LAX Needs Security, Not Soap

Not to sound ungrateful, but the news about plans to upgrade the landscaping and restrooms at LAX doesn’t do much for me.

Yes, I know that travelers ranked Los Angeles International 19th out of 22 major airports, and I’m certainly not against clean commodes and a few more swaying palms. But if they’re going to spend millions of dollars tinkering, I suggest they focus on a matter of greater importance than cosmetics.

Twice on recent flights out of LAX, I’ve been stuck in security lines that stretched outside of the building. That’s nothing new, of course. But these lines were so long I had time to grow a beard, have a weenie roast and fire off an angry letter to the Transportation Security Administration, the underperforming stepchild of the Department of Homeland Security.

Cars and trucks drove past by the hundreds, meanwhile, and potentially, we were all sitting ducks. I spent 20 minutes outside on one occasion, then stepped inside to find an even longer line, and nearly missed my flight.

For the third straight year, the Rand Corp. warned in February that a luggage or car bomb attack could wipe out hordes of people jammed on sidewalks and in the check-in lobbies. Rand recommended that airlines and TSA add enough staff to move passengers along more quickly.

But the problem seems to be getting worse, and it turns out it isn’t just my imagination. In fact, the city’s airport agency has sent a letter to Homeland Security complaining about a sizable security staff shortage and warning of disastrous implications.

The “large crowds of people inside and outside the passenger terminals make LAX more vulnerable to a terrorist attack,” said the missive from Lydia Kennard, executive director of Los Angeles World Airports, and Steven Holt, who represents the airlines at LAX.

“This is of great concern,” Kennard continued, “since LAX has previously been a target for terrorism and is considered the No. 1 Al Qaeda target in the state and one of the top targets in the United States.”

Local airport officials said the waiting time for travelers was slowly but steadily decreasing until March. That’s when TSA dropped a contract with a company that did its national hiring and farmed out the duties to TSA regional directors. But the switch was made without enough time for the new operations to get off the ground. Among other things, the agency was forced to scramble for fingerprinting equipment, according to Kennard.

Nice work, TSA.

Some travel industry folks have been wondering if Michael Brown, who established his knucklehead credentials at FEMA, has taken over TSA.

Paul Haney, an LAX official, said the airport is down 200 TSA staffers from its allocation of 2,000 full-time-equivalent positions. That’s 400 less than its allocation of a year ago and 700 down from the high in 2003. This follows the national pattern. Several times since the inception of TSA, Congress has simply decreed that the agency will have fewer employees nationwide. In case you’re wondering, the number of passengers at LAX rose steadily as the TSA whacked employees.

Why not just hand out bull’s-eye vests to passengers stuck on the pavement?

“It sure is damn stupid,” U.S. Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice) said of the shortage. She intends to make her feelings known to Homeland Security boss Michael Chertoff, she said, asking him to explain how a one-time terrorist target is supposed to ensure traveler safety with a shrinking TSA staff.

Jennifer Peppin, a Western states TSA spokeswoman, told me not to worry, which is always a sure sign of trouble ahead. Handing over the hiring chores and full control to local TSA directors makes more sense, she said, and the new operation at LAX will be up to speed soon.

Will it? At LAX, Haney isn’t so sure, even though airport officials have done their best to get things moving. The airport turned over some nearby property to TSA for a hiring and training center that is just now getting set up, and it takes a few months to train recruits, Haney said. So LAX won’t be up to full force before the travel volume gets crazy this summer.

Meanwhile, TSA loses 40 to 50 employees a month at LAX because of boredom, injury, relatively low pay ($11-$16 an hour), and other factors that may or may not include ticked-off travelers who don’t like waiting in line for an hour to have Granny frisked for fingernail files and bobby pins.

At LAX, Kennard is recommending the temporary transfer of TSA security officers from overstaffed smaller airports. That sounds good. I’ve been through smaller airports where they don’t seem to know what to do with themselves.

Here’s another idea: Take any National Guard troops and other soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan without jobs and send them to the nearest airport. They’ll still need security training, but maybe they can be sped through the background check.

When I told L.A. City Councilman Jack Weiss about the staffing shortage, he said he would call today for a report from the airport agency and an explanation from TSA.

“The lines that look like targets absolutely are,” said Weiss, who noted that it doesn’t take a genius to see the risk.

“We went to see my wife’s family in Tucson two weeks ago and our trip started on the pavement” at LAX, he said. “You feel like a sitting duck because you are. But what is incredibly frustrating is: How many times does Rand have to shout this from the mountaintop?”

Reach the columnist at steve.lopez@latimes.com and read previous columns at www.latimes.com/lopez.