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Home | Opinion Exchange | Letters | The I-35W bridge collapse

Editorial shorts: Homeland Security liked cut of Pitt's jib

Last update: August 1, 2008 - 5:56 PM

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Minnesota bridges rated: An interactive map of bridges that are "structurally deficient," "functionally obsolete" or have gusset plates like those on the I-35W bridge.

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If you're feeling a little less confident about the nation's security after the events of the past week, we understand. The incredible news that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had hired former MnDOT official Sonia Pitt -- apparently without knowing she was fired by the Minnesota agency -- is cause for concern.

We assume Homeland Security has Internet access, and certainly the bureaucrats charged with hiring have heard of Google. (It's all the rage with the kids these days.) Just type "Sonia Pitt'' into the search engine, and you learn pretty quickly that the former MnDOT emergency response coordinator literally phoned in her input after the Interstate 35W bridge collapse last year, failing to return to the state for 10 days after the disaster.

That's not all a search turns up. 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. Other than that, she may have been a model employee -- a real bargain for Homeland Security's Transportation Security Administration (TSA) at $89,920 a year.

The TSA says it started looking into Pitt's past a couple of weeks ago -- although she was hired in May -- but we first heard about the affair this week, when Star Tribune reporters Tony Kennedy and Paul McEnroe broke the story. On Thursday, the agency came to its senses and dismissed Pitt from her position as a transportation security specialist.

A TSA official told Kennedy and McEnroe that it relies on information from applicants for its preemployment screening and does a full background check before they start work. It's worth adding a Google search to that process.

Legislation should lead to improved toy safety

Parents can breathe a little easier after the House and Senate passed a significant toy-safety bill this week. A key impetus for the bill was the death two years ago of 4-year-old Jarnell Brown of Minneapolis. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., wrote the lead ban that's included in the bill and made toy safety her top issue during her first year in the Senate.

Following a year in which 45 million toys and children's products were recalled because of safety concerns, the Consumer Protection Safety Improvement Act will also ban dangerous chemicals found in plastics and require third-party testing for many children's products.

The bill should lead to a stronger, less conflicted Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). In addition to doubling the CPSC's budget over the next six years and giving it more authority to impose civil penalties, the act bans industry-paid travel by CPSC staff.

The legislation also calls for creation of a searchable database that would be a clearinghouse for consumer complaints.

The law comes too late for Jarnell Brown, but it could save lives in the future.

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Opinion Exchange is produced by the Editorial Department, which is dedicated to hosting the discussion on a range of issues of interest to Star Tribune readers online and in print. In its new format, it's our hope that Opinion Exhange will create a more dynamic dialogue between Star Tribune readers and the Editorial Board. Many individual posts will be written and signed by members of the Editorial Board and will reflect their own opinions. Daily editorials will continue to represent the institutional voice of the newspaper and be researched and written by the Editorial Department, which is independent of the newsroom.

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