New Push Planned to Save Air Base : Economy: South Bay leaders will visit Washington to try to keep the El Segundo facility, keystone of region’s aerospace industry, off the closure list.
It’s crunch time for South Bay leaders hoping to save the Los Angeles Air Force Base in El Segundo.
With about one month left before the Air Force discloses its list of base closures, South Bay community leaders plan to step up efforts to ensure that the El Segundo facility remains off the list.
A delegation of South Bay business leaders plans to visit Washington on Feb. 22-24 to convince congressional leaders and defense officials that California, and especially the South Bay, can’t afford to lose the base.
The keystone of the region’s aerospace industry, the base employs more than 7,000 people and has $5.4 billion in contracts with firms within a 100-mile radius of El Segundo. The base is actually a research center for military space hardware; it has no runways and no aircraft are known to be housed there.
Business leaders have said the loss of the base would prompt a ripple effect that could wipe out more than 50,000 jobs. They also say it would trigger another exodus of aerospace jobs, which would devastate the South Bay economy.
Fifteen South Bay leaders, a cross-section of executives, educators, health care providers and others, will make up the delegation, spokesman Alan M. Schwartz said. A Torrance investment banker, Schwartz is the newly created vice president for military affairs of the South Bay Assn. of Chambers of Commerce.
In addition, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Marina Del Rey), whose district includes El Segundo and other South Bay cities with big aerospace companies, said this week that she will spearhead an effort to rally the 52-member California congressional delegation behind the movement to preserve the base. She has written to Defense Secretary Les Aspin, a longtime friend, and said she will probably meet with him before the list is made public.
“It clearly is a very high priority for me,” said Harman, who today is expected to join a coalition of business and elected leaders to formally announce plans to lobby defense officials for the base.
Aside from the South Bay effort, Aspin last week met with Gov. Pete Wilson, who was in Washington for a national governors conference, to discuss the Los Angeles base among other topics, Wilson spokesman Franz Wisner said.
“The meeting went well,” Wisner said, but he could provide no further details.
Aspin is scheduled to submit a list of recommended base closures to President Clinton, Congress and the Base Realignment and Closure Commission on March 15.
The commission will conduct public hearings and study the list before it makes a final report July 1 to Clinton, who could either approve the list and send it to Congress or send it back to the commission for revisions. Clinton has until Sept. 1 to send a final closure list to Congress or the effort will die.
Although it is uncertain whether the Los Angeles base will be on the list, community leaders have feared that it might be since the last round of Pentagon base closures recommendation in January, 1990. At that time, the Air Force considered closing the base because it was having difficulty finding housing for base personnel.
In December, state and local officials agreed to set aside 23 acres of Los Angeles school system property in San Pedro for the Air Force to build about 250 multifamily housing units. But even before the space for the housing was provided, the Air Force warned Los Angeles officials that securing housing may not prevent the base’s flight.
“Family housing has always been a serious problem at Los Angeles, and taking this long step toward solving it will obviously be a plus,” then-Air Force Secretary Donald B. Rice wrote to Mayor Tom Bradley last October. “I cannot assure you, however, that providing land for family housing will guarantee that the base will continue in operation.”
The offer “doesn’t cover the whole waterfront but it covers a goodly chunk of it,” base spokesman Maj. Bruce Lewis said this week.
Local community leaders have felt edgy, speculating on how much influence Harman, who is on the House Armed Services Committee, might have in selecting bases to close.
Bad signs have included the announcement last fall that several hundred employees of the base’s Office of Special Projects will be relocated over the next several years to Washington. Expected to follow them are several hundred employees of Aerospace Corp., a private nonprofit research group that works closely with the base’s main tenant, the Space and Missile Systems Center.
Good signs include Harman’s committee membership and her friendship with Aspin, who made a campaign appearance for her last October when he was a Wisconsin congressman.
In Washington, the business delegation plans to visit Aspin’s special counsel, Rudy DeLeon, who grew up in Redondo Beach--another good sign, members of the delegation said. They also plan to meet with members of the state’s congressional delegation.
“Our purpose is to demonstrate to Congress and the Department of Defense how important the Air Force is to the community here,” Schwartz said, adding that the South Bay association is gathering letters of support from community leaders that will be presented to Defense officials and members of Congress.
Kevin Peterson, president of the South Bay Assn. of Chambers of Commerce, said the local drive has gained importance because New Mexico has stepped up efforts to woo the Space and Missile Systems Center to Albuquerque, where an arm of the base already is located.
“California cannot take the economic hit that would result in moving the Air Force base,” Peterson said.
He said the association has been working behind the scenes to help secure the space for Air Force housing and will take a more active role in lobbying, which had been done most visibly by the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. The Los Angeles chamber plans to continue its efforts as well.
“We want to be able to sleep at night, knowing we have done the best we could do to save the base,” Peterson said. “We view it as the queen bee of the aerospace industry.”
Base Closing Drill
Here is the federal government’s procedure this year for considering the closure of military bases:
March 15: Secretary of defense submits Defense Department’s base closure recommendations to the President, Congress and the Base Realignment and Closure Commission.
April through May: Base closure commission conducts public hearings in communities that would be affected by proposed closures.
July 1: The commission makes its recommendations to the President.
By July 15: President must approve or reject entire list of proposed closures (no single-line additions or deletions). If he approves, entire list goes to Congress as a bill for final approval. If he rejects, list goes back to base closure commission for reworking. President can make suggestions.
By Aug. 15: Deadline for base closure commission to resubmit report to President, if first was rejected.
By Sept. 1: Deadline for President’s decision on the second base closure commission report. If President approves, he sends the list to Congress as a bill for final approval. If President rejects it again, fails to act on it or if Congress rejects the bill, the effort dies.
Source: Los Angeles Air Force Base
