Posted on 09/06/2006 12:51:40 PM PDT by John Jorsett
The airport authority's chairman has had the authority's offices swept for listening devices, fearful that the FBI was eavesdropping, and the authority's president/CEO used her position to have barbecue meat shipped in for free from Texas, according to a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by a former authority employee.
Jose Hernandez, 35, the authority's former director of landside operations, sued the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority in San Diego Superior Court on Friday claiming he was wrongfully terminated after questioning whether senior airport officials violated the authority's ethics policy, trading on their positions to secure favors from airlines.
Hernandez, who oversaw airport parking, ground transportation and terminal building space, resigned in February. The suit says he was forced to resign or would have been fired after he blew the whistle on violations of the authority's ethics policy by employees including President/CEO Thella Bowens, Chairman Joe Craver, general counsel Breton Lobner and authority board member Morris Vance. Hernandez divulged his claims, the suit says, while being investigated earlier this year on charges that he had accepted gifts and upgrades from airlines.
Mark Burchyett, the authority's chief auditor, has been investigating Hernandez's claims since he filed a complaint with the authority July 12. Authority officials, who have not seen Burchyett's findings, say he has found no ethics violations took place. Burchyett could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Hernandez's suit seeks unspecified damages and attorneys fees, claiming he has "suffered great mental and emotional distress."
According to Hernandez's suit, authority officials violated the authority's ethics policy by seeking special favors from airlines and by misusing authority funds. His suit alleges that:
Asking for such favors from airlines is wrong, the suit states, because officials are not supposed to receive gifts or favors because of their official positions.
"They chose not to act on them," Hernandez said. "I'm confident that when this issue comes to trial I will be able to substantiate the allegations. ... This is really kind of a call for action."
During his investigation, Burchyett, the auditor, requested information from 17 airline officials. He sent a list of 19 questions to airline officials, asking whether they'd been contacted by authority staff about any of the alleged incidents.
Diana Lucero, an authority spokeswoman, declined comment on specific allegations, but said: "We've done a thorough review of the allegations, and we believe the complaint does not allege any valid causes of action."
She would not say who had done the review.
"It's a matter of litigation, so I'm not going to provide any more comment," Lucero said.
Craver, the authority board's chairman, has not yet seen the authority auditor's report, but said he has been told that it found no ethics code violations. He confirmed that authority offices were swept for listening devices, but said the sweeps were condoned by the authority's legal counsel and were "perfectly within our rights."
Offices of the board's executive committee -- Craver, Xema Jacobson and William D. Lynch -- were swept, he said. So was the authority's accounting department and its conference room, Craver said.
Craver said he did not direct the authority to do the sweeps, but inquired about them several years ago. He said he harbored concerns about security in the authority's offices after his BlackBerry went missing there overnight. And with discussions of a proprietary nature occurring in airport offices, Craver said, "we have a right to safeguard what we talk about."
Craver rejected Hernandez's claim that he was concerned about FBI surveillance. Craver served as chairman of a task force on city finances and public finance board, two issues that have been ensnared by federal investigations into city finances.
If federal attorneys or a district attorney placed a listening device in the airport, Craver said, that would "immediately be brought to their attention, if it was their listening device that we found. We're certainly not hiding anything from law enforcement."
Craver denied Hernandez's other allegations. He said he is authorized to travel first class as an airport authority member; he said he paid for his wife's upgrade. He said he was not involved in the investigation surrounding Hernandez's employment.
"It appears," Craver said, "that he is striking back."
San Diego's getting to the point where the list of honest public officials would be shorter than the list of the dishonest ones.
Whats the point of having power if you can not use it??? The Presidet has a 747, the Governer has a National Guard Army, the CEO has a limo, the mayor has the biggest office.
Big deal. Matt Amorello, just fired chairman of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, was found to have placed secret cameras in Authority workers' offices so he could spy on them. He is being allowed to retire after four years on the job, at age 48, with a $125,000/year pension for life plus free medical for his family.
Interesting some folks on FR posting from this liberal rag.
What is said may be true then again I don't get my news from Air America as I know better.
The airport manager gets free BBQ meat. Even from Texas, it's still not much of a perk.
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