PA Cops In The News
PA Cops In The News
From Jimmy Fay - Retired PATH
New York Law Journal
Thursday, Sept 23 2011
Augmented Court Rejects Port Authority Liability for 1993 WTC Bombing
By Joel Stashenko
ALBANY – The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has governmental immunity against liability for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center by terrorists who parked an explosive-laden truck in its underground parking lot, a narrowly divided state Court of Appeals ruled this morning.
Six people were killed in the attack and hundreds were hurt. Many of those injured and the survivors of those killed argued in suits that the Port Authority ignored repeated warnings by security experts about the vulnerability of the parking garages to bombers.
Today's ruling overturns a decision by the Appellate Division, First Department, which found the Port Authority 68 percent responsible for the attacks and the terrorists 32 percent responsible. The Port Authority has argued for years that it makes no sense to hold the agency twice as responsible for the damages for an attack willfully launched by terrorists.
Now a 4-3 majority of the state's highest court has accepted the agency's position.
The governmental immunity doctrine is "intended to afford deference to the exercise of discretion by the officials of municipalities and governmental entities," especially with regard to the allocation of limited police resources, Judge Theodore T. Jones Jr. wrote for the majority.
"Governmental entities cannot be expected to be absolute, infallible guarantors of public safety, but in order to encourage them to engage in the affirmative conduct of diligently investigating security vulnerabilities and implementing appropriate safeguards, they must be provided with the latitude to render those critical decisions without threat of legal repercussions," Judge Jones wrote in Matter of World Trade Center Bombing Litigation v. Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, 217.
Judges Susan Phillips Read and Eugene F. Pigott Jr. concurred with Judge Jones, as did Thomas E. Mercure, the acting presiding justice of the Appellate Division, Third Department who sat with the Court of Appeals for this case.
In dissent, Judge Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick wrote that governmental immunity is only available if the state entity is performing a government function. But she argued that the Port Authority was, in essence, the landlord of the World Trade Center and, as such, "it is subject to the same principles of tort law as is a private landlord."
"By assuming a traditionally private role, the State assumes individualized and specific responsibilities that are distinct from its broad obligations to the populace as a whole," Judge Ciparick wrote.
Judge Victoria A. Graffeo and A. Gail Prudenti, the presiding justice of the Second Department, joined in the dissent.
The case before the Court was unusual in that it was argued before a five-judge panel in June then scheduled for re-argument and the "vouching in" of other judges.
Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, who wrote the First Department's ruling that has been overturned, did not take part in the appeal. Judge Robert S. Smith also recused himself, though his reasons are unclear.
The Court designated Justices Mercure and Prudenti to join the bench for reargument, thus giving the Court its full complement of seven judges (NYLJ, June 24). The Court needs at least a four-judge majority for a valid ruling.
See a webcast of the oral argument.
Port Authority police blatantly doctored an official report to hide the embarrassing truth about how one of their own lieutenants green-lighted a PATH train feared to have a bomb aboard, sources told The Post.
The altered PAPD report is rife with false and misleading information, providing a sanitized account of what actually took place on the evening of June 1 in Jersey City, when a suspicious package was found on a Red Line train that was allowed to continue under the Hudson River to the World Trade Center station without being checked out first, the sources said.
The original report, which contained a damning chronology of events, was mysteriously never made part of the record, the sources charged.
Instead, the second police report -- suspiciously created after The Post published an exclusive June 6 story that highlighted the lieutenant's role in the incident -- was officially entered, a veteran PAPD source said.
"You only do one [police] report for a job -- it's that simple," the source said. "You can't change an original report. There are supposed to be strict protocols to be followed. And that clearly wasn't done in this case."
Sources said the new police report was designed to cover up how PAPD Lt. James O'Neil ignored angry warnings from fellow cops that the suspicious package should be checked out before the train was allowed to make the six-minute journey to the WTC station.
Passengers had been evacuated before the trip, but there were still six crew members on the train.
The package was eventually investigated -- but not until after the train had arrived at the WTC. It turned out to be a remote-controlled toy helicopter in a box.
The Post obtained copies of both police reports prepared for the case.
Each bears the same case number: 1194.
The first report consists of an original, typed version prepared by Police Officer Jonathan Roche, and dated June 1. It offers a detailed timeline of what took place -- including how the package wasn't deemed safe until after the train's trip to Manhattan.
