DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM Screeners scrutinized a monitor for a baggage X-ray machine at Honolulu Airport last month after the Transportation Security Administration began staffing passenger checkpoints.

Airport meets
security deadline

With 500 recent private-sector hires,
a U.S. agency takes over screening

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By Nelson Daranciang
ndaranciang@starbulletin.com

Only about 12 percent of the 500 people hired as federal screeners at Honolulu Airport came from the private security companies that used to do the job.

The rest come from a broad cross-section of employment including law enforcement, military and private business including airlines, said Sidney Hayakawa, director of the Transportation Security Administration at Honolulu Airport. Some of the new hires just completed school, and one described herself as a former stay-at-home mom.

Today is the deadline for the government to replace private screeners with federal employees at all of the nation's 429 airports. The Transportation Security Administration completed the task at Honolulu Airport yesterday.

The change was an opportunity for people already doing the work for private security companies to earn more money as federal employees.

But it also meant a huge drop in business for those companies. The airport contract represented more than half of International Total Services' business. ITS handled passenger screening at the international terminal.

The TSA hired about 30 former ITS employees, including General Manager Kenneth Vacek. "They (ITS) said I could stay, but I would take a salary cut," he said.

Vacek said 374 employees used to be assigned to the Honolulu Airport. Many were laid off or had their hours cut drastically. The company still has employees at the airport guarding gates, checking tickets and searching planes for airlines.

Of the 150 Wackenhut employees who used to screen passengers at the interisland terminal, only about 30 are now TSA employees, said Joe Tillotson, Wackenhut operations manager.

"I don't know what I'm going to do with the rest of them yet," he said.

The Honolulu Airport contract represented about 20 percent of the company's business.

Vacek's last day with ITS was Sunday.

He said about a hundred ITS employees who used to be assigned to the airport were not eligible to apply for jobs with the TSA because they are not U.S. citizens.

Many other private screeners were not fluent in English or failed the employment examination for other reasons, Hayakawa said.

TSA's next deadline is Dec. 31, when it needs to screen 100 percent of the baggage going aboard airlines. Already at the airport, with more on the way, are X-ray machines as well as machines that can detect metals and explosives. However, baggage screening now is done randomly.

The TSA will need to hire 400 employees for baggage screening. Hayakawa said he already has a ready pool of qualified applicants from which to draw.