By Philip Newman
An angry U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Bayside) lashed out at the U.S. Department of Transportation Tuesday for squelching a security program at Kennedy International Airport in a move he called “good ole boy cronyism.”
The plan, which would have replaced existing security screeners at Kennedy with retired law enforcement officers, was passed over for a program in San Francisco that would allow 700 screeners who are registered aliens working for a foreign security firm to keep their jobs.
“The purpose of creating a pilot project was to provide an alternative experiment to improve security, not preserve the status quo nor to reward longtime vendors,” said Ackerman, who along with the New York City congressional delegation, had pushed the plan with Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and his staff.
“Instead, what we have is a plan that goes back to business as usual,” said Ackerman.
Ackerman said that under the Air Transportation Act passed by Congress and signed by President Bush in November 2001, a Category X airport (the 23 largest airports in the United States) was required to be selected for an experimental program designed to improve security.
Kennedy was the only airport to apply, proposing a plan to replace all 1,500 to 2,000 screener jobs with retired New York City and metropolitan area police officers and Port Authority police, corrections officers, FBI, CIA, Secret Service and other seasoned and retired former military, state and federal law enforcement agents.
Ackerman said that in the middle of the process, federal officials voided JFK’s application and required the airport to reapply. Then, the DOT turned around and awarded San Francisco a pilot program that uses existing security screeners. Ackerman said no explanation was given.
“This is not a jobs program. Law enforcement people in New York are motivated by a sense of honor and duty for those uniformed officers whose remains lie still entombed in the World Trade Center debris,” Ackerman said.
“No one is better motivated or more qualified,” the congressman said. “Good ole boy cronyism is not more important than public safety.”
More than 1,000 former officers in New York applied for the program since it was unveiled in February. Many officers retire in their 40s and 50s after 20 years on the force.
Ackerman said he had complained to Mineta but had yet to get a reply. Ackerman’s office said the DOT decision may violate federal law since the new security act requires airport screeners to be U.S. citizens and security firms providing airport personnel to be American-owned and operated.
Reach contributing writer Philip Newman by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 136.