By comparison, the second police report was handwritten, prepared by another cop, Officer Aaron T. Woody -- and remarkably short on specifics, including when the package was ruled safe.
While the second report also is dated June 1, it was actually put together on the afternoon of June 6, the day The Post broke the story of the incident, sources said.
A PA spokesman declined comment.
The Port Authority is slashing police overtime at Kennedy Airport to save money - leaving key security posts created after 9/11 uncovered, police sources charged yesterday.
The overtime order was handed down this week despite federal warnings that terrorists plan to strike the United States before the Nov. 2 elections, the sources said.
"With all the terrorist talk, it's not prudent that they do it now," said a veteran Port Authority cop. "They are cutting a lot more posts, more posts than is responsible."
A "patrol tactics" memo obtained by the Daily News lists the patrols now banned from tapping into overtime. It includes cops assigned to safeguard runways, passenger drop-off zones and terminals.
One of the posts affected by the overtime squeeze is responsible for watching Israel's El Al Airline counter.
PA officials declined to discuss security at its airports and transit hubs or the overtime directive, but insisted safety is not being compromised.
PA spokesman Lou Martinez said the agency has expanded its police ranks by more than 500 cops and increased patrols since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
"We cannot discuss the details of these initiatives or the operation of our patrol tactics," Martinez said. "However, they are updated regularly and based upon intelligence information."
But PAPD cops, who asked not to be named, said the new overtime order prevents police brass from regularly filling as many as 20 posts at Kennedy.
"If you can't do it on straight time, it won't be covered," a cop said. "And there aren't enough cops to do it on straight time, so it's not being covered."
The cops said the budget crunch affects every PA facility, but argued Kennedy will feel the biggest impact because officers have been stretched thin since 9/11.
A PA official disagreed, saying police brass have enough cops to handle security and routinely move them around to respond to changing threats.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has shut down an art exhibition in Terminal 5 of Kennedy Airport after a raucous opening-night party on Friday that left broken glass on the floor, graffiti on the walls and further destruction in its wake, the agency said yesterday.
Pasquale DiFulco, a spokesman for the Port Authority, which operates the airport, said the curator of the show, Rachel K. Ward, had "failed to control the unlawful behavior of her guests" at the event. "We pulled the permit because the curator violated her agreement," he said.
Besides smoking in the building and defacing the walls with graffiti, some guests broke a door leading to a runway, Mr. DiFulco said. Liquor was being sold at the party without a permit, he added, and Ms. Ward failed to maintain the space to "an acceptable level of cleanliness." Vomit and broken glass were on the terminal's floor, he said.
Ms. Ward, who acknowledged that the crowd had exceeded her expectations - hundreds of people showed up - said she ended the party around 11 p.m., an hour earlier than planned.
"We have not had an opportunity to respond to these allegations," Ms. Ward said of the authority's decision to close the show. "My lawyers are in negotiations. We want to keep the exhibition open as originally planned."
The show, an exhibition of contemporary installations, by nearly 20 artists, on the theme of airports and modern travel, was to have run through Jan. 31. Terminal 5, Eero Saarinen's 1962 landmark building, was home to T.W.A. until it was closed as a passenger terminal in 2001. It has mostly been vacant since, although Steven Spielberg used it in scenes for his movie "Catch Me If You Can."
"I've been working on this for a year and am looking for a resolution," said Ms. Ward, 27. "The point is to give the public access to this landmark."
The terminal closed the show at noon on Tuesday. Ms. Ward said she sent a letter to the Port Authority indicating her willingness to work on any suggested changes to enable the show to continue.
But the agency seemed unlikely to reverse its decision. "The permit was pulled, and that's where we stand," Mr. DiFulco said.
JetBlue, which together with the Port Authority is planning to build a terminal behind Terminal 5 that will be linked to the Saarinen building, was one of the show's biggest sponsors, donating more than $100,000.
"Everyone at JetBlue is crushed, although we support the Port Authority's decision," said Gareth Edmondson-Jones, a spokesman for the airline. "We've been working for months to make this a special event for New Yorkers which has now been spoiled because of a curator's poor management and lack of respect for the Saarinen building.
"It was a chance to showcase art in a landmark terminal which had been closed for the last three years."
The exhibition was meant to respond to the building's biomorphic design and original purpose. L.E.D. text messages by Jenny Holzer were installed on the arrivals-and-departures board. The Japanese sound artist Ryoji Ikeda used a tunneled walkway as a sound-and-light installation.
