‘Keep mayor happy’ — fired Windsor engineer’s $1.5M lawsuit alleges

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A recently fired top city engineer alleges a “top-down culture of corruption” at the City of Windsor and cites orders from superiors to “keep the mayor happy at all costs” in a $1.55-million wrongful dismissal lawsuit.

A statement of claim filed with Ontario Superior Court in Toronto last month and obtained by the Windsor Star reveals that Chris Nepszy — turfed in November by Mayor Drew Dilkens using strong mayor powers — claims he suffered “considerable mental distress” during his time at city hall. Nepszy alleges he was pressured and coerced into the “misuse” of public funds.

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The court document claims that Nepszy has been unable to find a comparable job since his abrupt dismissal, which followed roughly two years as a member of the city’s corporate leadership team.

All claims in the court document are allegations and have not been proven in court.

Nepszy’s Toronto-based lawyer Howard Levitt could not be reached for comment.

Although the city has not yet filed a statement of defence in response to the lawsuit, Dilkens told the Star the city denies all allegations and will “vigorously defend” its position in court.

“As someone who practiced labour and employment law for a number of years before being elected as mayor, I’ve never seen a former employee file a wrongful dismissal claim against their employer and send chocolates and roses — they’re always full of spurious allegations,” Dilkens said.

Dilkens terminated Nepszy and city solicitor Shelby Askin Hager five months ago in his first significant use of strong mayor legislation — changes to the Municipal Act enacted by the Doug Ford Conservatives giving some heads of council additional powers and duties.

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While Askin Hager’s dismissal resulted from an organizational restructuring, according to the mayoral decision, Nepszy’s did not.

The claim alleges Nepszy was wrongfully terminated “in an act of reprisal” and “in bad faith.”

In September 2021, Nepszy was hired by then-CAO Jason Reynar, whom the council majority voted to sack roughly six months later.

The lawsuit claims Nepszy “immediately observed the top-down culture of corruption that he actively resisted in order to maintain his professional integrity to the extent possible.”

It goes on to allege that the culture was “well known amongst the entire organization, as (interim CAO Onorio) Colucci described, ‘keep the mayor happy at all costs and you won’t be a target.’”

The day after Reynar was fired, the document claims, Nepszy received a call from Dilkens, “who made clear that the lesson he should take from (Reynar’s) dismissal was that it was necessary to ensure that the mayor remained happy.”

Retired CAO Colucci returned temporarily to serve as the city’s top bureaucrat until Reynar’s permanent replacement could be found. Colucci told Nepszy that he “was seen as being too close to Mr. Reynar, that he should forget what Mr. Reynar taught him and focus on appeasing the mayor and the mayor’s supporters since that was ‘the Windsor way,’” the document claims.

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“Almost every meeting, formal and informal, that Mr. Nepszy had with the CAO commenced with the CAO asking whether he was keeping the mayor happy,” the document states.

“These meetings were never about the hundreds of millions of dollars of work that Mr. Nepszy was managing in his portfolio.”

The document alleges Nepszy refused to perform some work assigned to him by councillors, Dilkens, Colucci, and current CAO Joe Mancina — work that was “illegal, immoral and unethical.”

Nepszy was “regularly subjected to aggressive behaviour and was threatened with consequences if he would not comply,” the document claims. As part of the pressure, Nepszy’s employment was allegedly “repeatedly threatened” in response to work refusals.

The city and its agents took issue with Nepszy’s work refusals, the suit alleges, and made “frequent attempts to coerce him into participating in the aforementioned illegal conduct.”

The document lists five “improprieties” Nepszy resisted participating in, one of which alleges he was “coerced” into covering up costs associated with the Legacy Beacon streetcar project.

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The project’s original location required rezoning. To avoid more public scrutiny on an already controversial project, the location was changed — but the tender for the new location was over budget by approximately $3 million, the suit alleges.

The mayor and CAO Colucci instructed Nepszy and other staff to “remove internal costs and shift monies” to make it look like there was enough funding for the project, the suit alleges.

