Stu Bykofsky: Experienced vet shot down for airport job
AT THE END of telling me about his collision with the bureaucracy, Terance Johnson said he no longer even wants the city job for which he had applied. Channeling his inner Johnny Paycheck, he was saying take that job and shove it.
AT THE END of telling me about his collision with the bureaucracy, Terance Johnson said he no longer even wants the city job for which he had applied. Channeling his inner Johnny Paycheck, he was saying take that job and shove it.
A lifelong resident of West Philly and an Air Force veteran, Johnson applied last October for a job as an airport operations agent at Philadelphia International Airport. The job, according to a description on the city's personnel Web site, requires "patrolling and inspecting airport air field, landside and terminal areas for specific safety hazards, security breaches and operations and maintenance problems."
Johnson says that's precisely what he did as an airfield management specialist during 8 1/2 years in the Air Force at bases from Arizona to Germany to Honduras, but the city wouldn't let him take the test for the job because it requires 24 college credits, which he does not have.
Don't I get any credit as a veteran, Johnson asks?
Yes - and no.
Yes, in the general case, I'm told by Celia O'Leary, deputy director of the city's personnel department. For veterans, 10 points are added to the score of civil service tests they take, plus they are given preference in hiring in job interviews.
That's appropriate, because while we give lip service to the men and women who have answered our country's call, we often forget to provide material benefits. A slap on the back feels good, but access to a good job feels even better.
But the answer is no in this specific case because in 1999 the airport, responding to a District Council 33 union request to provide promotional opportunities for members, created the airport operations job with a 24-college credit requirement. The job is midway between those requiring a high school diploma and those requiring a college degree. There is no special allowance for veterans.
In Johnson's case, it strikes me as wasteful (not to mention a pain) to force him to study subjects he's mastered in Real Life. Shouldn't the true test of Johnson's qualifications be the test itself?
If he doesn't pass, he's not qualified. If he does, in combination with his military experience, he is. Is that so crazy?
Johnson, 41, left the Air Force as a staff sergeant in 1995, then went to work for the post office, which he left in 2005 with a disability. Had he been hired for the airport job, he'd be over the $33,000 annual limit he's allowed to earn while on disability.
"I was willing to give up my monthly [disability] stipend to work at the airport," Johnson told me as we sat in the living room while his son, Terance Mattheue, 8, did homework. Johnson is home-schooling Mattheue and his brother Xavier, 6, because neighborhood schools, he says, are "horrible."
Johnson believes in education, but thinks the college-credit requirements for him are unnecessary. After telling me his story, he was so mad, he said, he didn't want the job any more. He was telling his story so future veterans would get a better shake.
Exasperated, Johnson says, "You give veterans 10 points [added to the score], but you won't let us take certain tests? Come on." (Ever the healer, I later convinced him he ought to take the test, if offered.)
O'Leary says the airport is now reviewing all job classifications, including training and experience requirements. Equivalent military service might be added to the mix.
Let's hope so. We owe vets like Johnson more than lip service.*
E-mail stubyko@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5977. For recent columns: