Garvey's Reign at FAA Ends in Dead of Night (my title)

AvWeb, FAA Website, various newspapers | 9/5/02

[pabianice]

Quietly, in the dead of night, Jane Garvey, the former landscaper-turned-disastrously-bad-FAA-Administrator since her appointment by President Clinton in 1997, has been spirited away and replaced after completing her five-year term on 17 August 2002.

Garvey was the first FAA Administrator to have never flown an aircraft - an appointment akin to making as the US Navy's Chief of Naval Operations someone who had never actually sailed aboard a ship. Garvey did bring to the job a solid background as a Democratic Party fund-raiser, especially for President Clinton, for whom she is reported to have raised over $ 1.6 million in Massachusetts for his 1996 run for reelection.

As Administrator, Garvey initiated “Safer Skies,” the U.S. aviation community's safety agenda, which demanded “zero accidents” for flying, and punished anyone unfortunate enough to run afoul of the mathematical certainty that accidents will happen, despite the obvious fact that there is no such thing as a zero accident mode of travel, including walking, “Safer Skys” was an effective demotivator for the aviation community.

Prior to being named FAA Administrator, Garvey was Acting Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, another specialty for which she had absolutely no qualifications (although she did ride in a car from time to time).

Before joining FHWA, Garvey served as director of Logan International Airport, one of the Nation's busiest aviation facilities (and long-time member of the Airline Pilots' Association "Ten Worst Airports in the U.S.") In 1991, she was Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Works. Before that, Garvey was Associate Commissioner in the Massachusetts Department of Public Works, where she directed construction activities and developed environmental initiatives, whose primary duty was reportedly the direction of planting bushes along highway medians and other roadside beautification.

Garvey holds degrees from Mount Saint Mary College and Mount Holyoke College (although she will not disclose in what fields she received these degrees).

On March 27, 2001, speaking before Aviation Safety Expo 2001 in Washington, DC, Ms. Garvey declared that “airline schedule delays are the most serious issue facing aviation safety today.”

Ms. Garvey has been quietly replaced by Acting Administrator Monte Belger, who in 28 years has worked his way up through the ranks from entry-level security inspector. He was formerly the Acting Deputy Administrator, in which capacity he has worked primarily in union relations and air traffic control technology upgrades.

In his previous post as Associate Administrator for Air Traffic Services, Belger was responsible for the day-to-day operation of the nation's airspace system and managing a $4 billion budget. Highlights of Belger's tenure include supervising the FAA's modernization plan (a total disaster which cost the U.S. taxpayers $18 billion and has yet to deliver the first working next generation air traffic control system), "improving aviation safety and service to airlines, and implementing new, cost-saving procedures." He also "co-chaired the FAA's successful efforts to bring acquisition and personnel reform to the agency."

Belger began his civil service career as a FAA security inspector in Tampa in 1972, after receiving an honorable discharge as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army (either failed to make captain or chose to serve only two years).

There is no metion in his biography that he has ever actually piloted an aircraft.

[pabianice]

Six days until the first anniversary of the Attack on New York.

[afz400]

Garvey basically sailed by with no complaints from the air-traffic controllers because she gave them a 28% pay raise that was not budgeted for. FAA has had to eat 100 million authorized for other purposes to cover this pay-off. STARS is a failure much like AAS was 10 years ago. I think she was also a major factor in the Boston Big Dig fiasco.