Villaraigosa Hires $1000-Per-Day LAX Consultants To Re-Invent Wheel
By Walter Moore, Candidate For Mayor Of Los Angeles, WalterMooreForMayor.com

According to the L.A. Times/Hoy, Villaraigosa has just agreed to pay three Israeli consultants $1000 per day to recommend security improvements at LAX.

Note the explanation provided for the lucrative new contract:

"Marie Lindsey, who signed the agreement as executive director of Los Angeles World Airports, said her agency wants to learn from Israel how to fortify the perimeter of LAX and how to incorporate anti-terrorist strategies into plans for expanding the Tom Bradley International Terminal.

"In particular, she said, she wants to learn to apply Israel's system of electronic scanning of automobile license plates to identify terrorist suspects as they approach the airport.

"During a walking tour of Ben-Gurion's 4-year-old international terminal, Liss pointed out to Villaraigosa and a large Los Angeles delegation the security features of its design. Bollards protect the building from wayward vehicles and its tempered, shatter-resistant glass facade is reinforced by vertical cables about a foot apart."

Apparently neither the Mayor nor any of the people he appointed to run the airport ever bothered to read the two studies, paid for with your money, from the Rand Corporation on how to make the airport safer. One was issued in 2004, the year after Villaraigosa was elected to the City Council, and the other was issued in 2006, the year after Villaraigosa was elected Mayor.

The second Rand Corporation reported notes Villaraigosa's failure to implement the recommendations made in the first report:

"In Stevens et al. (2004), we found that the key to a successful strategy of deterrence against an unpredictable enemy is to understand and reduce LAX's vulnerabilities and the potential consequences of an attack, making it a less attractive target. The airport is vulnerable in a number of ways but particularly to large truck bombs, luggage bombs, and curbside car bombs. Two steps, relatively easy and cost-effective to implement, could mitigate the risks from all three of these threats.

"1. Reduce the probability of the success of the bombers by adding permanent vehicle checkpoints at the entrances to LAX.

"2. Reduce potential consequences at LAX by reducing crowds on the sidewalks and inside terminals.

"One reason that reducing the crowds at the terminals is more cost effective than adding security film to the glass is that reducing the crowds mitigates the potential consequences from car bombs, luggage bombs, and suicide bombers, while applying film to the glass is only effective (if properly applied) against car bombs. We stand by our 2004 conclusions."

We need a Mayor who doesn't just hire security experts, but one who also actually reads their reports, listens to their advice, and implements their practical proposals to make our city safer.

Villaraigosa and I have each just shown you who's who:

He just spent a bunch of your money traveling to Israel to hire consultants to perform, in essence, a third study at $1000 per day. The year 2008 is half over, and he hasn't lifted a finger to implement the recommendations in the Rand Corporation's 2004 report. That's called "meshugeneh."

By contrast, I just showed you we already have specific, cost-effective recommendations, on the shelf, from a respected think-tank, for which you have already paid. And I did this in my spare time, while holding down a full-time job. Imagine what I could do working as your Mayor full-time.