Some works played off the items one would find in an airport. The sculptor Tom Sachs created a McDonald's sign made of foam core with Japanese characters. Another sculptor, Toland Grinnell, exhibited two of his ostentatiously customized trunks near one of the terminal's baggage claims. A photograph by Richard Prince based on the Marlboro Man ad was displayed next to a real ad for the cigarette.
Even before the exhibition was installed there was trouble. The Italian artist Vanessa Beecroft was to have exhibited photographs and a video of a performance held in the terminal for a private audience. Her work, "VB54," featured 36 young women standing in formation in the sunken waiting area, wearing only Afro wigs, black body paint and silver shackles on their ankles.
After the work was previewed at a private reception on Sept. 28, officials at JetBlue asked that "VB54" be removed from the show. They said that Ms. Ward had violated an agreement to let the airline review all artwork before the exhibition opened.
"It was clearly a publicity ploy," said Mr. Edmondson-Jones. "They wanted it to seem like we were censoring the art when that wasn't the case at all. It had nothing to do with the content. They hadn't followed their own rules."
Asked about the dispute, Ms. Ward said she could not comment.
Roberta Smith contributed reporting for this article.
By TOM TRONCONE
Port Authority officers watching Eighth Avenue outside the bus terminal in midtown Manhattan on a sunny and peaceful day in September.
When Alex Turnamian applied to the Port Authority Police Department in 1998, the Twin Towers still soared over Manhattan.
Heavily armed soldiers weren't patrolling tunnel and bridge plazas, and America's national lexicon did not include phrases such as "enemy combatant," "high-value target" or "code orange."
But when the Old Tappan native finally joined four years later, the nation's 24th-largest police department had changed. Turnamian, then a probation officer and a former dispatcher for the Bergen County Sheriff's Office, found himself standing sentry beside the soldiers at the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel.
Gone were the days of focusing on pickpockets and purse snatchers. The "forgotten" police department now held the colossal task of securing some of the highest-value terrorist targets in the metropolitan area - its bridges, tunnels, airports, seaports and bus terminals. Protecting 80 million air travelers, 57 million bus passengers, and 70 million PATH commuters from surface-to-air missiles, improvised vehicle explosives and chemical weapons was the new order of the day.
"There is equipment that is being introduced to us every single day, and training about certain chemicals and different ways weapons can be carried - liquid or solid," said Turnamian, 31, of Mahwah.
The role of the bi-state police agency clearly has shifted since Sept. 11, 2001.
The department rebuilt its ranks from the colossal loss of 37 officers in the attack on the World Trade Center, while morphing into a high-tech agency. Since the attack, the department has grown from about 1,300 officers to about 1,650 and has earmarked nearly $800 million for security upgrades.
Port Authority officials also find themselves continually forced to think about the future. How could terrorists strike? What haven't we thought about?
One of the keys to revamping the department was the establishment of an intelligence-gathering unit within its ranks, said Samuel J. Plumeri Jr., the Port Authority police superintendent. The force has also recently deployed some high-tech gadgetry - such as a one-of-a-kind mobile radiation-detection vehicle.
In the form of an SUV, the $2.5 million mobile lab features sodium-iodide detectors linked to national nuclear laboratories, including Los Alamos and Sandia in New Mexico, Brookhaven on Long Island and Lawrence Livermore in California.
Plumeri, a former Mercer County sheriff, sees the department "enhancing our intelligence and counterterrorism initiatives, the capabilities of our special operations division, bringing in assets that are fluid and expanding our aviation services department."
Turnamian was one of 108 officers who graduated in May 2003 from the 106th police academy class - held on the campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University since the trade center attack. Cadets now take courses in terror awareness, bomb recognition and hazardous materials.
"We knew things were going to be different then when we applied,'' said Turnamian, a 1991 graduate of Northern Valley Regional High School.
'Make a difference'
Theresa Keenan, 31, of Maywood concedes that terrorism was not on her mind when she applied to join the department.
"I guess, like everybody else, it was an adjustment to that kind of thinking," she said.
Keenan began as a Port Authority cop in December 2002 and works in the central police pool. Supervisors send officers in the pool wherever the department needs extra personnel on a given day.
"I just like the fact that maybe if something happens, I can make a difference," said Keenan, who would someday like to work with the department's K-9 unit.
