City leaders are demanding a public hearing on airport security after two widely publicized security breaches called into question the safety of the San Jose airport.
On Aug. 4, a 64-year-old homeless woman arrested seven times this year for trying to sneak on planes without a ticket managed to hop on a plane at the Mineta San Jose International Airport. Airport officials dismissed the incident, arguing that she wasn’t a danger because she passed a TSA screening.
Months earlier, in April, a 16-year-old from Santa Clara managed to sneak onto the Tarmac and scramble into the wheel well of a Hawaii-bound plane.
“After the second substantial security breach in recent months at our airport, serious questions arise to which the public has a right to know the answer,” council members Pete Constant and Sam Liccardo write in a joint memo to the Rules and Open Government Committee. “A public hearing will enable city staff from the airport, the Transportation Security Administration, and any other relevant experts to identify the steps that have been taken, and that need to be taken, to address vulnerabilities in airport security.”
More from the San Jose Rules and Open Government Committee agenda for Aug. 13, 2014:
- David Wall wonders, facetiously, if San Jose will turn one of its fire stations into a brothel.
- Sharon Erickson, city auditor, shared her work plan for the year ahead. ON the list: a look at employee charge cards, customer call handling and public works facilities management, among other things.
- Since a 2012 law dissolved all redevelopment agencies, Santa Clara County has withheld about $14 million in tax revenue that would have gone to San Jose’s agency. The city wants to oppose a proposed state law that would reinforce the county’s ability to withhold that amount. Right now, the city says the county’s diversion of funds is unlawful.
WHAT: Rules and Open Government Committee meets
WHEN: 2pm Wednesday
WHERE: City Hall, 200 E. Santa Clara St., San Jose
INFO: City Clerk, 408.535.1260
“Airport officials dismissed the incident, arguing that she wasn’t a danger because she passed a TSA screening.”
Meaning TSA continually let her through without a ticket. I think it’s time we acknowledge that the TSA is nothing but a jobs program for the uneducated and unskilled.
And in many cases, LS, folks whose spoken English is so difficult to understand that if they call for help in a real security situation, no-one will be able to understand what they are saying. Honeland Security Dept. & TSA are the biggest federal boondoggle since The Energy Dept.
Exposing security procedures and protocols to public hearings is risky, as it allows people with bad intentions to better plan defeating it. Also, SJ decisions have no bearing on what Feds (TSA) do. This appears to be PR for Liccardo’s campaign, not genuine concern to improve security. Both Constant and Liccardo have repeatedly been aware, if not involved, in SJC security budget cuts… After voting for billions of dollars for remodeling.
more grandstanding by our favorite city council wannabe. Got to stay in the lime light during election.
The Auditors Office needs to do an audit of all the legal teams that have been representing the City, and that were retained by Mayor Reed, such as Meyers Nave, Joe Crotchett, and many others. Just how much have they been paid, and what were the deliverables? When Crotchett contributed to Liccardo’s campaign, it raised the appearance of City money moving directly to Sam’s campaign.
The sjpd used to be responsible for the runways until cutbacks. The moral of the story is that “Sam’s Jose” doesn’t care about safety even though he claims to be a tough on crime and safety guy. Maybe his efficient form of policing has become insufficient?