Job Qualifications Waived for Some Administrators

A number of different city administrators in the Miami area have received employment even though they did not meet certain qualifications for the positions they have been hired for. The information on this was first released by The Miami Herald after they obtained the public records. Stephen Petty is a prime example, as he did not have experience with the government and he did not have a CPA when he applied for a job in the finance department of Miami at the beginning of the year. While he did not meet such requirements, that surely did not seem to manner. The City Manager, Johnny Martinez, chose to waive both of these requirements and allow Petty to take on the position.

Petty is not the only city official who has been hired even though he did not meet certain requirements for the position. In fact, he is just one individual out of the 17 officials in the city who have been hired over the past two years but did not meet the minimum qualifications for the position they received. The records were obtained by The Miami Herald. The list of individuals without the skills who still received the position includes a number of higher-ranked administrators. In all of these cases, the city manager or even the director of human resources chose to sign a waiver that would allow each individual to take on the position without meeting these requirements. Within the span of just one year, between 2010 and 2011, there were at least 18 waivers that had been issued.  The Commission Chairman, Francis Suarez, has said, “That’s disturbing. What’s especially disturbing is that so many of the people on the list are upper-echelon members of our city administration and people in the mayor’s office.”

In the instance of Petty, some controversy has surrounded his hiring because aside from the fact that he did not meet the minimum requirements for the positions, he is also links to the city staffer who chose to hire him. When called for comment, Petty did not return the calls and declined to comment on the current controversy surrounding his position. Martinez says that he signed the waiver because Larned felt that Petty was the absolute best person for the position. Petty ended up beating out a number of candidates for the position, including several who already had experience dealing with government. Some of the candidates were even public accountants. In the meantime, city commissioners seem to  be concerned about this issue and want to be aware of when a person receives a waiver and is able to receive employment even though they have not met certain requirements.