The K-9, which has 33 officers and 33 dogs, is one area of the department that continues to grow and change, along with the emergency services unit and special operations division, Plumeri said. Also, the agency recently opened a new, state-of-the-art emergency operations center in Jersey City, which it used for the first time during the Republican National Convention, he said.
"We have some highly trained officers that are skilled in a number of regimens, [such as] special weapons, hostage negotiation, rescue operations - just about every piece of specialized work," Plumeri said.
Christopher Trucillo was a police captain on the morning of the 2001 terrorist attacks. He was in Trenton at a conference about what was one of the biggest concerns of the summer before Sept. 11 - racial profiling.
Appointed the department's police chief in January, Trucillo said the change in the perception of the department since the attacks is palpable.
"I think we were always a forgotten force, working in everyone else's jurisdiction," he said. "What 9/11 did was take us from the shadows and put us in the forefront. It was thrust upon us.
"We certainly would have rather remained anonymous than experience that kind of loss."
Trucillo, who joined the department in 1986, knew in the days and weeks after the attack that the mission, training, equipment and focus of the department were bound to change as the country entered a new, uncertain time.
He contrasted today's climate with his days as a young officer, when cops would stand around and imagine scenarios such as a man with a gun in the bus terminal and replay their hypothetical reaction in their heads.
"Our young cops today probably stand post worrying about vehicles that might have explosives or people who might have explosives under their clothing," the chief said.
The change in his department was underscored during his tenure as commanding officer of the agency's Newark Airport station, when a discussion turned to surface-to-air missiles.
"A year ago we would have been discussing auto theft, pickpockets and larceny," Trucillo said. "Now we are in a room discussing missiles."
When Alex Turnamian applied to the Port Authority Police Department in 1998, the Twin Towers still soared over Manhattan.
Heavily armed soldiers weren't patrolling tunnel and bridge plazas, and America's national lexicon did not include phrases such as "enemy combatant," "high-value target" or "code orange."
But when the Old Tappan native finally joined four years later, the nation's 24th-largest police department had changed. Turnamian, then a probation officer and a former dispatcher for the Bergen County Sheriff's Office, found himself standing sentry beside the soldiers at the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel.
Gone were the days of focusing on pickpockets and purse snatchers. The "forgotten" police department now held the colossal task of securing some of the highest-value terrorist targets in the metropolitan area - its bridges, tunnels, airports, seaports and bus terminals. Protecting 80 million air travelers, 57 million bus passengers, and 70 million PATH commuters from surface-to-air missiles, improvised vehicle explosives and chemical weapons was the new order of the day.
"There is equipment that is being introduced to us every single day, and training about certain chemicals and different ways weapons can be carried - liquid or solid," said Turnamian, 31, of Mahwah.
The role of the bi-state police agency clearly has shifted since Sept. 11, 2001.
The department rebuilt its ranks from the colossal loss of 37 officers in the attack on the World Trade Center, while morphing into a high-tech agency. Since the attack, the department has grown from about 1,300 officers to about 1,650 and has earmarked nearly $800 million for security upgrades.
Port Authority officials also find themselves continually forced to think about the future. How could terrorists strike? What haven't we thought about?
One of the keys to revamping the department was the establishment of an intelligence-gathering unit within its ranks, said Samuel J. Plumeri Jr., the Port Authority police superintendent. The force has also recently deployed some high-tech gadgetry - such as a one-of-a-kind mobile radiation-detection vehicle.
In the form of an SUV, the $2.5 million mobile lab features sodium-iodide detectors linked to national nuclear laboratories, including Los Alamos and Sandia in New Mexico, Brookhaven on Long Island and Lawrence Livermore in California.
Plumeri, a former Mercer County sheriff, sees the department "enhancing our intelligence and counterterrorism initiatives, the capabilities of our special operations division, bringing in assets that are fluid and expanding our aviation services department."
Turnamian was one of 108 officers who graduated in May 2003 from the 106th police academy class - held on the campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University since the trade center attack. Cadets now take courses in terror awareness, bomb recognition and hazardous materials.
"We knew things were going to be different then when we applied,'' said Turnamian, a 1991 graduate of Northern Valley Regional High School.
'Make a difference'
Theresa Keenan, 31, of Maywood concedes that terrorism was not on her mind when she applied to join the department.
