Byline: TONY KENNEDY; STAFF WRITER
One week after ousting disgraced Minnesota transportation official Sonia Pitt from the job she found at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the massive federal agency has taken a new step to beef up its vetting of potential hires.
From now on, more job candidates will have their backgrounds searched on Google.
The policy change, put forth by Kip Hawley, the top administrator of Homeland Security's Transportation Security Administration, is one among several signs that TSA's admitted blunder in hiring Pitt on the heels of her scandalous firing from the Minnesota Department of Transportation has become a serious issue in Washington.
The incident is raising fresh questions about the effectiveness of Homeland Security, which has been dogged by recurring questions of competency since it was created in the spring of 2003 to protect the country from a repeat of sophisticated terrorist attacks.
Members of Congress and a watchdog group say they are alarmed by the hiring of Pitt, who had been fired in November from her executive-level emergency response job at MnDOT. The 44-year-old Red Wing resident failed to return for 10 days from an unauthorized state-paid trip to Washington during the aftermath of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse.
MnDOT said she misspent $26,400 in state funds and made 94 hours of personal calls from her state-paid cell phone to a Federal Highway Administration official with whom she had a relationship.
Homeland Security officials are now investigating why Pitt continued to hold a federal security clearance after her MnDOT dismissal, whether her TSA application was complete and truthful, and whether cronyism or corruption was involved in her hiring. "The fact that they could hire a woman with such a deplorable record is in keeping with DHS' pattern of incompetence overall," said Melanie Sloan, executive director Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a non-profit government watchdog group.
Late last year, Sloan's organization issued a report documenting failures and wasteful spending at Homeland Security. It described the Federal Emergency Management Agency and TSA as the most troubled components of the agency.
`The hiring was a mistake'
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., is demanding an explanation of Pitt's hiring from Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. In response, she received a phone call last week from the TSA's Hawley, who said the agency would get to the bottom of it. Details from the internal investigation could begin to emerge this week.
"The hiring was a mistake of one kind or another," said Ellen Howe, a TSA spokeswoman.
On May 25, Pitt started a $90,000-a-year job at TSA in Alexandra, Va., as a transportation security specialist, responsible for communications related to financial grants. Her federal hiring came only 10 days after an arbitrator in St. Paul issued a widely publicized decision upholding MnDOT's dismissal of Pitt.
Any Google search of Pitt's name would have returned many detailed stories about Pitt's downfall at MnDOT.
"TSA does have a policy of Googling potential employees; however it started at a level above this position," Howe said. "We're going to change that and make it broader and deeper into the organization."
Sloan, from the watchdog group, said any reasonable background check would have shown that Pitt was the "least qualified person" for the job.
"These aren't the type of people you need at an agency responsible for crisis management, where judgment is paramount," Sloan said.
Klobuchar said she's convinced that the case is being taken seriously but said that it raises additional questions of competency at Homeland Security, such as those she raised recently about a 2-year-old St. Paul boy and his links to a terror watch list.
"I continue to be extremely troubled that she was ever hired," Klobuchar said. "I believe this will lead to significant changes in their hiring practices."
Problem employees
Pitt's hiring isn't the first time that security gaps have been exposed in preemployment background checks at Homeland Security. Howe said the checks are generally conducted by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
In April 2006, Homeland Security's fourth-ranking spokesman, who had top security clearance, was arrested on 23 felony charges of sexually preying on a detective posing as a 14-year-old girl in explicit Internet conversations. The spokesman, Brian Doyle, resigned. The Washington Post reported that in his previous job at Time magazine, Doyle had been disciplined for downloading pornography.
Additional criticism of personnel problems at DHS came in July 2007 from the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security. The committee's report said there was a "gaping hole" in executive ranks at the agency that could lead to heightened vulnerability to terrorist attack.
Homeland Security officials said at the time that the report's tally was skewed by a sudden expansion of top management jobs and that the department's headquarters had always been thinly staffed.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, said Friday that his committee is looking into issues surrounding Pitt's case "as a whole."
TSA's Howe said the investigation into the circumstances of Pitt's hiring will explore whether it was a case of human failure or a "systemic problem in our hiring process." She said there are "other" possible explanations but declined to elaborate.
A source who has more than 25 years of experience as a personnel agent in the federal government in Washington said any review would also center on whether Pitt made misrepresentations in the application process or whether she obtained the job by virtue of cronyism or other corruption.
The source said most prospective government employees have to fill out a form called Declaration for Federal Employment. The form has a box to check if an applicant has been fired from a previous job. Penalties are threatened for untruthful responses.
Security clearance questions
On July 30, the day before Pitt was fired from TSA, she declined to answer questions from the Star Tribune about her new job. She referred questions to her lawyer. Minneapolis attorney John Fabian, Pitt's lawyer in the MnDOT arbitration cases, has not returned repeated phone calls.
One aspect of the investigation into Pitt's hiring will delve into the issue of Pitt's preexisting Homeland Security clearance -- a status she obtained in her previous job at MnDOT.
"If someone comes to TSA and they have an existing security clearance, that puts them a step ahead ... in terms of bringing them in faster," Howe said. One question is why the security clearance wasn't pulled when Pitt was fired from MnDOT. Klobuchar said she expects a full explanation of the investigation.
Howe said initial findings from the probe have shown that the job Pitt obtained was posted and open for competition. Pitt was not paid a recruitment bonus, nor was she paid relocation expenses, Howe said.
One of the congressional committees that has oversight of Homeland Security is the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, headed by Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn.
John Schadl, a spokesman for Oberstar, said the congressman is closely monitoring the investigation of Pitt's federal hiring.
"He'll be interested in seeing the results," Schadl said. "If this is one anecdotal case, that's one thing. But if it shows serious problems with hiring, it may warrant additional action."
Tony Kennedy - 612-673-4213
SONIA PITT: HIRED DESPITE THE HEADLINES NOVEMBER 2003: Sonia Pitt hired by MnDOT to head Homeland Security and Emergency Management unit. AUG. 1, 2007: I-35W bridge collapses. Pitt is on East Coast trip but fails to rush home. AUG. 11, 2007: Pitt returns to Twin Cities. SEPT. 15, 2007: Star Tribune reports that Pitt is under investigation for possible travel and expense abuses at MnDOT. NOV. 9, 2007: MnDOT fires Pitt for unauthorized travel and expenses, ethics violations and misuse of cell phone. MAY 15, 2008: Arbitrator upholds state's firing of Pitt. MAY 25, 2008: Pitt hired to new job at Homeland Security's Transportation Security Administration. JULY 31, 2008: Star Tribune reports Pitt has a federal job. JULY 31, 2008: TSA fires Pitt and opens investigation into her hiring.
WHERE SHE WORKED
Facts about the U.S. Department of Homeland Security:
- Established 2001 after Sept. 11 terrorist attacks
- Operational in spring of 2003
- Created from 22 federal organizations
- Current employees: 166,234
- 2007 budget: $31.7 billion
- Secretary: Michael Chertoff
Source: Homeland Security
