funded the mayor's initiative and others by improperly diverting license fees that, under provincial law, are supposed to be used exclusively to pay the cost of regulating the different industries that provide them.

For his part, Mr. Miller, who swept to power two years ago on a reform platform promising to clean up the scandal-plagued City Hall, declined to comment on the suspensions, promising a resolution of the matter "soon."

Mr. Pantalone also urged a thorough investigation, although cautioned that Ms. Coburn and Mr. Carnevale "are innocent until proven guilty."

Meanwhile, council remains on tenterhooks waiting for news of Ms. Coburn's fate. "There isn't a politician on the floor of council who doesn't owe her," one long-time observer commented. "She's all political."
...
* © Copyright 2005 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[Mr Man]

Never would have expected Pantalone...

[Are Be]

John Barber

Toronto
Sweeping cronyism out from under the carpet
By John Barber
Friday, September 30, 2005 – Page A15
No wonder Mayor David Miller hung up that new broom the moment he won the election on a promise of sweeping change. He must have known that no mere broom was going to accomplish the Herculean cleanup that faced him then. What he needed was a good hired gun. And finally, it would appear, he has found one.

Although independent Auditor-General Jeffrey Griffiths is leading the investigation into the latest sordid scandal involving senior city bureaucrats, the trigger man on the inside is Fareed Amin, one of two new deputy managers recently installed as a result of the mayor's administrative reorganization. Those accustomed to the normal bureaucratic snow job that erupts in response to such crises, as perfected by still-ensconced city manager Shirley Hoy, can only marvel at the efficiency and dispatch with which Mr. Amin expunged the latest alleged wrongdoers.

Maybe he just got lucky; maybe the targets were looming so large he couldn't miss. The truth will out soon (thankfully, in less than the four years it took to investigate the MFP scandal). Meanwhile, Mr. Miller took the opportunity afforded by the investigation to spin the latest scandal into evidence of triumphant reform.

"The administrative structure that council adopted is working and working well," the mayor boasted in response to questions about the crony-infested licensing department. The latest scandal, he went on, is a wonderful demonstration of a newly "open and accountable" administration, which is able to quickly "determine the nature of problems and deal with them."

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Apart from the fact that structures don't nab nogoodniks -- people do -- he has a point. Things are different now. Apart from the newly empowered auditor's office, the main difference so far is that neither Mr. Amin nor his fellow deputy, Sue Corke, has any old friends in Toronto City Hall.

It wasn't the structure that needed to change, it was the culture -- an all-encompassing favour-swapping culture in which the most successful bureaucrats cunningly ensnared their alleged political masters in webs of favours, personal and political, in order to keep them quiet and on side.

It is a culture that envelops -- and potentially corrupts -- politicians of all political stripes. Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone is far from the only councillor who has family members tucked away here and there on the city payroll. Before she was suspended this week, licensing czarina Pamela Coburn allegedly complained to her senior staff that pressure to hire politically connected applicants had become intense.

Doing such favours for politicians has always been a key technique of bureaucratic management in Toronto. When Councillor Bas Balkissoon first tentatively blew the whistle about the city's leasing policy four years ago -- to the extreme indignation of senior civil servants we now know to have been either incompetent or corrupt or both -- two things seemed to have happened immediately: Lobbyist Jeffery Lyons contacted him, and rumours immediately began circulating that at least two of Mr. Balkissoon's children had worked or were working on a temporary basis for none other than treasurer Wanda Liczyk.

The rumours were true. Ms. Liczyk had taken the clever precaution of trying to neutralize Mr. Balkissoon by doing him special favours -- but they turned out not to be enough. Partly, that was because the councillor didn't consider himself to be compromised by accepting them -- and he still doesn't.

Could there be any better evidence of systemic (i.e. cultural) malaise than the fact that it is so widespread it even envelops those who seek to reform it? Thus the reason why, until now, all the mayor's promises of reform fell flat. The people charged with fixing the system had made careers on the backs of its flaws. To the extent that the prompt action against the licensing department can be attributed to Mr. Amin, a consummate outsider, it is a brilliant debut.