"I guess, like everybody else, it was an adjustment to that kind of thinking," she said.
Keenan began as a Port Authority cop in December 2002 and works in the central police pool. Supervisors send officers in the pool wherever the department needs extra personnel on a given day.
"I just like the fact that maybe if something happens, I can make a difference," said Keenan, who would someday like to work with the department's K-9 unit.
The K-9, which has 33 officers and 33 dogs, is one area of the department that continues to grow and change, along with the emergency services unit and special operations division, Plumeri said. Also, the agency recently opened a new, state-of-the-art emergency operations center in Jersey City, which it used for the first time during the Republican National Convention, he said.
"We have some highly trained officers that are skilled in a number of regimens, [such as] special weapons, hostage negotiation, rescue operations - just about every piece of specialized work," Plumeri said.
Christopher Trucillo was a police captain on the morning of the 2001 terrorist attacks. He was in Trenton at a conference about what was one of the biggest concerns of the summer before Sept. 11 - racial profiling.
Appointed the department's police chief in January, Trucillo said the change in the perception of the department since the attacks is palpable.
"I think we were always a forgotten force, working in everyone else's jurisdiction," he said. "What 9/11 did was take us from the shadows and put us in the forefront. It was thrust upon us.
"We certainly would have rather remained anonymous than experience that kind of loss."
Trucillo, who joined the department in 1986, knew in the days and weeks after the attack that the mission, training, equipment and focus of the department were bound to change as the country entered a new, uncertain time.
He contrasted today's climate with his days as a young officer, when cops would stand around and imagine scenarios such as a man with a gun in the bus terminal and replay their hypothetical reaction in their heads.
"Our young cops today probably stand post worrying about vehicles that might have explosives or people who might have explosives under their clothing," the chief said.
The change in his department was underscored during his tenure as commanding officer of the agency's Newark
Airport station, when a discussion turned to surface-to-air missiles.
"A year ago we would have been discussing auto theft, pickpockets and larceny," Trucillo said. "Now we are in a room discussing missiles."
(Edited for brevity)
Prosecutors and Port Authority police are probing whether a federal supervisor at LaGuardia's Continental Airlines terminal may have allowed a conspiracy by Homeland Security screeners to routinely harvest Rolex watches, Gucci bags and Dell laptops from checked luggage.
And the case may be the tip of a nationwide iceberg.
This month, Homeland Security announced it will pay $1.6 million to settle claims filed since late 2001 by 17,600 angry air travelers - an average of $110 per person - half for goods damaged, but half for goods missing.
Another 8,000 claims are pending.
Last month, three bag screeners at LaGuardia and one at JFK were arrested after Continental and American Airlines sought law enforcement help when each airline detected spikes in customer complaints.
In April, the airlines bought video surveillance cameras to let cops snoop on federal workers hired to examine checked luggage for explosives.
Detectives watched as several uniformed Transportation Security Administration screeners used their private work area "like a candy store," as one source put it.
To cover their tracks, screeners switched tags on bags from which they stole with tags on untouched bags, sending suitcases jetting to wrong airports in pairs. They even swapped one tag from a baby's travel crib, sending it to O'Hare in Chicago for a day while mother and child spent a restless night in Mexico.
Cameras at LaGuardia recorded one screener handing off goods from a bag to a supervisor, "who then placed the item into the employee cabinet area." Later, the worker retrieved it, court records say.
That supervisor, not caught red-handed himself, wasn't charged. But the four defendants recently waived their right to a grand jury indictment, suggesting they may be negotiating a deal to testify against bigger fish.
"What is particularly troubling to me is that those responsible for ensuring the safety and security of the airlines would be engaged in pilfering the luggage of airline passengers," Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said last week in an interview with the Daily News. "If they're busy looking for items to steal instead of checking for explosives, what does that say?"
Brown said his investigation is continuing.
The TSA, which was hastily created after the September 2001 terror attacks, vigorously defended the vast bulk of its labor force. Spokeswoman Ann Davis labeled TSA's jailbird baggage screeners as "a handful of individuals who have made a bad choice."
Prosecutors and Port Authority cops were surprised to discover that the TSA in New York was allowing screeners to take personal luggage, even duffel bags, into their work area, making it easy for a thief to cart off a hefty haul.
That has since stopped.
