Port Authority to create security czar

All security operations of the Port Authority will be centralized under a special "chief security officer," officials said Thursday.

The new "czar," as one law enforcement official dubbed the position, comes after a top-to-bottom review of the agency found its security operations were too decentralized and fragmented for the modern realities of global affairs.

The new security boss has yet to be picked, but Michael Chertoff, former head of the Department of Homeland Security, said at a news conference that there was some "impatience" to get the new director selected. Chertoff's company, Chertoff Group, conducted the authority's review and he will play a temporary role as a consultant in the agency's transformation.

The new central security operation, which will include Port Authority police, won't change any working relationships with the NYPD around the developing of the World Trade Center site, said Port Authority chairman David Samson.

"Our creation of a centralized Security Department overseeing the Port Authority's policing and our other security resources, will enhance our billions of dollars of investment in security infrastructure," Samson said at a Manhattan news conference.

A spokesman for the NYPD didn't return calls for comment Thursday. The Port Authority operates major area airports, bridges, tunnels and infrastructure.

The Port Authority also announced major changes to its employee compensation and benefits. Nonunion employees will have to contribute to their health care coverage compensation, add-ons such as certain longevity pay will end and vacation policies are changing. Currently, only non-union employees hired after July 1, 2005, make healthcare contributions.

Those measures are expected to save more than $41 million through 2013, agency officials said. Union workers covered by collective bargaining agreements aren't affected, but Port Authority executive director Patrick J. Foye indicated the agency will try to negotiate contract changes down the road.

Chertoff said that for 60 years the Port Authority favored a decentralized security structure with various departments handling different functions, resulting in a kind of "stovepipe" organization with separate departments. But in the modern era of terrorism, a more centralized structure was needed, he said.

Chertoff didn't describe any particular events, mistakes or omissions in security, and noted that the agency had made significant investments in security operations since Sept. 11, 2001. Samson, citing security concerns, said Chertoff's report wouldn't be made public.