TSA's Russian Roulette Gambit

Well, with the new terrorist threat uncovered today one has to ask once again, "why is TSA not federalizing the screening program at SFO?" There is now another round in the chamber! The stakes just went up.

We hope that their reasons for keeping a private contractor in charge of security are acceptable to those who will be asking the tough questions.

Who in TSA will be the fall guy and the one who will fall on the bayonet? Will it be Ed Gomez? Jim Adams? We will be waiting and watching to see how this unfolds.

Optional Training

The federal government spends billions every year on contracts. But some items on the Government Accountability Office website (www.gao.gov) make me wonder about the quality of the purchasing decisions.

The GAO offers a course "Principles of Appropriations Law Training - An Orientation to Federal Fiscal Law". The website states:

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Who Should Attend

• Government personnel with finance, accounting, contracting, budgeting, property management, auditing, or legal responsibilities

Who has attended

• Recent attendees include staff from the Departments of Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor and State, the Federal Aviation Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, and the Library of Congress, as well as Army, Navy and Joint Chiefs staff and staff from other Defense Department components

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No TSA? No FBI (Pistole's previous agency)?

Are you kidding me?

No wonder TSA's solicitations are chock full of broken links, questionable legal proclamations and apologetic "bridge contracts". It may be because TSA doesn't know any better!

The Wicked

There once was an evil, nasty witch of the west. This witch eventually found herself in a pickle with a girl named Dorothy. Oh sorry, we got a little confused there for a second. We thought we were telling the story of Terminal Manager Shelley Burrell! Our bad!

But since we mentioned her, we can't help share a story that was sent in to us recently. It turns out that a short while back, a new hire was brought to tears over the way Burrell and STSO Linda Whidden talked to their employees at a guard mount.

Apparently Burrell was under a lot of pressure. And we all know that Whidden cracks at the first hint of pressure as well. You see, Burrell had TSA on her back. And as she explained to the TSOs, "I'm not going to lose my f-ing job because of the f-ing way you do yours!" This is just a small sample of the profanity laced tirade that transpired.

Being new, this new hire was not familiar with Burrell's and Whidden's lack of professionalism. This event was so traumatic to the new hire that the TSO almost quit. The TSO was talked out of this decision by someone else. This other person decided to relay this story to his "boss".

This "boss" now had to deal with the situation. Ultimately the incident got reported to HR and fell on Larry Perkins' lap. We have to give it to Burrell. When Perkins called her to inform her that he was starting an investigation on her, Burrell openly admitted to the obscene language.

Perkins, in his estimable self, called the new TSO to his office to discuss this incident. When the TSO arrived at the EAC, the TSO was presented with Burrell and Whidden standing outside his office with the most unpleasant of attitudes visible. The TSO was flabbergasted. The TSO immediately picked up on the intimidation factor and instinctively wanted to turn around and leave.  The TSO ultimately decided against it.

Once inside Perkins' office, he proceeded to explain to this new TSO that the individual needed to understand that Burrell is under a great deal of stress and pressure. He kept trying to convince the TSO that it was ok. After much insistence on Perkins' part, the TSO just said, "Are we done?" Clearly wanting to leave his office, the meeting was adjourned.

So what came of this incident? Well, Burrell and Whidden were terminated. Oh dammit! There we go again with the fairy tale! Of course nothing came of it. Just like nothing came of Dena Crawford or Anthony Nguyen or Gerardo Sanchez. These managers are simply untouchable.

All of this comes down to the question that we still don't have an answer to: What do managers have to do in order to be terminated? It's a simple question. Now where's the answer?!

Pistole's Consultant Report

It's been two months since the Washington Post reported on Pistole's union impact study. This study will be performed by outside consultants and aims to assess the impact unionization would have on TSA operations. Did Pistole put that thing out to bid, or does he have executive authority to enter into consulting contracts? Most importantly, is Pistole controlling the number of yellow highlighting markers the consultants can use? Is Pistole checking to see if the consultants are paid adequate wages according to locality? Did Pistole check to see if the consultants subcontract x% of their work to qualified small business concerns or service disabled veterans? I know the purchasing department has their hands full, but is this all above board?

Upcoming Shift Bid

Some of the news that we're hearing is positive, some of it not so. Being the general skeptics that we are, we'll believe the positive when we see it. Knowing how Covenant Aviation Security has been with schedules over the last eight years, only rarely do they ever seem to get it right.

It does seem that DFL (Dual Function Leads), particularly those of you that prefer to work at night, are going to get screwed. Since Dual Functions are no longer the favored children, it seems you guys overall will be getting the same "royal treatment" that our CTX brethren have received for the last three years.

We don't know how much faith you guys will have considering that Covenant Aviation Security is using Ascent to generate the schedules again. For Dual Functions, they are hand selecting schedules for you guys from the CTX generated schedules.

And for more of "the more things change, the more they stay the same" department, they are bringing back the MRT. Oh wait, not the MRT but the MRU. Mobile Rotating Unit, with emphasis on the singular form of "unit". Note that if you happen to bid for this schedule you are volunteering ahead of time to be moved around even more. And you will not stay together with the other people that happen to bid for the MRU. The situation could be that one of you stays at a location and the other one goes to another location. Be aware of that ahead of time. They're also creating separate bid lines for ADASP. For those of you that like ADASP, this is now your opportunity to get away even more, perhaps.

The union is supposedly working with Terence Cunningham to hammer out these schedules. Let's see if they can accomplish any good.