"Feds seek security chief for El Paso airport"

Saturday, May 25, 2002  

Feds seek security chief for El Paso airport
By Louie Gilot
The El Paso (TX) Times


Wanted: airport sheriff to check luggage in El Paso. 

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration is offering up to
$123,300 a year for a federal security director, and officials hope to
hire someone by the end of this month. 

The salary depends on experience and location, and it could be closer to
the minimum -- $54,100 -- in El Paso, officials said. A Transportation
Security Administration spokesman, Greg Warren, in Washington, D.C.,
said he could not comment on the number of applicants for the position
in El Paso or whether the applicants were local residents. 

The job entails overseeing the screening of passengers, luggage and
cargo, implementing an emergency plan and training employees. Some
security checkers were hired by a private security contracted by the
airlines before Sept. 11. Now they work directly for the federal
government. 

One responsibility the federal security director won't have is
overseeing the police officers who replaced the National Guard members
on security duty at the airport earlier this month. The officers answer
to Police Chief Carlos Leon. 

But the federal security director will be the ultimate authority if
there's a disaster, officials said. 

"It's new territory. It's not well-defined yet, but his primary
responsibility will be at the checkpoint," said Pat Abeln, director of
the El Paso International Airport. 

Through his spokesman, Sgt. Al Velarde, Leon said the relationship
between El Paso police and the new federal security director and the
federal security employees will be "no different than what is already
taking place with a variety of multi-agency task forces and federal
agencies with whom the El Paso Police Department works very closely. So
we don't anticipate that there there will be issues arising at the
airport that we aren't already accustomed to." 

The Transportation Security Administration already hired four of five
security supervisors who will work under the federal security director.
Three of them are from El Paso, Abeln said. 

West Side city Rep. Jan Sumrall said she'd like to see a local man or
woman take the position. 

"They'd know what to look for," she said. 

Nationwide there are 81 positions for federal security director at
airports, and 21 have been filled. The new hires have a variety of
backgrounds, mostly in law enforcement, intelligence and aviation
security, Warren said. 

Since the positions were advertised on Web sites such as monster.com,
the federal government has received 95,000 applications. The position
requires a top security clearance and a thorough background
investigation. Federal security directors will be subjected to a
periodic reinvestigation and to random drug and alcohol testing.


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