"Longtime San Francisco airport spokesman fired"

Thursday, August 1, 2002

Longtime S.F. airport spokesman fired
By JUSTIN JOUVENAL
The Oakland (CA) Daily Review


S.F. AIRPORT -- After 43 years at SFO, the spokesman who has become the
voice and image of the Bay Area's largest airport is retiring at the end of
August, forced out by San Francisco politics, a city official said.

Ron Wilson, a third-generation San Francisco civil servant, was notified he
was being removed from his position on Monday -- his 64th birthday.

Airport officials won't discuss why the Belmont resident was unceremoniously
demoted, but a city official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Wilson
did not fit in with the communications team his new boss, Kandace Bender,
was assembling.

Bender, SFO's deputy director of communications and marketing, was
transferred three weeks ago from a position as spokeswoman for the Airfield
Development Bureau, which is leading the charge to build new runways at SFO.

In recent months, the bureau has come under scrutiny because of reports that
its officials spent lavishly on first-class plane tickets, ate at expensive
restaurants and received large fees for services.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a management
audit of the bureau on Monday. In June, supervisors placed $5 million of the
bureau's $11.2 million budget on reserve to keep tighter control over
spending.

"The mayor (Willie Brown) saw the writing on the wall -- that the runway
project could be dead -- and wanted to protect his own," the city official
said. "That's why he moved Bender."

Bender is a former press secretary for Brown. The city official said Brown
contacted SFO Director John Martin and asked him to find a position for
Bender.

Shortly after Bender arrived, Peter Nardoza, a former deputy director at
SFO, retired July 22. The city official said Nardoza was upset that Wilson
and another spokesperson had been reassigned to work under Bender.

After Nardoza retired, Bender took over full control of the marketing and
communications department.

Bender would not comment on Wilson's removal. She would only say, "We have
enormous respect for Wilson and the job he's done."

Mike McCarron, an assistant deputy director and part-time spokesman for SFO,
said he was told Monday night he would take over as official spokesman for
the airport.

Wilson has appeared in countless newscasts and articles over the years,
offering a reassuring word when winter storms swamped flights or much-needed
information when a terminal was evacuated.

His face became so recognizable that he became a minor celebrity at the
airport. Travelers would often wave to him or ask him what the news was as
he strolled through the terminals.

Wilson began his career at SFO in 1959. He started as a surveyor's field
assistant on SFO's runways before becoming a construction inspector, police
chief, fire chief and then head of SFO's maintenance division in the '70s.

Wilson was promoted to airport spokesman in 1979. McCarron said Wilson set a
standard it will be tough to surpass.

"I was surprised and disappointed to hear he had been removed," McCarron
said. "No one sets a better mark for a public relations officer than Ron
Wilson."

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