And when search warrants were executed at the homes of the four screeners, police were stunned at a department store of goodies amassed in an operation that had clearly spanned many months. Among other items they found were laptops galore, computer projectors, cuff links, designer clothes and gold chains.
"It was extraordinary," Brown remarked. "There was so much these guys were just incapable of fencing the property fast enough."
Federal bag screeners cannot be offered a job until they pass a fingerprint-based FBI criminal history check. But that check goes back just 10 years and looks only for 28 felony convictions enumerated by lawmakers.
Two of New York's four busted screeners have rap sheets, which the current federal criminal check ignores.
The termination means that barring a settlement within 30 days, thousands of residents who use the hospitals will have to pay more or switch to other hospitals that remain in United's network. Some patients already under the hospitals' care -- pregnant women in the second or third trimesters, for example -- will continue to be covered at previous rates.
Administrators at the five hospitals -- organized as a consortium called Pinnacle Healthcare Inc. -- accused United of trying to profit at patients' expense.
"Health care dollars should be used to provide services to our patients, not to subsidize national managed care companies," said John Federspiel, president of Hudson Valley Hospital Center.
But United Healthcare, which has 9.3 million subscribers, said it was taking the consumer's side.
"If every hospital across the country received the rates they wanted to receive without us negotiating on consumers' behalf, no one but the very rich would have health care," said spokesman Mark Lindsay.
United Healthcare's revenues were up 31 percent from last year and its parent company's profits were up 36 percent, according to a second-quarter report issued in July.
Besides Hudson Valley, the hospitals that terminated contracts are St. John's Riverside in Yonkers, Sound Shore Medical Center in New Rochelle, Mount Vernon Hospital and the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla. In all, they have about 2,000 beds.
Helen Turchioe, Pinnacle's executive director, said the hospitals served about 10,000 United Healthcare patients in the past year under a contract worth $10.5 million a year. She said those patients amounted to 1 to 3 percent of each hospital's overall business.
United's reimbursement rates are 30 to 50 percent below what other insurers pay, said Jim Foy, president of St. John's.
The administrators refused to give examples of reimbursement rates for particular procedures, saying lawyers had advised them not to.
Foy said that besides higher reimbursements, the hospitals were trying to get rid of clauses that allowed United Healthcare to refuse to pay for patient care on technicalities, like late notification of an operation.
The hospitals notified United Healthcare in June of their intent to terminate the contracts. In the negotiations that followed, United offered to raise reimbursement rates somewhat, but not enough, said Foy.
No negotiations are scheduled, Foy said. But John Spicer, president of South Shore, said, "We are prepared to negotiate with United Healthcare around the clock." United Healthcare said it "remains hopeful that we may come to an agreement."
Payments to doctors in the United Healthcare network are not affected by the termination of the contracts, even if they are affiliated with the five hospitals.
Turchioe said state regulations require that when a contract is terminated, patients already being treated must continue to get treatment at the old rates for 90 days and that pregnant women must be covered through delivery and postpartum. A cancer patient receiving chemotherapy, for example, would not be required to pay more or to switch hospitals for continued treatments.
In addition, emergency cases will be accepted at network rates, she said.
She said that because United has not given its subscribers a 30-day notice of the termination, she believes policyholders will have at least a 30-day grace period during which their costs will not increase. Lindsay said United Healthcare considered the termination date to be Oct. 25.
As noted above, during its consideration of H.R. 5006, the FY 2005 Labor-HHS Appropriations Act, on Thursday the House adopted an amendment offered by Rep. David Obey (D-WI) to block the Department of Labor from enforcing most of the new overtime rules which took effect on 23 Augustincluding the historic “public safety exclusion” which they contain. The amendment passed by a vote of 223-193, with the support of all Democrats who were present and 22 Republicans.
The F.O.P. strongly supports the final overtime regulations because they will guarantee overtime compensation to an expanded majority of our nation’s police officers, firefighters and paramedics. In seeking support for his amendment, Congressman Obey claimed that it would “restore overtime rights to the 6 million workers who will be affected by DOL’s weakening of overtime protections, including…law enforcement officers.” On Wednesday, National President Chuck Canterbury wrote to Rep. Obey to rebut the Congressman’s claims regarding law enforcement officers. President Canterbury pointed out that,
“as the Department acknowledged in the preamble to the final rule, the old regulations ‘do not explicitly address the exempt status of police officers, fire fighters, paramedics or EMTs. This silence in the current regulations has resulted in significant federal court litigation to determine whether such employees meet the requirements for exemption as executive, administrative or professional employees.’ Disregarding the fact that it would appear impossible for DOL to enforce regulations which no longer exist, it is difficult at best to see how forcing DOL to do so would at all strengthenand not in fact weakenthe overtime protections of public safety employees.”
