Who is Tino?
First and foremost, Tino Franco is a man of mystery.
Initially, all we had on him was an Instagram full of charity work and a link to a Habitat for Humanity fundraiser. Tino is also a big supporter of Camp Ronald MacDonald after his brother’s fight with childhood leukemia.
Was Tino a 28-year-old philanthropist with a fortune of unknown origin who the show called a “General Contractor” after he hammered a few nails for the needy?
Before we could determine what Tino does, we had to ask ourselves an even more fundamental question: who is Tino? As in, what is his actual name?
Tino can be short for Martino, Antonino, Santino, Agostino, Costantino, Valentino, or a dozen other things, making Tino one hard man to find. Just as we thought we might never crack the case of this ungoogleable man, a hot twitter tip from Mrs Frizzle broke the thing wide open.
We were pretty sure Justino F was our guy — the timeline, city, and career all lined up — but we needed proof. Luckily, Tino was an exceptional student at Loyola Marymount, which made it simpler to verify his identity. Here he is in the campus newspaper receiving a scholarship with his full name and photo.
Exceedingly proud of ourselves for cracking the case, we returned to Tino’s Instagram to snag some pictures for the profile. That’s when we realized the fundraiser in his bio had contained the name of his workplace the whole time.
It’s fine. Once we compared photos of chihuahuas to verify we’d found Jamie Skaar’s secret Twitter without realizing his Facebook was linked in the bio.
So is Tino really a General Contractor?
Eh, close enough. Tino’s current title at his company is “Assistant Project Manager,” but project manager can mean a lot of things in a lot of industries, so we get why the show wouldn’t use that.
Tino graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering and has an Engineer-In-Training (EIT) certification listed on his resume. To get an EIT, you need three years of relevant experience and to pass the Fundamentals of Engineering exam. In California, you can’t legally call yourself an engineer until you get your Professional Engineer (PE) license, which requires six years of experience and passing the PE exam.
Basically, Tino is two-thirds of the way towards being a Civil Engineer, but he can’t call himself one yet and “Engineer-In-Training” sounds like a student to those not in the industry.
He’s not really a general contractor, but Tino does work in construction. He probably works with contractors at his job, but more likely as a supervisor than driving the heavy equipment himself every day. But we know what really matters to Bachelor Nation is that Tino can get those fifty cases of Diet Coke off the top shelf for you.
Is Tino Actually Forklift Certified?
Unfortunately, California doesn’t keep public records of people who have been trained to use a forklift. Furthermore,
“The California office of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal/OSHA) does not certify, nor does it require certification to drive a forklift. In addition, a “license” to drive a forklift doesn’t exist.”
Arrow Staffing
However, Cal/OSHA does require that those driving forklifts receive specific forklift training from a “qualified” person. Cal/OSHA also requires documentation of that training.
“In addition, even if you can show that documentation, Cal/OSHA requires your new employer to conduct training specific to your new employer’s work site before you’ll be allowed on a forklift.”
Arrow Staffing
We’d like to assume that ABC is familiar with OSHA rules and didn’t allow Tino to drive a forklift on set without training; however, stories from behind the scenes suggest that best safety practices aren’t always top of mind for production. (For instance, they will throw anyone on a horse.)
xo Your Nosy Friends, Ikea-Dresser-Assemblers-in-Training
PS If Tino has inspired you by being an absolute mensch, you can give to his favorite charity Camp Ronald MacDonald here. (Perfect rating on Charity Navigator)
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