By Gerry Barker
January 27, 2020
Opinion
Here is the truth about how city’s Sunshine List published the 2019 staff earning $100,000-plus per year.
In just four years, the Guthrie administration has run roughshod over the public trust and, more important, the public’s pocketbook.
This is about the ballooning size of city staff and the money being paid over a four-year period.
Council are sworn to protect the public interest, provide the necessary checks and balances in acting as the board of directors of a $600 million corporation.
The council giveaway of Guelph Hydro was outrageous of which the benefit to the 55,000 Hydro customers who have yet to receive any explanation or benefit.
Did you know there were two Sunshine Lists publishing the salaries of every employee who earned more than $100,000 per year?
Neither did I until I stumbled on a page deep in the city website.
The city Sunshine List since 2015 revealed all those employees earning more than $100,000. It does not publish the names and data of those managers earning more that $200,000. Don’t forget there are other manager in the 200 grand club whose ID does not appear on the city’s Sunshine List.
The city Sunshine List is published at the end of the calendar year. They “beat” the 2019 provincial Sunshine List that is published in late March.
The provincial List provides the name, occupation, and taxable benefits of every public employee in the province, including those in management.
These figures are generated by the city financial department and forwarded to the provincial Sunshine List department for publication. That list contains the qualifying employees in the 445 Ontario municipalities including Guelph
This is lying by omission in plain sight. What other explanation could there be?
Is it insurance against public outrage? Possibly. Is it to paint over and cover-up the mistakes, wasted resources on pet project spending?
All those protesting the senior manager’s salaries should be shown the City’s Sunshine List that leaves a hazy fog over the truth?
What about those performance bonuses to Pappert and Thomson?
It is becoming apparent that City Council disregards many citizens.
The leadership makes decisions without regard of the unintended consequences.
In March this year, the provincial Sunshine List reports the 2019 salaries, occupations and taxable benefits of ALL public employees in Ontario including the City of Guelph.
The cover-up trail
Let’s check the city’s Sunshine List from 2015 to 2019.
In 2015, the city’s Sunshine List stated there were 158 employees earning $19,170,856. Managers were not on that list.
Conclusion: Can we believe those figures with the managers earning more than $200.000 were not included?
Moving on to 2019. The city’s Sunshine List stated there were 359 employees earning more than $100,000. The cost to citizens is$40,855,826.
The new reform Mayor, elected in 2014, a self-described “numbers guy.” How are his math working for you?
These figures show the doubling of numbers of staffers found on the city website. We have twice elected a Mayor and council that in four years have created more debt and growing exponentially the cost of living of the people who pay the civic bills?
In four years the property tax rate, averaged 3.5 per cent. It has increased property taxes by 17.5 per cent. The figure does not include the effect of increased assessment. Typically adjusted upward each April, bumps up your property tax rate that year.
Throw in the latest operating tax dodge called special levies on property, separate storm water maintenance, annual increases of supplying potable water and dealing with wastewater. Those items are excluded from the city’s operating budget.
It’s the weird system of managing figures and figuring management.
Mr. Mayor, what ever happened to your 2014 election promise to keep the Guelph property tax rate at the level of the Consumer Price index?
Here’s why. The city Sunshine List between 2015 to 2019, did not publish the salaries and benefits to senior managers, Pappert, Thomson and Amorisi.
How serious is this malignant oversight manipulated under the radar by council approving the salary increases?
For 26 months, one of the top managers was Depity Chief Administrative Officer, Mark Amorosi. From 2015 to February 2017, he was the man in charge of Finance and Human Resources. He reported to CAO Ann Pappert.
Just for the record, CAO Ann Pappert received, in 17 months, from January 2015 until May, 26, 2016. $520,000.
That’s an average of $30, 588 per month.
Do you know of anyone in your neighbourhood in Guelph who makes that kind of money a month?
As it turned out, she was not alone
In 2018, CAO Derrick Thomson, received $335,000. He left in February 2019. His departure was described by the city as a “parting of the ways.”
Today, the news is that he has just accepted a job, as CAO of Minto, a town in Wellington County, population 9,000. The previous Minto CAO was earning $160,456.
Accepting that job only rekindles speculation about his leaving Guelph. Why did he leave a $335,000 job with a one-year contract extension, to take one that paid half of what he was making as Guelph CAO?
Mr. Thomson was paid $782,333 for 32 months, from June 2016 to Febriary 2019. He also received $33,000 in taxable benefits.
Ann Pappert moves on
After leaving the city in May 2016, former CAO Ann Pappert landed a job in October 2016 as a provincial Assistant Deputy Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport. She left that position in January 2017 and the trail of employment is not followed.As As it turned out, it was a banner year for Ms. Pappert who not only received $267,000 from mthe City of Guelph but an unknown salary for her four months work in Queen’s Park.
Now we come to Guthrie’s largess with senior staff manager, Mark Amorosi. He was the third recipient in that secret December10 meeting. The provincial Sunshine List confirmed the salary increases to, Pappert, Amorosi and Thomson totaling $98,202P
No one acknowledged the increases until the 2015 Sunshine List was published March 31, 2016. Pappert, Thomson and Amorosi never commented or admitted receiving the money.
For specifically critical of Mark Amorosi’s role as DCAO of Finance and Human Resources, later in the fall, I was sued for defamation claiming $500,000 in damages.
Just over two months later, Amorosi was fired for failing to oversee a data dump of 50,000 personal emails to a Kitchener lawyer representing a former Guelph Chief Building Inspector who sued the city for wrongful dismissal.
His case was quickly settled by the city.
Here we are in the fourth year of the lawsuit.
Last August, the motion judge dismissed our motion to dismiss the lawsuit. The case is now before the Ontario Court of Appeal.
I have no idea when our case will be heard,
I estimate the citizens of Guelph have already paid the lawyer representing Amorosi an estimated $100,000. This is our money. My legal costs are $80,000 and no end in sight.
The city administration refuses to reveal the cost of the personal lawsuit in Ambrosi’s name.
If you believe this laysuit isis unfair and a waste of public money, here’s what to do?
Email; your councillors and tell them yo stop using their fiscal power against a law abiding citizen whi still believes in the Canadian Constitution allowing freedom of expression.
Please send me a copy at:
gerrybarker76@gmail.com
Guelph Speaks 
If all what you say is true I am truly gobsmacked. In all fairness to the taxpayers of Guelph this Excuse of a Mayor and all the other incompetent fools on City council who have abused the public trust should be in jail.
A truly disgusted taxpayer.
Talk about lining their pockets.
If what Gerry says about the city not reporting those with salaries above $200,000 to the provincial government for inclusion on the sunshine list is correct, then there is something seriously wrong. Is someone not fulfilling a fiduciary responsibility wrt financial reporting? I seem to recall a few years ago the city spending $500,000 to have some consulting outfit set up a transparency program. Could it be that “do what I say,not what I do” has become the mantra of council?
Glen: I reported the existence of two Sunshine Lists. One, posted on the city’s website, two months before the provincial Sunshine List is published late in March. I am not suggesting that the city is not reporting to the province and omitting the salaries and benefits of employees making more than $200,000. It’s the city version that is not reporting or identifying those earning $200,000. And the website shows this has been going on since 2015.
The question remains, who instructed the Finance department to exclude the names and salaries of those earning $200,000-plus for five years in the administration’s “Sunshine List?” Even more disturbing, but not surprising, is the growth of the number of employees earning more than $100,000 between 2015 and 2019. It’s also doubled the cost of these employees to more than $40 million. These are the Guthrie years.