It certainly gets the mayor out of trouble -- and just in time. With his key supporter Joe Pantalone left red-faced, Mayor Miller remains triumphal. The worse the scandal becomes, the more credit he can take and the higher he will fly.

He couldn't do it either by himself or with the aid of any other insiders. Although he is unquestionably disinterested -- unlike many of his own followers, our corporate-lawyer leader simply doesn't know anybody who wants to be a bylaw inspector, and apart from two small children he hasn't a single blood relative in Toronto or Canada -- he too was compromised by the allegiances that are inevitable in politics.

He needed somebody else to do the dirty work, and now he's got him. Let the fun begin.

jbarber@globeandmail.ca
....

* © Copyright 2005 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[Are Be]

...
The City Hall Scandal
Miller pledges crackdown
Councillors 'disturbed' by allegations of cronyism in Coburn's licensing office

By JENNIFER LEWINGTON

Friday, September 30, 2005 Page A1

CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF

A solemn David Miller vowed to crack down on cronyism at City Hall yesterday, as two senior Toronto officials at the centre of a blossoming scandal defended themselves against allegations of dubious hiring practices.

"If this investigation reveals widespread abuses, those will be dealt with," the mayor told reporters. "People are entitled to employment based on their merit . . . on what you know, not who you know."

He said that news of a fresh scandal at City Hall is proof that an administrative restructuring of the bureaucracy, approved by council last year, "is working well."

But several councillors expressed some doubts about the mayor's assurances.

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"In a large organization, we are fooling ourselves if we think we will be able to purge any and all corruption," said councillor Case Ootes (Toronto-Danforth). "Mayor Miller is finding that out and this latest development happened on his watch and now he has to account for it."

Councillor Sylvia Watson (Parkdale-High Park) said that the latest scandal, which hit this week as council debated a judge's stinging report on ethical lapses by city officials in the MFP computer leasing deal, cast a pall.

"A lot of councillors are disturbed and disappointed that even though we had this big inquiry, we seem to be embroiled in another situation," she observed, just before council voted 43-1 to seek a police investigation of issues that arose from the report by Madam Justice Denise Bellamy.

Referring to the allegations, she added "many councillors are even more disappointed that they did not know anything about it."

A probe into allegations of cronyism and sexual misconduct involving Pam Coburn, executive director of the municipal licensing and standards (MLS) department, and Joseph Carnevale, director of investigations, is expected to be done next week.

Yesterday, Ms. Coburn emerged from her small bungalow near Danforth Avenue and Birchmount Road at about noon with her 16-year-old son.

"I've been instructed by my employer not to speak," Ms. Coburn said when pressed for comment on her paid leave that was announced this week. "I'm very frustrated right now to not be able to speak."

"I'm a single mother who supports my children and we're in a tough financial situation right now," she said. "So I'd please respect some privacy."

When reached by telephone, Mr. Carnevale said: "I'm just not in a position to comment at the moment but as soon as I am able to, trust me, I'd love to say my story. I want to be back at work so I can continue the excellent job I was doing," he said.

Meanwhile, despite raised eyebrows from some councillors, deputy mayor Joe Pantalone defended himself against revelations that a niece of his was recently hired by the MLS department.

"I'm confident that I have done nothing wrong," he told city council yesterday morning.

"I look forward to the findings of the city's probe into the MLS issue, as I am sure the story as it pertains to me in particular would show that my name was improperly dragged into the matter."

At a press conference, Mr. Miller emphasized that the city's auditor-general is not conducting any probe of city councillors.

But he agreed, when questioned, that a review of the city's code of conduct as it relates to the hiring of relatives of city politicians and staff is a "good suggestion."

David Mullan, the city's integrity commissioner, said the current code of conduct for politicians is too vaguely worded on several issues, which include accepting gifts, dealing with lobbyists and improper influence in hiring and other practices.

"More specific direction is required," he said yesterday. "Issues related to influence need to be addressed."

