"High-paying work-from-home TSA jobs questioned"

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

High-paying work-from-home TSA jobs questioned        
By RON MARSICO  
Newhouse News Service


Federal aviation security officials have created and filled a dozen
high-paying, work-from-home advisory positions in recent weeks for senior
employees, drawing accusations that the new posts are just cushy jobs for
veteran colleagues. 

U.S. Transportation Security Administration officials say the "senior field
executive'' jobs will improve communication between the approximately 150
federal security directors at the nation's commercial airports and the three
area directors who are their bosses.

The agency's critics and some within the TSA ranks say, however, they are
concerned by the fact the jobs were never posted, the job responsibilities
seem vague, and it is also unclear how the SFEs will be held accountable.

TSA officials say the jobs fill an important gap in the nation's airport
security blanket.

"The SFE's job is to be the eyes and ears of the area directors,'' said
Michael Restovich, TSA's program manager for the initiative and one of the
12 new job-holders. "These are people who have run operations and can be of
great help to an existing FSD (federal security director) and a new one.''

Restovich added, "Their job is to travel and get in front of issues.''

Critics are not convinced. Charles Slepian, an aviation security expert,
said the jobs seem to add an unnecessary layer of high-paid officials with
marginal duties.

"We have an agency that has been performing less than satisfactorily since
its inception. Instead of tightening it, we're featherbedding it,'' said
Slepian, chief executive officer of the Foreseeable Risk Analysis Center
Inc., a consulting firm in New York.

Some TSA officials questioned why the new jobs are being created while the
agency suffers from chronic shortages of checkpoint and baggage screeners at
many major airports around the country.

They say the jobs add to the financial strain on an operation that already
finds it hard to purchase critical high-tech equipment to detect bombs and
other weapons. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they
feared retribution.

Restovich called the jobs essential toward easing the burden on the three
area directors, who he said have too many airports to oversee with too few
staff members.

That has been especially true, he said, after the TSA went from five
directors in recent years to only three - for the East, Midwest and West,
charged with overseeing the nation's more than 400 commercial airports.

Restovich and 10 other men selected for the posts previously served as
federal security directors at airports themselves. (A 12th appointee was a
deputy director.)

The jobs pay the same as their previous ones, $122,300 to $160,000 annually.
The officers will be based in their homes and have been given government
vehicles.

Most of the new SFEs are approaching retirement age and are seasoned
veterans of previous government and military service, with some spending
decades in agencies such as the Secret Service, the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Customs.

Four of the 12 also will have their pension "waivers'' extended, allowing
them to continue to draw their full federal pensions for previous government
service while continuing to earn federal salaries for their current jobs.
With the waivers, the newly appointed executives could increase the earnings
as much as 50 percent.

The waivers for those four were set to expire soon after they hit their
five-year anniversary with TSA, and now will be extended about two years.
Such arrangements and extensions are rare, according to individuals familiar
with federal job rules.

"From a taxpayer's perspective, it's a little troubling. ... It certainly
seems unusual,'' said George Passantino, a pensions expert with the Reason
Foundation, a nonprofit, libertarian public policy research organization
based in California. "It's essentially double dipping.''

TSA officials released a copy of a detailed job description for the posts
only after repeated requests from The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., for more
than a week.

At first, a TSA spokeswoman said the positions were "created to enhance the
area directors' connectivity to the field and to provide advice, guidance
and support'' to federal security directors. She added the individual "is
tasked to help ensure consistent application'' of TSA's "plans, policies and
directives in the field.''

Finally, the TSA released a written job description for the new posts. It
listed "principal duties and responsibilities,'' including the following:

"Serves as an adviser in matters involving multi-modal security.''
("Multi-modal'' means various types of transportation.)

"Ensures compliance of overall agency policies; provides a means for
evaluating program accomplishments; and corrects program deficiencies.
Serves to assist program coordination for functions or programs that cross
operational lines.''

"Provides daily assistance and guidance to FSDs and other field elements in
the areas of human resources, employee relations, budget and finance, work
force and performance management, training, metrics and strategic
planning.''

The federal security directors will continue to report to the area
directors, not the new senior field executives, according to Restovich.

Of the SFEs, he added, "We're still working on their goals and objectives
for the year.''

Restovich acknowledged that the jobs were not officially posted, but he and
a TSA spokeswoman said volunteers were verbally sought in open forums at
regional meetings of federal security directors in September.

"It wasn't that many'' who volunteered, he said.

Requests to interview any of the senior field executives were denied by a
TSA spokeswoman, who said Restovich was speaking for the group.

"I think they're creating jobs for buddies,'' said Steve Elson, a longtime
TSA critic and former member of the Federal Aviation Administration's "Red
Team,'' which tested airport security before Sept. 11.

"Building up the area directors' staff makes sense,'' said Elson, noting
good management principles dictate such action. But "just taking a bunch of
old guys and putting them in their homes isn't going to do nothing. They're
going to milk the system.''

Restovich defended the caliber of those chosen for the posts.

"The 12 we've selected are all Type-A, proven leaders. They're on call
24/7,'' he said.

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