Homeland Security, "Idiots on Parade"?

Sonia Pitt

Sacked by MnDOT, Pitt is fired again

Homeland Security investigated why she had been hired as a security specialist after she was let go in Minnesota.

By TONY KENNEDY and PAUL McENROE, Star Tribune

Last update: August 1, 2008 - 12:16 PM

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has fired Sonia Pitt, the former MnDOT emergency response executive who lost her state job for failing to return to Minnesota in the days after the I-35W bridge collapse.

Pitt was hired two months ago to work in Washington as a security specialist for the agency's Transportation Security Administration.

TSA spokeswoman Ellen Howe said that the latest termination was based on information that MnDOT sent to the federal agency Thursday at TSA's request. The TSA opened an investigation into Pitt's hiring in May about two weeks ago.

Howe said she couldn't comment on the reasoning behind Pitt losing her $89,920 job, but said the information MnDOT sent "corroborated our investigation.''

Thursday was the first time the TSA had contacted the Minnesota agency about Pitt's dismissal, said MnDOT spokeswoman Lucy Kender.

"All I can say is, they called us this afternoon for the first time regarding this issue, about Sonia Pitt's termination status," Kender said.

She said the information sent to Washington was a detailed report from the arbitrator who upheld Pitt's dismissal from her MnDOT post in November.

MnDOT fired Pitt for misusing state money by taking personal trips, violating state ethics policies, embarrassing the agency and abusing her state-paid cell phone.

MnDOT also accused her of making 94 hours of personal calls from her cell phone to a Federal Highway Administration official with whom she was involved in a personal relationship.

Unauthorized trip to D.C.

Pitt, 44, of Red Wing, lost her high-level job at MnDOT after she failed to return from an unauthorized, state-paid trip to Washington, D.C., during the bridge crisis. The bridge collapsed Aug. 1, and Pitt didn't return to Minnesota until Aug. 11. State investigators later determined that there was no work-related reason for her to be in Washington and that her trip there was unauthorized and at taxpayer expense.

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