From Neal Boortz (www.boortz.com)
APOLOGIES TO THE TRAVELING PUBLIC
I think that it can be said that the people of Atlanta, or at least the voters of Atlanta, owe the traveling public an apology. Yesterday's complete mess at Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport made news headlines across the United States and even in the international press. The wait to get through Hartsfield's security mess was as long as two and one-half hours. Security lines snaked through baggage claim and outside the terminal. My wife was booked on a flight out of Hartsfield yesterday morning. She usually plans to arrive at the airport between 90 minutes and two hours before her flight. Yesterday that wouldn't have been enough. When she heard what was happening at Hartsfield she didn't even leave home.
Ladies and Gentlemen ... there is really no realistic hope that Hartsfield is going to get better. Let me share with you a few tidbits about the operation of what is sometimes the world's busiest airport.
First (and this just about says it all), Hartsfield is owned by the City of Atlanta and operated by the Atlanta City Council. There are nearly five million people living in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Less than 500,000 of those people live within the city limits of Atlanta. Of those 500,000 people, about 20% of them will vote in any given election. This means that the body that runs Hartsfield is elected by about 2% of the people who live in the area.
The history of Hartsfield is a history of corruption. Maynard Jackson was the mayor when the new terminal was built. When he died unexpectedly last year politicians saw fit to add his name to the airport ... this in spite of the widespread corruption that existed while he oversaw the creation of the new terminal. Members of his administration were actually prosecuted and sent to jail over that airport expansion. After he left office Jackson, a multi-millionaire bond lawyer, used a minority set-aside regulation he put in place for Hartsfield to obtain a location for a restaurant on the "B" concourse. His former wife also had a concession at Hartsfield.
Wait! There's more!
Moving on to the next Atlanta Mayor, a true walking cesspool of corruption named Bill Campbell. The manager of the airport under Campbell was a woman named Angela Gittens. Around 1996 Gittens was named the number one state or local government employee in the nation! Campbell fired her. Why? Because she didn't raise enough funds for his reelection effort. Some of Campbell's cronies were also prosecuted for corruption during his reign as mayor. While Campbell was mayor he wanted to make sure that he exercised full day-to-day control over the Atlanta police department. In one memorable incident the Atlanta police that were stationed outside his home ran a license number on a suspicious car in Campbell's driveway. They discovered that the car was stolen, and stopped the driver as he was leaving. Campbell's reaction? He issued an order to the Atlanta police to stop running tag numbers of cars found in his driveway. Campbell's police chief --- or puppet, if you will --- during this time a former chauffeur named Beverly Harvard. Ms. Harvard is now number two in charge of Hartsfield security. Her boss's name is Willie Williams.
Security at Hartsfield is a joke. I can absolutely guarantee you that I could get by security at Hartsfield. Oh .. they would see me breaching the system all right, but they wouldn't be able to stop me. A quick change of clothes and I would immediately blend in with the rest of the crowd. Their only option would be to stop all flights and empty all concourses. This would cause flight disruptions across the country, and it could all be stopped with the placement of one solitary police officer. Do you think the officials at Hartsfield are interested in plugging this hole? Not a chance.
Are you starting to get the big picture now?
The current mayor of Atlanta is Shirley Franklin. She is overseeing construction of a new international terminal at Hartsfield. Recently contracts were awarded for a duty-free shop concession at the new terminal. There were only two bidders. One bidder was her former husband. The other bidder included family members of (Guess who?) Maynard Jackson. Jackson's relatives won the bid, but that was overturned in favor of the current mayor's ex. Mayor Franklin's two children earn their livings at Hartsfield.
One more thing.
For years there have been suggestions that Hartsfield ought to be privatized. The idea first came from former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young. When he proposed the idea the revenue from the operation of Hartsfield could have completely wiped out private property taxes for all Atlanta citizens. The idea was brought up again last year. There is an international company experienced in running large airports that offered the citizens of Atlanta over $3 billion dollars for a lease agreement. Atlanta property taxes could be cut in half if such a deal were made. The mayor and the city council steadfastly refuse to consider the privatization option. After all, where would the mayor's children work?
And I'm not even going to tell you about the time that I was shaken down just to get into a parking lot at Hartsfield. (Or maybe I will!) I complained, but was anything ever done? Not that I know of.
So ... here you have the world's busiest airport serving the primary purpose as a source of jobs for politicians and being run by perhaps one of the most incompetent group of elected officials in the country. This means that things aren't going to get any better anytime soon.
