CONFIRMED: airport violated own policy in hiring Cintron for $223,000
Tampa, Fl
From: Tampa Bay Guardian
Edited by: Tom Rask
Posted by TBG2016 on APRIL
14, 2020
It isn’t often that a position paying $223,000
per year opens up at the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority (HCAA), a
public agency using public funds. Yet the HCAA didn’t post that highly paid
opening for the job as Vice President of Communications on Taleo, where it normally posts jobs.
Did we mention that this government agency
that is the HCAA didn’t advertise this lucrative job? Did we mention that the
job pays $223,000 per year? Plus benefits that most people in the private
sector only can dream of.
According to Cintron’s offer letter, her job benefits include “Health, Dental and
Vision Insurance offered through the Authority at generously discounted rates”
and a “generous Uni-Leave plan which provides you paid time off of 184 hours in
the first year [4 weeks and 3 days] and increases based on seniority.”
All that in addition to the “nine paid
holidays observed by the Authority” and “onsite fitness facilities, free of
charge.”
All in all, it sounds like a very desirable
position. It makes you wonder what highly qualified candidates might have
applied had the HCAA advertised the position.
 |
| Veronica Cintron |
According to the bio she submitted to HCAA, Cintron has been anchoring Bay News 9’s
weekday evening newscasts for 10 years. Cintron is married to Preston Rudie,
communications director for then Congressman David Jolly from 2014-2017.
Last weekend, the financially failing Tampa
Bay Times published this puff-piece about the hiring of Cintron. The article
didn’t report Cintron’s salary, but did report that “the airport approached
Cintron with the job.” However, the HCAA claims to have no records (e-mails,
phone logs, etc.) of that “approach.”
We asked Veronica Cintron via phone and text
who had approached her. At the time of publication of this article, Cintron had
not responded to that question and other questions we had asked.
The Tampa Bay Guardian is going to dig in to
this matter further. We already have reason to expect that we will find
many more irregularities. Stay tuned.
As always….the Guardian reports and our readers decide. Like our Facebook page to find out when we publish articles.
CONFIRMED:
airport violated own policy in hiring Cintron for $223,000
Posted by TBG2016 on APRIL
16, 2020
Tampa International Airport (TPA) violated its
own hiring procedure in at least two ways when it hired former Bay News 9 news
anchor Veronica Cintron for $223,000 per year.
Cintron’s husband is Preston Rudie, founder
and CEO of Catalyst Communications Group. The company says it
has “strong relationships with officials at the local, state and federal level”
in its Government Affairs business segment.
None of those actions were taken: no e-mail
was sent to HR to initiate recruitment, and no recruitment through the Taleo
job website or with professional organizations was carried out. These facts
were confirmed through a public records request to HCAA.
As reported in our initial article about this scandal, the position
was also not advertised in any other way not mentioned in the
hiring procedure.
The HCAA’s failure to follow their own hiring procedure occurred even though the HCAA itself
reviewed and revised their hiring procedure nine months to the day before the
date of Cintron’s hiring.
A 2018 State of Florida Auditor General report found that “salary surveys analyzed by
the consultant did not contain data exclusive to airport authorities….. and the
consultant only obtained salary data from one peer airport.” The report was
critical of the methodology for setting executive salaries at the airport, and
of the lack of transparency.
A follow-up audit 14 months later in 2020 found that the
HCAA “had not corrected” the problem. The report concluded that the HCAA
“did not demonstrate why the seven selected entities were comparable or useful
for salary analysis purposes.”
The Guardian contacted to Cintron to ask
her about her hiring. We asked her:
 |
| Veronica Cintron |
1/ Do you feel comfortable taking a $223,000 a
year job with a public agency that violated its own policy in hiring you?
2/ Who approached you for the job? Was it by phone or e-mail? What did they
tell you?
Cintron did not respond, despite being
contacted via text message and e-mail multiple times during a 50 hour period.
The HCAA’s hiring procedure is only 309 words
long, or just under half the length of this article. It shouldn’t have been
hard to adhere to.
The HCAA’s failure to follow procedure might
also prove to be expensive.
“An organization that fails to follow HR
policy leaves itself vulnerable to lawsuits by disgruntled employees,” said
Judith Cushman, President of Seattle-based recruiting firm Judith Cushman &
Associates. Cushman has 40 years experience in the highly specialized field of
filling Corporate Communications and related posts nationally. Cintron’s
position is in exactly that field.
“There is also the possibility that a candidate may suspect there is bias involved in the lack of openness to avoid considering him/her for the job due to race, gender and/or disability,” Cushman said. “All of these consequences can be costly if lawsuits are filed. That is why following established policy is so important.”
 |
| Judith Cushman |
“There is also the possibility that a candidate may suspect there is bias involved in the lack of openness to avoid considering him/her for the job due to race, gender and/or disability,” Cushman said. “All of these consequences can be costly if lawsuits are filed. That is why following established policy is so important.”
“That is a very attractive salary and the job
must be very important if that is the offer,” Cushman said about the compensation
package. “I also expect that there would be several candidates who would be
interested in applying if the position was announced both internally and
externally, the latter only after any internal candidates had been considered
first.”
The Tampa Bay Guardian will continue to
investigate this matter. In our initial article about this scandal we said “we
already have reason to expect that we will find many more irregularities.”
In this article, we showed one such
irregularity. We expect to find many more, so stay tuned.
As always….the Guardian reports and our readers decide. Like our Facebook page to find out when we publish articles.
READ THIS POST AT: Tampa Bay Guardian
This post is contributed by
the Tampa Bay Guardian. The views
expressed in this post are the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of
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pages where it may appear.
Cross
Posted with permission from: Tampa
Bay Guardian
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