The Fraternal Order of Police is proud to stand in support of these final regulations because of the benefits they will provide to America’s public safety officers and their families. We have and will continue to strenuously oppose any legislative attempt to overturn this historic rulemaking throughout the remainder of the 108th Congress.
Notwithstanding the inclusion of this amendment in H.R. 5006, the new overtime rules are still the law of the land and, as of 23 August, all affected public safety agencies are supposed to ensure that they are in compliance with the provisions of this rule. If you have reason to believe that your agency is not in compliance with the new overtime rules, please contact Chris Granberg at (202) 547-8189 or cgranberg@grandlodgefop.org .
Republican Representatives who voted FOR the Obey Amendment (H.AMDT.734) and AGAINST expanded overtime protections for Public Safety Officers:
Pataki nominates new Port Authority director
Gov. George Pataki nominated Kenneth J. Ringler Jr., commissioner of the state Office of General Services as executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (Crain’s, July 26).
Pending approval by the Port Authority board, Mr. Ringler will succeed retiring Executive Director Joseph Seymour, who formerly led the OGS.
At the request of the governors and the board, Mr. Seymour will remain as executive director through late October during a transitional period. Upon his retirement, he will act as a special adviser to the new director and the board on World Trade Center issues.
Finding a new executive director for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has been a difficult task because the person is expected to hold the job for only 30 months. (Crain’s, Sept. 6). The executive director has to be reappointed every year, usually at the April board meeting. The New York governor elected in 2006 would almost certainly want to install his or her own person the following year.
Mr. Ringler, a 30-year government veteran, has been serving since March 2001 as commissioner of OGS, where he has been responsible for the development and administration of operations and activities required to support state agencies. Prior to becoming OGS commissioner, he served as the executive deputy commissioner of the Division of Motor Vehicles beginning in May 1999. His service at DMV followed a stint as first deputy secretary of state.
Mr. Ringler said in a statement that he looks forward “to the challenge of ensuring that Governor Pataki's ambitious schedule for the rebuilding effort in lower Manhattan remains on track, while building upon the great progress Joe Seymour has made in improving and strengthening the authority's operations.
Teacher Arrested After Bookmark Called Concealed Weapon
TAMPA, Fla. -- A weight may soon be lifted off a Maryland woman charged with carrying a concealed weapon in an airport. It wasn't a gun or a knife. It was a weighted bookmark.
Kathryn Harrington was flying home from vacation last month when screeners at the Tampa, Fla., airport found her bookmark. It's an 8.5-inch leather strip with small lead weights at each end. Airport police said it resembled a weighted weapon that could be used to knock people unconscious.
So the 52-year-old special education teacher was handcuffed, put into a police car, and charged with carrying a concealed weapon. She faced a possible criminal trial and a $10,000 fine. But the state declined to prosecute, and the Transportation Security Administration said it probably won't impose a fine.Harrington said she'll never again carry her bookmark into an airport.
As Deadline Crept Closer, a Rush to Sue Over Sept. 11
By JULIA PRESTON
A deadline yesterday for lawsuits related to the Sept. 11 attacks prompted a rush to the New York federal courthouse where all such suits have been filed.
Some lawyers did not rush quite fast enough.
Officials at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the owner of the World Trade Center, had said they would file a suit for damages against Saudi Arabia, alleging that the Saudi royal family had supported Al Qaeda in the years before 9/11.
But the suit did not arrive during business hours at United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Port Authority officials said the suit would be left in a drop box later in the evening, in order to meet the deadline set by the three-year statute of limitations under New York law. The Port Authority's suit would join the suit against Saudi Arabia filed Sept. 2 by Cantor Fitzgerald, the brokerage firm that lost 658 employees in the attack.
"We also have a responsibility to the millions of people who live and work in the region as well as to our bondholders to pursue every legal avenue to recover the losses we sustained on Sept. 11," a Port Authority statement said.