Sorry 'bout that
APOLOGIES TO THE TRAVELING PUBLIC
I think that it can be said that the people of Atlanta, or at least the voters of Atlanta, owe the traveling public an apology. Yesterday's complete mess at Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport made news headlines across the United States and even in the international press. The wait to get through Hartsfield's security mess was as long as two and one-half hours. Security lines snaked through baggage claim and outside the terminal. My wife was booked on a flight out of Hartsfield yesterday morning. She usually plans to arrive at the airport between 90 minutes and two hours before her flight. Yesterday that wouldn't have been enough. When she heard what was happening at Hartsfield she didn't even leave home.
Ladies and Gentlemen ... there is really no realistic hope that Hartsfield is going to get better. Let me share with you a few tidbits about the operation of what is sometimes the world's busiest airport.
First (and this just about says it all), Hartsfield is owned by the City of Atlanta and operated by the Atlanta City Council. There are nearly five million people living in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Less than 500,000 of those people live within the city limits of Atlanta. Of those 500,000 people, about 20% of them will vote in any given election. This means that the body that runs Hartsfield is elected by about 2% of the people who live in the area.
The history of Hartsfield is a history of corruption. Maynard Jackson was the mayor when the new terminal was built. When he died unexpectedly last year politicians saw fit to add his name to the airport ... this in spite of the widespread corruption that existed while he oversaw the creation of the new terminal. Members of his administration were actually prosecuted and sent to jail over that airport expansion. After he left office Jackson, a multi-millionaire bond lawyer, used a minority set-aside regulation he put in place for Hartsfield to obtain a location for a restaurant on the "B" concourse. His former wife also had a concession at Hartsfield.
Wait! There's more!
Moving on to the next Atlanta Mayor, a true walking cesspool of corruption named Bill Campbell. The manager of the airport under Campbell was a woman named Angela Gittens. Around 1996 Gittens was named the number one state or local government employee in the nation! Campbell fired her. Why? Because she didn't raise enough funds for his reelection effort. Some of Campbell's cronies were also prosecuted for corruption during his reign as mayor. While Campbell was mayor he wanted to make sure that he exercised full day-to-day control over the Atlanta police department. In one memorable incident the Atlanta police that were stationed outside his home ran a license number on a suspicious car in Campbell's driveway. They discovered that the car was stolen, and stopped the driver as he was leaving. Campbell's reaction? He issued an order to the Atlanta police to stop running tag numbers of cars found in his driveway. Campbell's police chief --- or puppet, if you will --- during this time a former chauffeur named Beverly Harvard. Ms. Harvard is now number two in charge of Hartsfield security. Her boss's name is Willie Williams.
Security at Hartsfield is a joke. I can absolutely guarantee you that I could get by security at Hartsfield. Oh .. they would see me breaching the system all right, but they wouldn't be able to stop me. A quick change of clothes and I would immediately blend in with the rest of the crowd. Their only option would be to stop all flights and empty all concourses. This would cause flight disruptions across the country, and it could all be stopped with the placement of one solitary police officer. Do you think the officials at Hartsfield are interested in plugging this hole? Not a chance.
Are you starting to get the big picture now?
The current mayor of Atlanta is Shirley Franklin. She is overseeing construction of a new international terminal at Hartsfield. Recently contracts were awarded for a duty-free shop concession at the new terminal. There were only two bidders. One bidder was her former husband. The other bidder included family members of (Guess who?) Maynard Jackson. Jackson's relatives won the bid, but that was overturned in favor of the current mayor's ex. Mayor Franklin's two children earn their livings at Hartsfield.
One more thing.
For years there have been suggestions that Hartsfield ought to be privatized. The idea first came from former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young. When he proposed the idea the revenue from the operation of Hartsfield could have completely wiped out private property taxes for all Atlanta citizens. The idea was brought up again last year. There is an international company experienced in running large airports that offered the citizens of Atlanta over $3 billion dollars for a lease agreement. Atlanta property taxes could be cut in half if such a deal were made. The mayor and the city council steadfastly refuse to consider the privatization option. After all, where would the mayor's children work?
And I'm not even going to tell you about the time that I was shaken down just to get into a parking lot at Hartsfield. (Or maybe I will!) I complained, but was anything ever done? Not that I know of.
So ... here you have the world's busiest airport serving the primary purpose as a source of jobs for politicians and being run by perhaps one of the most incompetent group of elected officials in the country. This means that things aren't going to get any better anytime soon.
Sorry 'bout that
