Too Much Change

"Too much change." That's what one of the retirees I talked to told me. Why he retired. He was a supervisor on the Commercial Operations side (I guess they call it a generic "Trade" now), seemingly irreplaceable. They lost an overstuffed suitcase full of knowledge when they let him go. I know what he meant. Change is frightening.

But, truth be said, he misses the people. He goes back once a month or so, saying hi to everybody, going out to lunch with some. He and his wife are alone -- no dalmatians at home currently -- but his wife's father just died and his own mother is 95 and frail. But stubborn.

The party today at the South San Francisco Elks Club was full of stories like that. And the theme was "change."

And one of the biggest changes in our lives is the death of our family, our friends. MC Mike Freitas announced those from legacy Customs who passed away in 2008:

Emory Anderson, previous WAE inspector, passed away a few days after last year's Old Timers Luncheon.
Fred Del Porto
Al Boragno
Eleanor Antonich
Edward Kwas
Elinor Donnelly
Al Lacy, Jr.
Jonnetter Walker
Paul Lefkow

An announcement on a nicer note: Raul Palomo and Susan Miller are due to retire at the end of this month.

Much to our surprise, the Port of San Francisco sent someone to talk to us retirees, namely the port director himself, John Leonard. No one had met Mr. Leonard yet, as he just assumed his new position, and I have to say, he barely looked to be about 30. He said some nice things: "San Francisco is the one port I wanted to get to." And then he said something perfectly awful: "I'm a Red Sox and Patriots fan."

After the boos subsided, he laughed and added, "I'm going to the Oakland Coliseum to watch the Raiders and the Patriots later. Someone advised me that it would be a good thing if I wore my Patriots gear." That was funny. He won't make it out alive.

He told us that San Francisco is not the same port we remember. The merging of the three agencies -- Customs, Immigration, USDA -- into one under Dept. of Homeland Security has given the port director responsibility for 750 employees rather than the 400 of the past. "Immigration is a big thing, a hot-button issue," he said, and talked about how soon-to-be Homeland Security boss Janet Napolitano seems to be well-suited for the role due to her experience with the immigration issue.

He also mentioned a million-dollar trade seizure at the Port of Oakland from a few days ago that involved a shipment of illegally imported t-shirts from Indonesia. Except that the t-shirts were really from China. The importers were using a quota from Indonesia; the quota from China was already full. Oops...

He also mentioned a new initiative called the Model Port Initiative, which, in short, will provide "a more welcoming environment." We all laughed at that. CBP Officers tend to resemble a certain 1940's militaristic force from Western Europe in recent years. Glad to see they have a fancy new title for making nice.

Rich Vigna, whom I knew when he was a GS-7 inspector at LAX but who now is the highest official in San Francisco and John Leonard's boss, also came up to talk with us. He mentioned something that one of the current supervisors had told me moments before: there is now an age cap of 37 on being a CBP officer. Everyone currently in is grandfathered in. Rich gave us a several-page brief on where the Port of San Francisco is these days. Thanks, Rich!

For instance, in 2007, 74,000 commercial aircraft were processed. 370,000 containers processed. 4,381 vessels cleared. 935,000 passengers processed. 537 pounds of narcotics and $2.7 million dollars of undeclared or illicit currency were seized. 348 arrests were made.

Makes me tired just looking at it.