HOUSTON – The Houston Airport System is in search of a new Director of Aviation following the abrupt departure of Mario Diaz.
Mayor John Whitmire’s administration confirmed on Friday that Diaz will no longer be the top man inside HAS.
In an interview with KPRC 2 Investigates in his office on Friday the new mayor made it clear he wanted a new leader at the top, “It was time for a change. I think we can do better at the airport. I think citizens have been unnecessarily inconvenienced, I think operations can be better and they will be better,” said Whitmire.
The city has named current Chief Operating Officer Jim Szczesniak as Interim HAS Director.
The move has been speculated for weeks as one of Mayor Whitmire’s early major changes.
Diaz, who arrived at the Houston Airport System in 2010, has been the focus of several KPRC 2 Investigations dating back to 2018 regarding controversial hires and mismanagement, the latter focusing primarily on major construction projects.
Our initial investigation in 2018 focused on the airport system’s Chief Auditor, Kerticia Mond, who was arrested inside the airport’s executive offices on out-of-state felony charges for “forging or counterfeiting a doctor’s certificate of examination” as well as filing a false insurance claim to collect short-term disability benefits while employed at the Jacksonville Aviation Authority. Mond kept her position with Diaz coming to her defense.
In late 2018, KPRC 2 Investigates exposed tens of millions being spent on the new Mickey Leland International Terminal Project with nothing to show. The project was announced in June 2014, after Houston City Council approved plans for the new international terminal at a total cost of $700 to $900 million. The project’s budget ballooned less than a year after the city council approved the project. Records show Diaz listed the estimated cost at a whopping $1.3 billion. Then it quickly soared again to $1.7 billion.
After presenting the numbers to former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, he told us he was saving the city money once he came into office, “Based on our extensive review of it, we have brought that cost down by a half-billion dollars, $500 million, so now it is at $1.2 (billion).” At last check, the now massively delayed nine-year project has a price tag of $1.43 billion, nearly double from the original announcement. Full completion is anticipated by spring 2025 according to officials.
In October 2019, KPRC 2 Investigates exposed the story of below-the-radar job creation by Diaz and former Mayor Turner for a $95,000-a-year intern named Marvin Agumagu.
When first approached the mayor regarding what KPRC 2 Investigates discovered Turner denied -- on multiple occasions -- knowing Agumagu. However, city records clearly showed Turner and Diaz creating the position with their signatures weeks after Diaz was asked by Chief Development Officer Andy Icken, “Could you develop a position?” about Agumagu. Diaz informed Icken in city emails that once the 12- to 18-month internship wraps up, Agumagu not Diaz -– ultimately had final say as to whether or not he was coming on board full-time. After the bombshell investigation aired, Turner admitted knowing Agumagu.
In December 2021, KPRC 2 investigates exposed Diaz personally creating a position for his girlfriend Maricela Kruseman. In November 2023, Diaz admitted the two were “in a relationship” when he signed off on Kruseman’s position as a Director of Harmony in the Air, the live music program inside Houston airports. Kruseman even kept the newly-created position after it was discovered she misled the city with false credentials.
In September of 2022, KPRC showed multiple emails where Diaz was listed involving airport concessionaire Jason Yoo and former City Council Relations Director William-Paul Thomas. Thomas was federally convicted of conspiracy tied to cash bribes in 2022 in a separate matter. Our investigation focused on the work by Thomas inside the Houston Airports system. City emails KPRC 2 Investigates obtained through a Texas Public Information Act Request showed Thomas deliberately working against the city to assist private businessman Jason Yoo to eliminate hefty fines, and “liquidated damages,” as the city called them.
The penalties were levied by the city’s airports system against Yoo for breaking his concessionaire contract regarding the opening of food operations at Bush Intercontinental Airport. When it came to emails concerning Yoo and his business at the airport, high-level city directors including Diaz, Icken, and the Mayor’s Chief of Staff Marvelette Hunter were Cc’d. Even Mayor Turner asked questions after Yoo emailed him informing the Mayor, along with Yoo’s business partner, that not only was he four months behind in rent, but he also was requesting for it to be waived. Emails show that after Thomas sent an email including Diaz requesting for Yoo’s fines to be dismissed, the airport director eventually canceled nearly $761,000 in fines.
In March of 2023, the Airport System experienced another controversial chapter, the awarding of a concessions contract now known as the “Hobby Food Fight”. KPRC 2 Investigates shined a light on the winning bid for having made false claims according to Award-Winning Chef Chris Shepherd. The bid also highlighted a coffee company that had gone out of business. The Areas Group still won the bid with the Pappas Family getting pushed out of Hobby after a successful run of nearly twenty years. Following the awarding of the contract the Pappas Family filed a lawsuit against the City of Houston and Areas.
After disclosing to Houstonians the out-of-the-spotlight hires for Maricela Kruseman and Marvin Agumagu directly tied to former Director Diaz and former Mayor Turner, KPRC 2 Investigates uncovered another airport employee person with ties to current City of Houston Chief Development Officer Andy Icken, his son-in-law Roger Hebert. Although the airport system has thousands of employees tied to it, Diaz clearly admitted to us he knew specifically who Hebert was and his connection to Icken. Hebert landed at the airport in 2017 with Parsons, an airport contractor, according to Icken. City records show Diaz and Icken approving tens of millions in contracts involving Parsons since 2016. Icken and Diaz signed off on a multi-million dollar contract with Parsons one year before his son-in-law started working at the airport.
Whitmire weighed into KPRC 2 Investigates about our latest investigation following his mayoral victory in December. At the time Whitmire told us, “They won’t be allowed in my administration,” he also went on to add, “It ought to end. It should have never started, and it won’t happen to me. I’m not about that.”
Although it is early into the Whitmire Administration, City Hall confirms Icken remains employed by the city.
DIAZ CREATES AN LLC
In the summer of 2023, KPRC 2 Investigates identified Diaz creating his own private limited liability corporation, MCDAero LLC in November 2022. The Turner administration said there was nothing wrong with Airport Director Diaz creating and maintaining a private LLC while working as the publicly funded city’s Director of Aviation.
It should be noted former Airport Director Mario Diaz is of no relation to KPRC 2 Investigates Mario Diaz.
