The agency that runs the Orlando International Airport wants to hire a CEO as early as the end of the month, and a search firm has flagged 13 contenders for the job.
But so far, the public has been mostly shut out of the firm’s work finding a new leader to oversee the nation’s seventh busiest airport. A list of the candidates hasn’t been released, with the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority insisting to the Orlando Sentinel that no written list even exists. It’s unclear if interviews will take place in public.
The executive search firm Korn Ferry is handling CEO recruitment for GOAA, the public entity that oversees the airport. A Florida open government group contacted by the Sentinel said Korn Ferry’s secretive process seems designed to bypass public scrutiny. The aviation authority is subject to Florida’s open meetings and public records laws.
The authority’s board has said it wants to move quickly to replace the airport’s outgoing CEO Kevin Thibault, who resigned in September, citing his wife’s illness and the need to spend time with her.
Last month, the authority’s board chairman, Tim Weisheyer, said the search firm identified 45 potential candidates and then whittled that pool down to 13. Those 13 candidates will be further narrowed to a few finalists, he told the board.
The Sentinel asked for a list of candidates and for the applications of the 13 contenders, but the aviation authority said it had no records responsive to that request.
“The search firm has done its work by phone calls and verbal reports, and we haven’t required applications,” said Angela Starke, an agency spokeswoman, in an email.
It’s unclear how the board will proceed next.
“Whether the candidates will have individual meetings with board members or undergo a public interview process has not been decided,” Starke said.
Korn Ferry “will recommend to board members which candidates to interview, based on the firm’s conversations with both board members and candidates, its national expertise with CEO searches, and its familiarity with the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority,” she said.
Michael Barfield, public access director for the Florida Center for Government Accountability, said he’s alarmed by the lack of a paper trail and the suggestion that interviews could be conducted through individual meetings with board members.
The state’s Sunshine Law guarantees Floridians a right of access to governmental proceedings, and courts consistently have interpreted the law to prohibit “evasive devices” designed to circumvent open government.
“Holding one-on-one meetings is not per se illegal, but when you do it in the manner it has been suggested to evade Sunshine, it does run afoul of the law,” Barfield said. “Any process to winnow or cull down has to be done in the Sunshine.”
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Barfield said he also was surprised the aviation authority’s search firm has no written list of potential candidates. “Even if they wrote them down in a notebook, that is still a public record. It just defies logic,” he said.
Starke defended the process and disagreed with Barfield’s analysis.
“It isn’t a violation of Florida law,” she said. “We work hard to ensure 100% compliance with all laws, including open government, sunshine, and public records laws.”
In 2023, then-Attorney General Ashley Moody determined Florida Atlantic University’s presidential search committee ran afoul of the Sunshine Law. The issue involved whether the committee could use a recruitment firm to anonymously rank candidates who would be presented for consideration at a future meeting.
Moody wrote that members are barred from “ranking that occurs by way of anonymously surveying and organizing members’ input, even if those rankings are not a final vote and are only used to replace or limit discussion at a future meeting.”
“This process is inconsistent with the Sunshine Law because it uses an evasive device to circumvent public deliberation,” she wrote in an opinion. “In fact, it appears that the very purpose of the process … is to inject secrecy into the deliberative process.”
Weisheyer, the chairman, did not respond to a phone message and email seeking an update on the search. The board is set to meet next on March 19.
During the February meeting, Weisheyer said it’s possible that some candidates may withdraw from consideration to avoid having their names become public.
That issue has been cited as a challenge for other Florida agencies filling high-level executive posts. The state’s expansive public records law means candidates could be outed to their employer as someone seeking a new job, and some say that’s a potential deterrent keeping talented prospects from applying. Others, though, argue closed-door searches benefit politically connected candidates and cut the public out of the process.
The aviation authority’s board hired Thibault, a former Florida Department of Transportation secretary, in January 2022 at an annual base salary of $375,000. His resignation date was Jan. 31, but Thibault agreed to stay on until a replacement is in place.
The airport is governed by a seven-member board. Five governor-appointed members serve on the panel, along with Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings. Neither mayor was available for comment.
Ryan Gillespie of the Sentinel staff contributed to this story.
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