by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Only one of the four City employees “on loan” to the Super Bowl Host Committee has been retained as a City of Jacksonville employee.
Kandi Begue, by virtue of her 13 years with the City, is now with the Jacksonville Housing Commission after years with the communications department of the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission. She was offered the position with the Housing Commission.
However, Heather Surface, Shelly Marino and Heather Murphy were all informed via form letters dated February 23 that their former positions would not exist as of March 31, the day after their tenure with the Host Committee was to end.
“The decision was made a while ago that their old jobs would be abolished,” said Susie Wiles, Mayor John Peyton’s Chief of Special Initiatives & Communications. “All of them are pursuing other options.”
Wiles said Surface and Marino remained on the Host Committee payroll through what she termed “clean-up time” which ended March 30. Since then, everyone but Begue has been on their own. Surface is doing free-lance public relations consulting work, Marino could not be reached for comment and, according to Wiles, Murphy is “retired” from the City and recently had a big wedding (she didn’t get married again — she and her husband had a very small ceremony the first time).
“She does not have a job in the Mayor’s Office,” said Wiles of Murphy, who was originally hired in late June 2003 to serve as Peyton’s spokesperson after a career as a reporter with TV-4. “I expect her to make an announcement soon. It won’t be a career change.”
Surface said she was not offered her old job (communications director at the JEDC, which is currently held by Jean Moyer) or any job with the City and is going to spend the summer with her two sons before school starts in August.
After working for five years on the football game — Surface and Marino were part of the team that put together the original bid package that eventually landed Jacksonville the game — Surface said she plans to make up for lost time. She estimated that much of the Host Committee worked 80 to 100-hour weeks the last several months leading up the February 6 game.
“I am going to spend quality time with my kids,” said Surface, who was taken off the payroll as of March 30 but is still drawing a City paycheck thanks to several weeks of unused vacation time. “I am committed to spending the summer with my kids.”
Surface insists she harbors no ill feelings about not getting her job back. She says she has been offered jobs in the private sector and turned them down for several reasons. She declined to comment when asked if she expected to return to old position when her obligations to the Host Committee ended.
In addition to not being offered jobs, none of the four were paid overtime for their work and Surface, Marino and Murphy were not given severance packages despite many combined years of City employment. Recently, Michael Payne left the City after less than six months as the executive director of the Jacksonville Office of Faith and Community Based Partnerships. Payne left the position — it’s still known whether he resigned or was asked to leave — in early May, but will receive his salary (at $60,000 a year) and benefits through the end
of June.
Host Committee President and CEO Michael Kelly said he knew the City employees were concerned about their jobs once their Host Committee duties ended, but he played no role in the issue.
“I knew they were City employees who had come over for our cause,” said Kelly, who has taken a similar role with the Miami Super Bowl Host Committee as it gets ready for the 2007 game. “With a change in administration came changes in the JEDC.”
Begue is a business manager with the Housing Commission and says she loves it. She could retire from the City in seven years, but won’t make that decision for some time.
“I’m thrilled,” she said. “It’s very interesting. There’s a lot of interesting things to learn. I have my real estate license and that’s something I could do when I retire.”
Regardless of her current professional situation, Surface says she’s happy with what she’s doing and happy with the overall outcome of the game. For a city that was supposed to fall flat on its face, Surface says the entire area came off well.
“The best thing about the Super Bowl was the way it galvanized the community,” she said. “We have a great deal to be proud of in how we pulled it off. We had an inferiority complex that has disappeared. It is not about the money that was left behind and it’s not about the future corporate relocation. The most important thing is the legacy of
the game.”