Ex-Marine set to head
TSA office in Lihue
LIHUE >> The federal Transportation Security Administration operation at Lihue Airport likely will have a new boss within a few days.
A TSA official confirmed that Jack Kelley, a veteran U.S. Customs officer and currently the No. 2 security official at San Diego International Airport, has been offered the post of federal security director on Kauai and is expected to accept it.
Since beginning operations in September 2002, the TSA office on Kauai has been plagued with problems, including a gunman who broke into the terminal by pointing a gun at a guard and firing shots inside the building; a knife-wielding intruder who threatened airline workers on the tarmac; and a flood of TSA employee complaints to U.S. Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawaii, about favoritism and retaliation.
There also has been an ongoing dispute between TSA and state Airport Division officials. The state repeatedly has contended TSA has refused to address essential improvements to the physical security at Lihue Airport.
TSA was created after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
When it was first set up, the Lihue operation did not advertise locally for its more than 100 new job openings. The ads appeared only on a federal Web site that generally is read only by federal employees.
The original federal security director, Robert Schoonmaker, personally picked all of his top assistants. The majority of the top posts were filled by key officials of Mayor Maryanne Kusaka's administration, which was about to go out of office. Schoonmaker said in a speech that he met with the mayor, and she urged him to hire her patronage employees who were about to be out of work.
Schoonmaker's choice to directly supervise the security operation was Kusaka's former finance director, Wally Rezentes Jr., whose sole background is in business. The qualifications in the job description call for a military or police background, and several senior police officials who applied were not interviewed.
Schoonmaker was moved out of the Lihue TSA office early in 2003. TSA originally said he had been reassigned to Honolulu but later confirmed he was under investigation. The agency never stated what the investigation was about, but Schoonmaker is no longer employed by TSA.
Robert Peru, Schoonmaker's deputy, took over as acting director of TSA at Lihue Airport.
Last summer, Case received complaints from 60 of the 84 TSA screeners at Lihue. All are contract employees and not covered by civil service regulations. They said the TSA managers at Lihue Airport used favoritism and retaliation in handing out promotions and shift assignments and in scheduling vacation time.
At the same time, 242 screeners at airports throughout Hawaii were laid off. In September the agency began hiring more part-time employees.
In response to questions from Case, the federal Transportation Department sent its ombudsman, Kimberly Walton, to Lihue to investigate the problems.
Case said this week that Kelley assisted Walton in the investigation, and he is already familiar with the situation.
"I met Kelley at the time. I like the guy. I think TSA responded well by assigning him to Lihue," Case said.
According to a TSA biography, Kelley is a Marine Corps Vietnam veteran, worked eight years as a police officer in San Mateo, Calif., and retired after 25 years with the U.S. Customs Service Office of Investigations. He served as special agent in charge of Customs investigations offices in San Diego, New Orleans, Dallas and El Paso, Texas. He has been deputy federal security director in San Diego for the past two years.
