Nephew up for SFO job despite disciplinary actions

Larry Mazzola, president of the San Francisco Airport Commission. Photo courtesy San Francisco International Airport Larry Mazzola, president of the San Francisco Airport Commission. Photo courtesy San Francisco International Airport Photo: San Francisco International Airp Photo: San Francisco International Airp Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Nephew up for SFO job despite disciplinary actions 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

Despite facing repeated disciplinary actions, the nephew of San Francisco Airport Commission President Larry Mazzola is in line for a permanent $86,000-a-year safety job at the airport, with full civil service protections.

The nephew, Mark Kennedy, resigned from an earlier airport job for having porn on his work computer - and when he got another job at SFO, he attacked his ex-girlfriend's beau in an airport terminal and pleaded no contest to assault.

Kennedy, 49, was also reprimanded last year for allegedly using the airport's phones to make dozens of harassing calls to his ex.

Now airport insiders have circulated a detailed letter - a copy of which reached us - asking how SFO Director John Martin could consider rewarding Kennedy by turning his temporary status as a senior management assistant into a permanent position, potentially making it much more difficult to fire him for misconduct.

This despite scoring 70th out of 76 people taking an eligibility test, according to a posting on the city's website.

Martin - who called Mazzola to alert him that we were looking into the matter - declined to comment about the possible hiring of Kennedy or his troubled past. A spokesman said it was a personnel matter.

Mazzola, long a force in the local plumbers union and an Airport Commission member for 19 years, was not shy about commenting.

"It's bull- you are writing this column," he told us.

Mazzola conceded that his nephew probably wouldn't have gotten an airport job without his help.

"I don't deny that," he said. "I help lots of people get jobs, whether they are family or not, and I've been dong that for 47 years."

Jobs for the connected

Landing lucrative jobs at the airport has long been a tradition in San Francisco for the politically connected. In fact, airport workers have a name for them: "flyovers," in reference to how the newbie seems to fly over everyone else in line for a job.

Kennedy did not return our call seeking comment.

City records show he was first hired at the airport in 1998 as a $50,000-a-year special assistant, assigned to public outreach and other tasks.

Sometime later, a female co-worker accused him of sexual harassment, citing his use of an office computer to view pornography.

After a bit of legal back and forth, Kennedy was allowed to resign in 2000 with a satisfactory work performance record - a move that did not bar him from future city employment.

City sources tell us airport management never reported the sexual harassment complaint to City Hall administrators, as required under city policy.

Eight years later, after working for one of the airport's contractors, Kennedy was rehired at SFO on a provisional basis as a senior management assistant - a job that currently pays $86,465. He was one of two people in a unit created to improve airport security and safety by making sure workers are properly certified and trained.

In June 2012, Kennedy was arrested and jailed after he assaulted the boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend in the baggage claim area of Terminal 1, according to San Mateo County court records.

Battery, assault cases

It wasn't Kennedy's first scrape with the law. Records show he pleaded no contest to disturbing the peace in two earlier battery cases, in 1997 and 2001. He was also arrested twice in 2004 on suspicion of domestic violence, though the charges were dismissed each time.

This time Kennedy pleaded no contest to misdemeanor assault, and was sentenced to two years' probation and ordered to undergo 32 hours of anger management classes. Airport Director Martin also suspended him for 20 days.

After returning to work, Kennedy allegedly committed a series of other workplace infractions, including making dozens of harassing calls from work to his ex-girlfriend and sending her text messages. Those infractions, we're told, led to Kennedy being formally reprimanded by his superiors.

According to his uncle Mazzola, he was given a "last chance" warning.

Susan Gard, spokeswoman for the city Human Resources Department, declined to comment specifically about Kennedy. However, she said, "with these kind of exempt employees, our recommendation - to any department facing these circumstances - would be to immediately terminate the person."

Mazzola said he had never meddled in the airport's disciplinary actions involving his nephew.

"I never told John (Martin) to do anything out of the ordinary, and you can see that in the way this was handled," Mazzola said, citing both Kennedy's forced resignation in 2000 and his suspension last year.

"He's a good kid, but he gets messed up," Mazzola said. Anyway, he said, Kennedy has paid his dues.

And now, with funding for his temporary job running out, Kennedy is being considered for a permanent appointment to the airport's Quality Standards Program.

"I hope they make him permanent," Mazzola said.