Job Fair Offers Civil Service Posts to Displaced L.A. Airport Workers

After Kenneth Kokason, 47, retired from the Air Force two years ago, he decided to become an airline mechanic.

It would be a good, steady job, he thought. It would mean applying the skills he acquired in the military, as a flight engineer, to a job in the private sector.

But 10 months into his employment as an American Airlines maintenance technician, Kokason was standing in line at a job fair, looking for work. His job will be eliminated Friday, another casualty of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Wearing his American Airlines maintenance uniform with a patch saying “Ken” over the right pocket, Kokason was thinking about a job in security--or maybe something in administration. Anything that wasn’t in the aviation industry.

The job fair, held in the parking lot of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Ahmanson Training Facility near Los Angeles International Airport, was organized after the City Council directed staff to inventory open positions and find ways to help former airport employees fill them. Among the jobs available: police officer, cafeteria worker, data analyst, detention officer, membership ambassador at the Los Angeles Zoo and a host of other Civil Service positions in the city and county.

Applicants at the fair were a mix of former LAX employees, recent college graduates and other job seekers. Attracted to the stability and usually good pay that such civil jobs offer, applicants browsed among the 30 booths to talk with recruiters, get job information and pick up applications. Some attendees were at the fair simply to gather information; others applied for jobs on the spot.

Gloria Sosa of the city Personnel Department said that in addition to 1,000 jobs open in the LAPD, 1,000 Civil Service positions in the city are vacant.

Cheryl Burns of the L.A. Regional One-Stop Career Center was at the fair to offer potential applicants help with interview techniques, resume writing and one-on-one counseling. She said most of the people she spoke with Saturday had been laid off from jobs in aviation and telecommunications.

“I think we’re going to see this happen a lot more,” she said.

Ed Corley, 62, of Lakewood, on “authorized no-punch” from his job as a ramp service employee at United Airlines, was attending the fair with fellow United employee Anthony Jenkins.

“We weren’t prepared,” Corley said. “We didn’t anticipate all that came from the event of Sept. 11. It had a rippling effect across the country and the world.”

Corley, who hopes for an administrative position with the city or the county, said he didn’t expect to find a job Saturday.

“It’s just networking,” he said. “It’s about being out there, being involved. I need to keep meeting people.”

Cicely Spencer, who had received a flier about the job fair at LAX, where she works, was waiting in line to take the clerk-typist exam. She will lose her $10.63-an-hour job as a customer service representative at United on Oct. 31 and was hoping to find a better job working for the city.

“I’m looking for anything to take me past Christmas so I can continue to take care of my family,” she said. “I’m the breadwinner.”

Lola Williams of Inglewood also was being laid off from a customer service position at United. She sat on a folding chair--one of the few available--as she filled out her paperwork to take the clerk-typist exam.

“I’m looking for work at age 58,” she sighed. “I have previous experience as an administrative assistant. Here, I am just trying to get in the door.”

Although many of the tables in front of booths were stacked high with employment information, most of the available jobs were for clerk-typists and LAPD officers--positions that require prospective applicants to take a written exam before they can be considered and a hiring process that can last up to 11 months.

At the county Recreation and Parks Department booth, where only clerk-typist positions were available, recruiter Julie Cuttrell continued to pass out fliers on jobs. She encouraged prospective applicants to fill out a form so they could be contacted when the jobs opened up.

“It’s the nature of the beast,” Cuttrell said about unavailable positions. “They need to express an interest, and the city will let them know when a job opens up. It could be a week, two weeks or a year from now.”

Kokason was not deterred by the lack of jobs available on the spot.

“I’m better off than most,” he said. “My wife works, and I’m getting a military pension.” Finding a job “means hunkering down and using other qualifications that I have.”

‘We didn’t anticipate all that came from the event of Sept. 11.’