Questionable Hire?
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office recently hired the husband of WPTV-Channel 5 (West Palm Beach) morning anchor Roxanne Stein for a job in the sheriff’s homeland security bureau.
The 29-hour-a-week job pays Stephen Moss, 49, a former WPTV news cameraman, $4,038-a-month!
Until his date of hire, March 12, Moss was working at Whole Foods in Wellington for $22,000-a-year. He left Channel 5 in 2008 after 20 years.
Moss’ employment file, reviewed by Gossip Extra, shows Sheriff Ric Bradshaw personally handed Moss’ resume to homeland security bureau liaison John Sullivan for review.
Sullivan then emailed the sheriff that he interviewed Moss, a University of Florida graduate, for two hours earlier this year.
Sullivan found him to be a good candidate for the job of “outreach coordinator,” according to emails in the file.
The newly-created job includes the recruitment of volunteers and coordinating special events.
While Moss had been trying to get a job at PBSO for years, according to records, it so happens he was hired on the week that the NBC affiliate’s investigative reporter Katie Lagrone was working on a story about a controversial deputy-involved shooting death. The scathing piece about PBSO withholding information about the deputy’s violent past eventually aired March 25.
The hiring, meannwhile, made noise inside PBSO, where deputies grumbled that Moss wouldn’t have been hired if it weren’t for his wife’s position.
Moss’ hiring was fair and square, countered PBSO Spokeswoman Teri Barbera, and it would have been made whether or not Moss has connections to the television station.
“His hiring had nothing to do with Roxanne Stein or Channel 5,” Barbera said. “He has been trying to get a job here for a long time and the position in homeland security was perfect for him.”
Stein, who refers to Moss as “Mr. Wonderful” during her morning chatter with co-host John Favole, did not reply to an emailed request for comment about potential conflicts of interest.
Station general manager Steve Wasserman did not comment.