Chris Lowrey
MUN. OF PONTIAC Sept. 14, 2017
After a nearly year-long investigation, Quebec’s L’Unité Per-manente Anticorruption (UPAC) has laid charges against the former head of Public Works at the Municipality of Pontiac.
Frank Fiorillo, who served as the Municipality of Pontiac’s head of Public Works from August 2016 to November of 2016, has been charged with breach of trust and impersonating a peace officer.
The breach of trust charges stem from an investigation into the awarding of municipal contracts without tender. The charges for impersonating a peace officer are related to Fiorillo allegedly impersonating a member of UPAC.
Fiorillo was the only person charged in the investigation, which wrapped up on Sept. 8.
The investigation started last December when UPAC officers visited the Municipality of Pontiac and pored over several documents, contracts and tenders.
Fiorillo’s employment with the municipality ended before the investigation began.
The municipality claims he was fired while Fiorillo claims he resigned.
In a press release on the organization’s website, UPAC said that Fiorillo allegedly attempted to manipulate tender documents in connection with the awarding of municipal contracts and authorized an excavation contract for more than $25,000 to a sub-contractor without a tender.
The investigation stems from a recording made by local excavator Jean-François Aumont in November 2016 in which Fiorillo is heard saying that he worked for UPAC.
Fiorillo said he’s surprised that he was the only person who was charged in the investigation.
“Mr. [Roger] Larose is directly involved in this situation,” Fiorillo wrote in an email. “My orders [came] from Mayor Larose.”
However, Fiorillo’s account was rebuffed by Municipality of Pontiac Director of Communications Dominic Labrie.
“The police were all over this file,” Labrie said. “They were here at the town hall checking out the invoices and the paper trail. They interviewed Mayor Larose and [Municipality of Pontiac Director General] Benedikt Kuhn. They filed charges against Frank Fiorillo, but nothing against the mayor or the administration.”
According to Labrie, Fiorillo was recruited by a hiring agency. Labrie also said that while the agency looked into Fiorillo’s background, it could have been more thorough by looking more than a couple of years back.
Kim Hébert, the wife and business partner of Aumont, said that she finds it hard to believe that Fiorillo would act on his own, especially in light of the fact that he only had the job for a matter of months when the recordings were made.
“Our trouble [with the municipality] started before Fiorillo,” she said. “I think he acted because the mayor asked him to.”
Hébert said it seemed odd that the municipality has had trouble finding a replacement to run the Public Works department. In fact, Fiorillo’s replacement Paul Connelly resigned in January 2017 after just 15 days on the job.
According to Hébert, Connelly told her he resigned because he didn’t want to tarnish his reputation, but he wouldn’t expand further than that.
Fiorillo said he will plead not guilty to the charges. He’s expected to appear in Gatineau court on Nov. 7.
