CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Three days after the Federal Aviation Administration heavily fined Cleveland Hopkins International Airport for under-staffing its airfield maintenance crews during snowstorms, the city is trying to fill those positions.
According to a news release Friday, the city will begin accepting applications for maintenance workers, field unit leaders, airport operations agents and heavy-duty technicians this Saturday, at a previously scheduled public forum called "How to Navigate the City of Cleveland's Hiring Process."
The event will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m., at Cleveland Public Auditorium on Lakeside Avenue.
City spokesman Dan Williams said in an interview Friday that most critically, the city must hire seasonal snowplow operators, who are called upon to keep runways and taxiways free of snow and ice during winter storms.
The airport currently has 25 part-time snowplow drivers from last season ready to be deployed, Williams said. But the airport needs 46 to meet minimum staffing requirements established by an agreement with the FAA, he said.
The agency slapped the airport with $735,000 in fines this week for violating that agreement to adequately staff snow removal teams and deice runways.
In four letters sent Monday to Acting Director of Airports Fred Szabo, FAA officials listed dozens of dates when staffing at Hopkins fell far short of requirements, leaving inches of snow and ice uncleared from the taxiways and runways and forcing planes to divert to other airports.
In an interview Wednesday, the former airfield maintenance manager who blew the whistle on the runway safety issues said that the airport is woefully unprepared for the winter season and has run out of time to train new employees before the snow begins to fall.
Abdul-Malik Ali told the Northeast Ohio Media Group and Plain Dealer Publishing Co. that the airport has only 20 of the 35 full-time airfield maintenance workers it needs to keep runways safe this winter.
Ali added that it would be impossible to hire and train enough new employees by Dec. 1. He described a laborious hiring process that involves an international background check and extensive training to understand airport communications.
The only way to meet the staffing requirement in time for winter would be to call upon recently retired workers to return for seasonal employment, Ali said.
On Friday, Williams said that's untrue. All but one of the budgeted fulltime maintenance positions have been filled, he said.
Asked whether the city can train the new seasonal workers in time for snowy weather, Williams said he's "not confident in anything until it's done."
But he added that many of the applicants under consideration have worked similar jobs at other airports, know the airport signage and FAA rules, and won't need to be trained.
"I wouldn't have gotten hired to this position if they had to train me to do it," Williams said. "Most of the people we hire already have the skill set. We don't have time to train them. They have to have the skills coming in."
The posted job description for airport maintenance workers, however, does not require prior airport experience. Rather, it calls for applicants to have a high school diploma or GED, experience operating heavy-duty equipment, a commercial driver's license, basic communication skills and a flexible schedule.
Original article can be found here: http://www.cleveland.com
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