Documents reveal Wasaga Beach mayor, CAO tried to keep meeting with bar operators quiet

By Ian Adams Wasaga Sun

The operators of one of the town-owned beachfront bars say the mayor and CAO made, and then reneged on, a deal for the Dard.

Simcoe.com has learned a meeting took place on March 9 between Bananas Beach Club operators Enzo Grossi and Larry Pevato, and Wasaga Beach mayor Brian Smith and CAO George Vadeboncoeur to discuss a new lease agreement for Bananas.

According to documents obtained through a request under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, the meeting also included discussions on the lease for the Dard. That lease was the subject of a request for proposals that had closed two weeks before the meeting.

No meeting minutes exist from the March 9 discussions. According to the documents obtained in the FOI request, efforts were made to keep the meeting secret.

Among the documents obtained by Simcoe.com is an email sent by Phoenix Hospitality’s project manager Anna Noveva on March 18 to CAO Vadeboncoeur referencing the “amount and terms discussed at your March 9, 2016 meeting,” and including an attached “draft lease agreement for the Dardanella.”

The CAO replied to this email asking Noveva to “delete reference to the March 9 meeting” and resend.

“I would be happy if you recalled it so it didn’t exist,” said the CAO in his email to Noveva. Noveva resent the lease documents for the Dard, without reference to the March 9 meeting, three-and-a-half hours later.

Vadeboncoeur would not comment on the matter, citing potential litigation.

According to Grossi and Pevato, Smith called Grossi on the morning of March 9 to set up the meeting for that afternoon.

“I got a phone call from the mayor, asking me if I was ready to make a deal,” Grossi told Simcoe.com.

Smith also declined to respond to questions from Simcoe.com due to the potential for litigation.

“Based on what it appears (Grossi and Pevato) may have said to you, it’s not accurate, and we won’t comment any further until we know, first of all, that this is going to become a legal issue and, if so, what our lawyers advise us to do,” said Smith.

Phoenix Hospitality was already considered the successful bidder for Bananas, with a proposed lease of $85,000 in 2016, when the two men say they were called in to the March 9 meeting with Smith and Vadeboncoeur.

“At that meeting, the discussion was for both (Bananas and the Dard),” Pevato added.

According to the documents obtained by Simcoe.com, Smith said if Phoenix was to increase the lease rate for Bananas, he would support their bid for the Dard.

Pevato acknowledged that Phoenix is now considering legal recourse, a route hinted at within the documents obtained by Simcoe.com.

Pevato and Grossi told Simcoe.com they agreed to a deal at the March 9 meeting that would see Phoenix pay $136,000 for both bars in 2016 – $102,000 for Bananas, and $34,000 for the Dard.

“Our understanding was the combination of the Dard and Bananas was a total rent of $136,000,” Pevato said in an interview. “If we did not get the Dard, (the lease for Bananas) would go back to $85,000.”

Pevato said the mayor was to take that recommendation to council. However, the recommendation that went to the committee March 10 was only regarding Bananas, with no mention of the Dard.

“Our understanding was the mayor was going to council to tell them the combination was $136,000, not that he ‘got $102,000 for Bananas’ and the Dard is irrelevant,” he said. “He did not convey the conditions to council that were our conditions of the deal.

“He severed the deal (and) did not give council a true representation of what we discussed.”

According to the notes of an April 22 meeting between Smith and Phoenix, the mayor insisted the March 9 meeting and its details should have been kept confidential.

Pevato said he and Grossi were not told the meeting needed to stay confidential, though neither man discussed it with anyone outside of the meeting, other than in emails sent to municipal staff later with the leases for both operations.

“(Confidentiality) was never brought up, the reason being it was being brought to council the next day,” Pevato told Simcoe.com. “Confidentiality was irrelevant, because we had to send the revised lease documents (for Bananas and the Dard) to (staff).”

The meeting was not kept confidential, and, according to the April 22 meetings notes, the mayor blamed Grossi and Pevato saying they “did not keep their word.”

In an email from Smith to Vadeboncoeur, Smith said he didn’t believe Grossi and Pevato “have any respect for this council.”

“The fact that they think they are entitled to have more than one bar is quite frankly, arrogant,” stated Smith in his email. “I cannot see me supporting them at this time.”

Pevato told Simcoe.com the suggestion put to them at the April 22 meeting that the earlier discussion should have been kept confidential was disconcerting.

“We were shocked, to be honest,” he said. “There’s nothing to hide. If (the mayor) is negotiating on behalf of the town, shouldn’t the (municipality) be privy to that information ASAP?”

Did you know?

Wasaga Beach’s procurement policy specifies that a town employee, or council member, should not “knowingly cause or permit anything to be done or communicated to anyone which could cause any potential vendor to have an unfair advantage or disadvantage in obtaining a contract for the supply of goods and/or services to the town.”

The town’s code of conduct also speaks to the decision-making process surrounding awarding contracts, noting council members should not have direct or indirect personal contact or interaction with the parties administering or directly involved in such processes.