"Search Firm Says BWI Chief Chosen in 'Tainted' Process"

Tuesday, April 2, 2002

Search Firm Says BWI Chief Chosen in 'Tainted' Process 
By Daniel LeDuc and Don Phillips
The Washington (DC) Post


Maryland Transportation Secretary John D. Porcari has tapped a manager
from a company working on the expansion of Baltimore-Washington
International Airport to become the airport's next director, prompting
the executive search firm hired by the state to quit.

Porcari's choice, according to sources familiar with the decision, is
Paul J. Wiedefeld, 46, a vice president at Parsons Brinckerhoff, an
international construction and engineering firm. Wiedefeld oversees his
company's Baltimore office, which holds the $1.8 billion contract to
design and build a new terminal, parking garage and lots, and new
roadways, among other things.

Tim McNamara, a partner with Boyden Global Executive Search, said
Porcari's intervention has "tainted" the search process, launched after
the previous airport director resigned in July, contending that
political cronyism was marring one of the nation's fastest-growing
airports.

McNamara sent Boyden's resignation letter to Porcari on Sunday. In it,
he expressed surprise and concern that the secretary had chosen a
candidate but would not allow Boyden to screen him.

Porcari would not name his choice in an interview yesterday or discuss
the status of the appointment, but he said that if the new executive
director had a current business relationship with a contractor at the
airport, any potential conflicts of interest could be addressed. He said
that he had consulted with the state attorney general's office on the
legality of hiring someone who currently worked for a contractor at the
airport and said potential conflicts could be heard by the State Ethics
Commission.

Wiedefeld worked for the Maryland Department of Transportation before
joining Parsons Brinckerhoff. He has no experience in the aviation
industry.

"I'm not too worried about that," said Thomas Clabby, a member of the
Maryland Aviation Commission, which oversees BWI. "There's people there
in place who know aviation. The thing we're going to live or die on is
what we're going to do with the multibillion-dollar construction program
that we've got on our hands and the almost daily changing security
requirements that the new world demands."

Wiedefeld was not in his office yesterday and could not be reached by
telephone for comment.

Porcari said the new BWI executive director needs a mix of skills:
construction management experience, an ability to work with federal
authorities as new security procedures are put in place, and a focus on
customer service. Experience running an airport was not a necessity,
Porcari said.

When the search began last summer, McNamara said, state officials said
it was important for the top manager to have aviation experience. The
emergence of a late entry whose identity was hidden and who was not
subject to background checks and interviews by the search firm makes the
entire process unusual and seemingly unfair, McNamara said.

"Boyden cannot stand by and be a party to what appears to be an
incomplete and tainted search process," he wrote in the resignation
letter.

Porcari said there had been no political interference from Gov. Parris
N. Glendening or Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, both Democrats.

The state began its search a month before Boyden was hired. Porcari said
a national advertising campaign, assistance from McNamara's consulting
company and Maryland transportation officials' own contacts in the
industry netted about 10 semifinalists. Those were reduced to four
finalists, who were interviewed by Glendening or his chief of staff,
Alvin C. Collins.

None of the four came from McNamara, Porcari said. "The best candidates
we've had so far have either been referrals through the industry or they
applied through the national search, not via the headhunter," he said. 

McNamara disputed Pocari's contention that his firm was just one of many
sources for names. He said the clear contractual understanding was that
Boyden would interview any candidate, regardless of the source of the
application. The state paid Boyden $50,000 plus expenses.

"Why didn't [Wiedefeld] participate in the same process as the other
candidates?" McNamara asked.

He said he had no independent knowledge of the selection of Wiedefeld.

"I've never had an experience like this in 16 years of dealing with
counties or cities," McNamara said.

BWI is one of a few major airports operated by a state government. Most
are run by cities or counties, or by an independent authority, such as
the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which operates Reagan
National and Dulles International airports.

"This shows a high-handed, imperious attitude by the state and compounds
a problem that already exists in public perception," said Morton Beyer,
an aviation consultant based in McLean. "It's political meddling,
interfering with the replacement process."

BWI's most recent executive director, David L. Blackshear, was forced to
resign his $156,000-a-year post amid allegations that he made racially
and sexually offensive remarks to employees.

Blackshear said those allegations were part of a conspiracy to force him
to step down. He said Porcari and others in Glendening's administration
wanted to get rid of him because he refused to hire their Democratic
cronies from Prince George's County. He said a small cadre of
politically connected staff members manufactured allegations to paint
the Louisiana native as a racist, sexist southerner.


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