The current code prohibits relatives of councillors from working in the office of any councillor or the mayor at City Hall, but there is no prohibition on relatives working in the bureaucracy.

However, there are rules against politicians using improper influence to assist in hiring or other practices.

After the MFP vote late yesterday, Mr. Miller told reporters "it is a very important day for the city but in some ways a sad one -- sad that it [the inquiry by Judge Bellamy] was necessary."

Only councillor Peter LiPreti (York West) opposed sending her report off to the Toronto police, which in turn will ask either the Ontario Provincial Police or the RCMP to see if there is enough evidence to warrant a criminal investigation.

Still, many councillors were skeptical that the police probe, if it occurs, would lead to criminal charges.

With reports from Paul Choi and Unnati Gandhi

What MLS does

The city's Municipal Licensing and Standards division exists to protect the public from shoddy or dangerous operations.

It issues licences and inspects businesses to ensure they follow relevant bylaws.

Its responsibilities include oversight of:

Building tradespeople including plumbing, heating and electrical contractors, renovators, drain contractors and insulation installers;

Food handling -- anywhere food is stored, prepared, or sold for human consumption, from restaurants to hot-dog vendors to grocery, fruit or fish markets and convenience and variety stores;

Transportation including taxis and limousines, driving schools, tow trucks and vehicle rentals;

Entertainment including movie theatres, billiard halls, bowling alleys and adult entertainment parlours;

A host of other businesses including parking lots, barber and hairdressing shops, carnivals and circuses, drug stores, pet shops, autobody shops, public garages and gas stations, second-hand stores, holistic centres and practitioners, wine and liquor stores and auctioneers.

...
* © Copyright 2005 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[Monty Burns]

no shock

[Are Be]

Oct. 20, 2005. 07:43 AM
RON BULL / TORONTO STAR
Pam Coburn, shown leaving her home Sept. 29, was fired from her position as head of the municipal licensing and standards department.
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Special Report: City Hall scandal
City Hall memo paints ugly picture
Ex-director's memo tells of threats and harassment

City manager confirms probe into licensing department

ROBERT CRIBB
STAFF REPORTER

The City of Toronto is investigating allegations of "serious misconduct" by three supervisors in its licensing department.

A July 15 memo obtained by the Star describes "numerous incidents of serious misconduct" alleged against supervisors Ian Redfearn and Colin MacLeod, as well as manager Bryan Byng.

It was drafted by Pam Coburn, former executive director of municipal licensing and standards, a day after the three were suspended with pay pending an investigation. Coburn sent it to the city's top bureaucrats July 18. Allegations in the memo paint a picture of a department with managers out of control, rogue employees and a pattern of harassment.

Deputy city manager Farid Amin confirmed yesterday he received the memo and that the city launched an investigation in the summer that is ongoing.

Coburn, who was made head of the department in 2001, was fired Oct 5.

In addition to "ongoing patterns of harassment" against staff and "serious violations of the city's health and safety policies," the memo states the three were suspended following a "history of similar behaviour."

Only days after the suspensions were made public, city auditor Jeff Griffiths received an anonymous note from a "concerned employee" accusing Coburn of removing the three senior staff to "make room to promote" her friends and family members of city councillors. Those allegations triggered a probe leading to Coburn's firing for giving her former second-in-command, Joseph Carnevale, advanced notice on a job posting and for being complicit in the hiring of two of his friends. City officials have said they're preparing to reinstate the suspended licensing officials in an "expeditious manner."

Coburn was accused earlier this month by Mayor David Miller of failing to document allegations against the three senior staff before suspending them. "(The allegations) were never documented and it would concern me greatly when people are suspended from employment without an investigation," Miller told the Star. "There was no investigation at the time of the suspension of these people — or for some time afterwards."

Among the allegations detailed in the memo:

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A female taxi licensing inspector complained to Coburn in July that she had been "forcibly confined in a taxi by a taxi driver that she was about to charge." While trapped inside the moving taxi, she called 911 and her office colleagues from her cell phone to report what was happening. But her supervisor "waited numerous minutes before taking any steps to respond," the memo reads.

