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3/4 Update
Stealth Weather: Last week our little piece of the world had a rather severe weather front move through. As has happened too many times to count in recent years, it snuck up on the front desk. I know it’s hard to believe what with all the weather data available but apparently whoever had the desk did not avail themselves of The Weather Channel, Accuweather, our very own in-house weather people, or even the weather displays scattered throughout the control room. They must have been too busy doing safety assessments to even look at the RADAR scope and see the weather displayed there (maybe they turned the weather off as it was too much clutter and interfering with the sniping of Air Traffic Controllers?) Anyway, instead of paying attention and taking a proactive role in assisting the Air Traffic Controllers in keeping the NAS up and running, they stood by and watched it unravel. Fortunately for the flying public (also known as our owners or leash-holders - forgive me but I have forgotten the current buzzword management is using) even without a single ounce of leadership, the Air Traffic Controllers did what they always do; adapt and overcome to provide a level of service that is second to none. While many of you have begun to notice a reoccurring theme in my updates, this reoccurring weather issue has an easy fix. Next time we have significant weather moving through our airspace we should all help out and advise the keystone cops running the front desk that there is weather either in our airspace or headed our way thereby ending this whole stealth weather issue. This should allow sufficient warning so that they can complete their E-bay bids, send their email, and finish sniping the Air Traffic Controllers and instead take an active role in assisting the Air Traffic Controllers in the running the NAS.
Another Spending Spree: Seems the FAA emblem embedded in the foyer tile floor had to be removed after it came to light that someone had misspelled “FAA.” As you can imagine, there has been much finger pointing and as of yet no one has come forward to accept responsibility (which is par for the course where management is concerned- in the end they will testify that it was the Air Traffic Controllers who were somehow at fault). Instead of redoing the FAA emblem management has found the money to have a tile mosaic inlaid in the foyer floor. At least a design can’t be misspelled. A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) has revealed the floor along with new foyer furniture came in at $4,890.10.
Our next expense of interest is the driveway around the Guard Shack. A FOIA request shows that ZJX had 72 pallets of what appears to be dead centipede sod, an irrigation system, and seven palm trees installed for the low price of $25,500.00. Funny thing about this one is a quick review of the grounds and only six palm trees are visible and yet the invoice specifically states that seven palm trees were purchased? Strange, maybe strange enough to make some phone calls over?
Twenty one and counting? Twenty one is the number of new flat screens (that we know about) at ZJX. It’s interesting to note that the newest addition, a 52inch HD 1080p Sony XBR ($8,538 according to the FOIA), is screwed to the wall of the executive conference room. Why the facility needs a high end high dollar HD TV in the conference room is beyond me. Maybe they watch movies during their weekly staff meetings? That probably makes the most sense as they can only devote so much time to figuring how to make our jobs more difficult. For those keeping score, of the twenty one flat screens, there is one 42inch, one 52 inch, and the rest are 60inches or larger.
Other items of note:
Mini-mod office furniture $79,926.90
Dining Room furniture $19,975.96
Picnic Tables $5,991.00
ERAM FLeM Workstations $59,395.10
ESIS 60” flat screens (18 total) $67,542.00
Grand total of expenditures to date: $266,868.96
It’s important to note that the FAA claimed that we, the Air Traffic Controllers, were costing them too much money. In reality they didn’t want to give raises to the existing folks and slashed pay for the new troops so they would have money for “projects and new technologies.” Projects and new technologies like those listed above. It’s also important to note that while they cut/slashed Air Traffic Controller pay, they arranged it so they would continue reaping the benefits of the NATCA negotiated pay agreement.
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