The Hillsborough County Aviation Authority board met this morning, its first meeting since Tampa International announced it would keep federal screening. Against Giants was in the room, as we were on August 6.
What the CEO Said
Tampa's Chief Executive Officer described what the airport actually evaluated.
His words: the evaluation "included everything from cybersecurity, the operational impacts, liability, and yes, the impact on our workforce." He said those are the things the organization, the board, and the team always take into consideration, and then asked, "What are the actual impacts, not just on the program, but on people's lives?" Taking all of that into consideration, he said, "that is where we landed on the decision."
He closed by saying he was glad that is where they landed with respect to keeping federal security screening operations intact, described the airport's partnership with TSA as extraordinary, and said it is an inescapable conclusion that Tampa has the best federal security team in the business.
He also thanked everyone who provided input, counsel, and feedback.
What the Chair Said
The board chairman went further.
He expressed appreciation for the people who came forward to speak to the board and said their comments were heartfelt. Then he asked the room to appreciate, in return, how hard the deliberations were, and he thanked the Chief Executive Officer for walking the walk as he had promised.
That is a board chair acknowledging in open session that public comment mattered to the process, and that a commitment made in that room was honored.
Why This Matters
On August 6, several TPA officers stood before this board and spoke about their careers and their families. These were officers on their own time coming in to speak before a board that they could have reasonably believed had already decided the matter. We spoke as well, and raised concerns about how the airport had described the program in its public materials. The board indicated it would move deliberately and weigh workforce concerns.
The person most responsible for getting those concerns in front of them was Mark Harris, a TSA Officer at Tampa International. He organized an email campaign, met with legislators, talked to reporters, and engaged airport stakeholders directly. We spent a year reading procurement documents and publishing analyses, and that work has its place, but the reason this reached the people who decided this matter is because an officer working a TPA checkpoint determined it would and then put forth the extraordinary effort to see it through.
AFGE, which represents officers at Tampa, also pursued the issue.
Today the Chief Executive Officer confirmed that workforce impact was one of the categories the evaluation covered, and framed it in terms of people's lives rather than staffing numbers. The chairman thanked the people who came forward and connected their comments to the deliberations that followed.
This is useful to officers. A group of employees who had no formal role in the decision spoke to the body making it. That body then stated publicly that their concerns were part of what it weighed, and its chairman thanked them for coming.
What We Asked For Today
Our comment this morning was brief. We thanked the board for moving deliberately and for the decision, and we asked for one thing.
Whatever this airport learned about what a conversion would have meant for an officer's pay, retirement eligibility, and career, we asked the board to hold onto it.
The reason is that the underlying question is not finished. TSA has replaced Gold+ with what it describes as an evolved Screening Partnership Program, and nobody has explained what that means. The contract vehicle it would likely run on was awarded on May 29 to twenty-one companies and runs well into the next decade.
This will be presented to airports again, here and elsewhere. What Tampa learned over the past several months is worth more than what most airports will have when their turn comes.
What Now?
We will keep reading the documents and keep working to inform the workforce of matters concerning them.
If you want to understand how any of this applies to your own situation, that is a conversation worth having. It costs you nothing. againstgiantsllc.com/get-help.html or info@againstgiantsllc.com