The female inspector charged the cab driver who confined her inside the car. But she later learned that her supervisor — Redfearn — had scheduled her to be off work when the charges and her testimony were to be heard in court. When she informed him of the scheduling problem, "He refused to change her shift, she missed the court date and the charges against those drivers were dismissed as a result," says the memo.

Redfearn refused to comment when contacted at his Whitby home yesterday.

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The female inspector also reported witnessing Redfearn's truck parked in front of her house one evening in October 2004, the memo reads. "She believed this to be part of the ongoing scheme of harassment against her."

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A licensing inspector who, according to the memo, is among a number of "close personal confidantes" of Redfearn, called the female inspector three times on July 15 while she was in Coburn's office filing a complaint about Redfearn. In those calls, the inspector suggested "she would be in serious trouble for having made reports to the director and/or executive director regarding the conduct of Ian Redfearn," says the memo.

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The same licensing inspector, who has been dubbed the "phantom inspector" by some in the department, "is almost never in the office nor seen by other staff," says the memo. He wasn't at work on July 15 when a manager called him to report in to the office, Coburn said in an interview this week. "He said he was out of the office on training in Guelph," Coburn recalls. "When he was told to return to the office, I was told he got quite upset and told the manager to speak with Ian Redfearn because he had a special arrangement with his work schedule."

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In a section of the memo titled "Misconduct related to police investigation," Coburn writes that two police officers from the Biker Intelligence Unit requested help from the manager and supervisors of the licensing department for an investigation they were conducting into tow truck operators. "They have not received the support and information they have requested and ... believe they're getting `the runaround.'"

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Detailing allegations reported to her by a member of the taxi industry, Coburn writes that she received complaints of "numerous aspects of misconduct by the management" of the city's taxi licensing unit "related to the issuance and transfer of taxi and taxi driver licences."

One allegation involves "issuing taxi drivers licences and permitt(ing) taxi drivers to continue driving when they have not completed the required refresher course. Apparently these types of `favours' are exchanged between Colin MacLeod and the owner of East End Taxi on the basis of a close personal relationship between the two."

On Saturday, the Star reported that MacLeod was the subject of a city probe into whether he targeted Crown Taxi with enforcement actions. Crown is a direct competitor of East End Taxi.

MacLeod did not respond to an interview request yesterday.

#
Inspectors who complained of harassment from their supervisors believed it came "with the explicit knowledge of manager Bryan Byng (whom they've reported these incidents to, and has failed to take any remedial action)," says the memo.

Byng did not respond to an interview request yesterday.

Coburn's memo also outlines allegations of corruption.

A taxi licensing inspector was accused by "a number of taxi drivers of demanding payment in exchange for not issuing ticket offence notices." In the memo, Coburn says she asked a supervisor to investigate and later reassigned the officer to inspecting apartment buildings. Shortly after, "it was found that the officer was regularly falsifying records" and had even forged a "false letter of thanks to the mayor, allegedly by a grateful citizen" praising his own conduct on the job.

Coburn writes she was concerned at the "potential scope and scale of misconduct" associated with the licensing unit. "I believe assistance and advice is required in order to understand the situation fully, and to advise on appropriate measures to be taken to address the problems."

But little assistance or advice came from the city's top bureaucrats, says Coburn. Deputy city manager Amin and internal audit director Tony Veneziano both confirmed yesterday they received the July memo.

"We launched an investigation as soon as the memo was received," Amin said. "I was aware of the allegations. ... This matter is still being investigated."

The document was also copied to Griffiths, the city's auditor general, and Shirley Hoy, city manager. Veneziano said he received the memo on July 18 but refused to comment further.

Hoy is travelling in China and could not be reached for comment. Griffiths wouldn't say last night whether his office is investigating the three senior staff.

Robert Cribb can be reached at rcribb@thestar.com

Additional articles by Robert Cribb



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[Roch5220]

Dam Fiberals. They've infrultrated city hall.