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Homeland Security spokeswoman Ellen Howe told the Star Tribune the hiring of Pitt was human error, not impropriety. She said privacy laws prevent the agency from releasing the name of the employee that quit.
Pitt accepted a job at Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration in May, five months after she was fired from the Minnesota Department of Transportation.
Pitt had been emergency management director at MnDOT. She was fired for failing to return for 10 days from an unauthorized, state-paid trip to Washington after the Interstate 35W bridge collapsed last August.
Investigators from the state of Minnesota found that Pitt misspent $26,400 in state funds as a high-ranking MnDOT manager, including inappropriate charges for airfare, hotels, mileage and personal cell phone calls.
An arbitrator upheld her firing on May 15, and the TSA hired her on May 25. She was fired within 24 hours after the Star Tribune published a story on July 31 about her new federal job.
Pitt, 44 and a former resident of Red Wing, was making $90,000 a year as a “Transportation Security Specialist” at TSA headquarters in Alexandria, Va. The agency said her quick dismissal was made easier because she was still a probationary employee.
Kip Hawley, the top administrator at TSA, said Pitt never should have been hired.
Howe said that if the individual who hired Pitt had not left voluntarily, that “disciplinary action would likely have been appropriate.”
Pitt disclosed on a pre-employment form that she had been terminated from MnDOT, but the reason given did not disqualify her from consideration. Howe said privacy laws prevent the release of Pitt’s explanation for her termination.
When the job was posted in February, it drew 34 applicants. Pitt and seven others were deemed “best candidates,” Howe said. She said the internal investigation is complete and found no improprieties.
Howe said in the future, Homeland Security would check with a job applicant’s previous employers even if they’re not listed as references.