Other senior leaders refused to sign a report the CAO drafted to hide the costs, the document claims. Nepszy resisted signing “until the CAO stated that by not signing, (Nepszy) would be showing the mayor that he ‘didn’t want to play by his rules’ and would leave him as a target.”

In June of 2023, the Star reported that council greenlit $1.9 million more for the project, bringing its funding approval up to $10.3 million. At the time, the increased costs were attributed to inflationary pressures.

Another “impropriety” in the court document alleges former CAO Reynar instructed Nepszy to, in the fall of 2021, include Erskine Street in a road rehabilitation program, even though the street was not included in the council-approved plan. Nepszy objected, but was nevertheless “forced to comply as a favour for Councillor (Ed) Sleiman, who is a long-time supporter of the mayor.”

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A third “impropriety” alleges the city pressured Nepszy not to proceed with approved infrastructure projects on Barrymore Lane in Sandwich Town “to spite Councillor (Fabio) Costante.” When Nepszy opposed diverting from the council-approved plan, he “faced considerable stress by the mayor’s request to find a different unapproved road simply to spite the mayor’s political opponent.”

The mayor allegedly told Nepszy, “After that guy (Costante) gave us a hard time, find me another f****** road/sewer … any road/sewer somewhere else.”

The court document alleges the mayor often forced Nepszy to delay reports about potential projects for the mayor’s political advantage, and was then forced to take responsibility for the delays — another “impropriety.”

As an example, the document claims the mayor forced Nepszy to delay the completion of environmental assessments on Wyandotte Street East and Jarvis Avenue projects “because of the negative impact that would have on former (Ward 7) Coun. (Jeewen) Gill’s chances of re-election.”

Gill was ultimately defeated in his 2022 re-election bid.

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Nepszy was reprimanded during committee and council meetings for his decision to delay the report, which “tarnished his reputation in the city and certainly contributed to his eventual termination,” the document claims.

A fifth listed “impropriety” alleges Windsor councillors regularly asked for favours from Nepszy, including waiving parking fines for construction vehicles involved with home renovations, waiving permits and favours for road repairs in their respective wards.

It accuses Ward 7 Coun. Angelo Marignani and Ward 1 Coun. Fred Francis of asking Nepszy’s department to waive parking violations for themselves and their friends and family, something Francis vehemently denied in an interview with the Star.

“For myself, friends and family, that never happened,” Francis said. “I would challenge anyone who says otherwise to provide the evidence — because it doesn’t exist.”

Francis said he did occasionally pass along resident complaints about parking tickets, since he believes in advocating for constituents, but always accepted administration’s decisions.

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Marignani said he did not want to comment on the legal action because it is still ongoing.

Before his employment with the city, Nepszy worked for the Town of Essex for about 14 years, most recently as the town’s chief administrative officer — a position he was not looking to leave, the claim says.

The document states he was “heavily” recruited by a consultant the city hired to find a new commissioner of infrastructure services and city engineer to replace the retiring Mark Winterton. Nepszy had been aware of the city’s job posting “and had chosen not to apply,” but was “pressured and eventually convinced to leave his secure, long-term employment and pursue the position” by the consultant.

Had he not been lured away by a promise that he “would be groomed to be the next chief administrative officer” for Windsor — along with a pay raise and car allowance — Nepszy would have continued to work at the Town of Essex until retirement “as he had always planned,” the document says.

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After his termination, Nepszy received photos of yellow tape covering the door to his office, making it look like a crime scene, the lawsuit claims.

In addition, Dilkens allegedly “indicated Mr. Nepszy was an incompetent employee” during a radio interview following the engineer’s dismissal. The comment, the document says, “served no purpose but to humiliate, degrade, and belittle” Nepszy “when he was in a vulnerable position.”

Nepszy is seeking $1,549,800 from the city, including punitive damages, two years’ salary, vacation and benefits pay in lieu of a termination notice, and moral and/or bad faith damages.

The statement of claim requests that the trial be held in Toronto.

tcampbell@postmedia.com

twitter.com/wstarcampbell

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