Comments on: Washington Post: TSA nominee questioned over background check run on ex-wife’s boyfriend http://www.privacylives.com/washington-post-tsa-nominee-questioned-over-background-check-run-on-ex-wifes-boyfriend/2009/11/13/ monitoring the pulse of privacy Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:09:32 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: anonymous http://www.privacylives.com/washington-post-tsa-nominee-questioned-over-background-check-run-on-ex-wifes-boyfriend/2009/11/13/comment-page-1/#comment-49458 anonymous Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:15:40 +0000 http://www.privacylives.com/?p=4823#comment-49458 I write to you in concern of the current TSA nomination of Mr. Errol Southers. There is no doubt Mr. Southers has the resume and experience for the position of head of TSA. HOWEVER, his lapse in judgment using his professional connections for personal gain is not an isoltade incident of his negligence on the job and it is crucial that further looks into Mr. Southers' past records take place. Mr. Southers is under investigation by the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission for violating ethics laws (particularly for accepting honoraria for speaking engagements while receiving salaries from both Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) and the University of Southern California (USC) - accepting an honoraria is against Los Angeles City Ethics laws and Mr. Southers did this (at least) four times within the first few months of his employment at LAWA. Mr. Southers' entire admin staff at LAWA will also tell you that he rarely showed up for work and the very few times he did, it was solely to work on a doctorate degree. His main duties should have been to LAWA but he spent the majority of his time working for USC and working on his doctorate. His supervisor, James Butts, just resigned at LAWA where Butts hired Southers into civil service by circumventing hiring policies without even putting him through any type of interview process. You can rest assured Southers will be repaying Butts with a top position within the TSA once Southers starts there (Butts appears on video directly behind Southers in one of the senate hearings). LAWA says good riddance to both employees, who repeatedly demeaned subordinates and kissed executive's butts. All articles about Mr. Southers' nomination state it's a good choice because Southers will help unionize the TSA workforce. But he was integral with James Butts in disbanding a Joint Management Labor Committee at LAWA because neither wanted to give the workers or union a voice! Now all the sudden he will help the TSA workforce by giving them a union voice? Mr. Southers simply says whatever his superiors want to hear and he ends up contradicting his own actions time and again. His actions have been unethical since he started at LAWA and I have no doubt this behavior will continue if the senate committee confirms him into the TSA. Please do not fall for his slick talking rhetoric. Contact the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission and request a (PUBLIC RECORD) copy of his 2007 and 2008 Statement of Economic Interest filing. You will find he violated City Ethics policies numerous times based on his own filings! This man is not fit to run the TSA and the defense of this great country. Thank you. I write to you in concern of the current TSA nomination of Mr. Errol Southers. There is no doubt Mr. Southers has the resume and experience for the position of head of TSA. HOWEVER, his lapse in judgment using his professional connections for personal gain is not an isoltade incident of his negligence on the job and it is crucial that further looks into Mr. Southers’ past records take place.

Mr. Southers is under investigation by the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission for violating ethics laws (particularly for accepting honoraria for speaking engagements while receiving salaries from both Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) and the University of Southern California (USC) – accepting an honoraria is against Los Angeles City Ethics laws and Mr. Southers did this (at least) four times within the first few months of his employment at LAWA.

Mr. Southers’ entire admin staff at LAWA will also tell you that he rarely showed up for work and the very few times he did, it was solely to work on a doctorate degree. His main duties should have been to LAWA but he spent the majority of his time working for USC and working on his doctorate. His supervisor, James Butts, just resigned at LAWA where Butts hired Southers into civil service by circumventing hiring policies without even putting him through any type of interview process. You can rest assured Southers will be repaying Butts with a top position within the TSA once Southers starts there (Butts appears on video directly behind Southers in one of the senate hearings).

LAWA says good riddance to both employees, who repeatedly demeaned subordinates and kissed executive’s butts. All articles about Mr. Southers’ nomination state it’s a good choice because Southers will help unionize the TSA workforce. But he was integral with James Butts in disbanding a Joint Management Labor Committee at LAWA because neither wanted to give the workers or union a voice! Now all the sudden he will help the TSA workforce by giving them a union voice? Mr. Southers simply says whatever his superiors want to hear and he ends up contradicting his own actions time and again. His actions have been unethical since he started at LAWA and I have no doubt this behavior will continue if the senate committee confirms him into the TSA.

Please do not fall for his slick talking rhetoric. Contact the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission and request a (PUBLIC RECORD) copy of his 2007 and 2008 Statement of Economic Interest filing. You will find he violated City Ethics policies numerous times based on his own filings!

This man is not fit to run the TSA and the defense of this great country.

Thank you.

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