A headhunting firm hired to find a new executive director for Baltimore-Washington International Airport apologized yesterday for publicly suggesting that the state's hiring process was tainted, and state officials said they are considering suing the company to recover its $50,000 fee and expenses.
Boyden Global Executive Search resigned from the search this week after learning that Maryland Transportation Secretary John D. Porcari had selected a Baltimore engineering and design executive for the high-profile state job.
The candidate, Paul J. Wiedefeld, vice president of Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc.'s Baltimore office, was never interviewed by the headhunter company and did not go through the same screening process as candidates identified by the firm.
Wiedefeld, whose company has a multimillion-dollar contract to design and engineer the state's $1.8 billion airport expansion, has not been offered the job, but his selection was approved March 13 by the Maryland Aviation Commission, which advises the transportation secretary on airport management matters.
He held several high-level planning positions within the state Transportation Department before leaving for the private sector in 1994, but has no experience in airport or aviation management.
Porcari declined to comment on the status of the director search. But when asked about suing Boyden for the fee, he said Transportation Department officials were weighing their legal options.
Agency officials have previously said they were considering suing Boyden for the fee and expenses.
"I think the apology [by Boyden] was appropriate," Porcari said yesterday. "The important thing to remember is there's been a lot of integrity to this process, and this is about finding the best possible executive director. It's much bigger than the ego of one headhunter."
In a strongly worded resignation letter released to the press this week, Boyden partner Timothy C. McNamara said Porcari had tainted the search by cutting the consultant out of the process.
Industry experts agree Porcari's move was unusual in view of the fact that a headhunter was retained to ensure an unbiased search free of political influences.
Because Boyden hadn't interviewed the candidate, McNamara said the firm could not do the job it was hired to do or be held responsible for the hiring process.