In the last two days, several insurance companies filed suits claiming negligence against American Airlines, United Airlines and a host of firms that were involved in security
for the airlines and for Logan International Airport in Boston, where two of the hijacked flights originated. Those suits also joined omnibus insurance litigation that has been concentrated under one federal judge, Alvin K. Hellerstein.
Lawyers for the insurance companies, which include Industrial Risk Insurers of Hartford and Lloyd's of London, said they were not seeking payments from the airlines, which have been suffering financially since the attacks. A law passed by Congress shortly after the attacks limits the airlines' liability to their insurance coverage.
"For our clients it's basically insurer versus insurer," said Paul Butler, a lawyer in the Lloyd's suit.
Among those filing papers at the last minute, Lois Buxbaum, a New York resident whose leg was injured by falling debris on Sept. 11, finally decided that she should sue the World
Trade Center, said her lawyer, Kenneth F. McCallion.
Irving Morrison, also a New Yorker, filed another suit against Saudi Arabia on behalf of all property owners in New York City. He is asking for $900 trillion.
In a shocking security breach, police at Kennedy Airport released a man who had flown a suitcase full of lethal explosives aboard an airliner from the Middle East, authorities revealed yesterday.
Port Authority cops seized the Soviet-made military ordnance last month, but let its owner, Shaun Marshall, go - only to learn later the devices could have detonated and destroyed the aircraft, killing everyone aboard.
Authorities had remained silent about the Aug. 19 incident, until it was disclosed yesterday in papers filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Marshall, a medic with State Department defense contractor DynCorp Inc., apparently told cops he found the weapon on the ground in Afghanistan. He said he thought it was inert and kept it as a souvenir.
By the time NYPD bomb squad detectives were summoned to the airport, Marshall, 28, of Riverside, Calif., was en route to Los Angeles on another flight.
The breach of security began in Dubai when Marshall checked a suitcase containing a Soviet V429 projectile detonating fuse, a 23-mm. Soviet military surface-to-air and air-to-air cartridge and nine bullets aboard a United Arab Emirates jet.
Sources said the suspicious contents were detected by X-ray screeners at Kennedy Airport and Marshall was interviewed by Port Authority cops.
According to the federal complaint, airport cops released Marshall so he could get on a connecting flight home, and then contacted the NYPD bomb squad.
"The Soviet detonating fuse and cartridge were ... highly explosive," the complaint states.
The FBI was contacted and agents in Los Angeles were scrambled to take Marshall into custody.
He was later indicted on charges of recklessly transporting an explosive device on an aircraft. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Friday before Federal Judge Allyne Ross in Brooklyn.
A PA spokesman declined comment on how its cops handled the incident.
Retired NYPD Sgt. Chris Brauer of the bomb squad said detonating fuses and shells are transported via air by the military - but never in the same container.
"It's dangerous putting them together in a suitcase like that," said Brauer, of Michael Stapleton Associates, a security firm in Manhattan.
Marshall faces up to 20 years in prison, if convicted.
Shaun Marshall, a medic for defense contractor DynCorp Inc., arrived at Kennedy on an August 19 flight from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He was trying to board a United Airlines flight home to California when he was pulled aside for a routine security check.
Transportation Security Administration officers searched Mr. Marshall's checked bags and found what police bomb technicians described in an FBI complaint as "a Soviet V429E projectile point detonating fuse and a 23mm Soviet military full-round surface-to-air and air-to-air cartridge."
Federal officials said they could not comment yesterday on the risk that the munitions posed to the Emirates Airlines flight to New York. But the Police Department bomb squad determined "the Soviet detonating fuse and cartridge were in and of themselves highly explosive," according to an FBI complaint against Mr. Marshall.
He also had five .50-caliber bullets and four small arms cartridges, which he did not declare as required by law, according to the FBI complaint.
"The fact that TSA located these explosives indicated the system is working," Assistant U.S. Attorney Lawrence Ferazani said.
Mr. Marshall, 26, told officers he was importing the munitions, which he believed to be inert, for use in DynCorp training exercises. Port Authority police released him, federal officials said.
The FBI sent agents to arrest Mr. Marshall at his Riverside, Calif., home after the bomb squad analyzed the munitions, and DynCorp officials said Mr. Marshall had no involvement in its training operations.
Mr. Marshall was released on bail in California and was expected to be arraigned in federal court in Brooklyn tomorrow. He faces charges of placing explosives on an aircraft and trying to place ammunition on a domestic flight without notifying the carrier.