Aspin’s Hit List: 9 California Bases, Including El Toro : Military: Long Beach Shipyard and March Air Force Base are other Southland facilities he’ll recommend for shutdown. Gov. Wilson calls move ‘man-made disaster.’

Defense Secretary Les Aspin has decided to recommend permanent closure of El Toro Marine Corps Air Station and eight other military bases in California that were targeted for shutdown by the individual armed services last week, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

The decision, made by Aspin and his top aides Wednesday afternoon, is scheduled to be made public Friday and sent to the independent Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission, which is charged with making final judgments on base closures.

The California bases would be shut down over the next three or four years.

Besides El Toro, the Southland bases on Aspin’s list include the Long Beach Naval Shipyard and March Air Force Base in Riverside County. Also earmarked for closure are the Presidio Army base in Monterey and five Bay Area facilities: Alameda Naval Air Station; the Mare Island Naval Shipyard; McClellan Air Force Base; the Oakland Navy Supply Center, and Treasure Island Naval Station.

Aspin also is expected to recommend the closing of 21 other major installations around the country and the consolidation of as many as 150 other depots and smaller sites. San Diego would have the major remaining Navy base on the Pacific Coast.

California officials have predicted serious economic consequences if all nine bases are closed. The state is already in a severe economic slump, with the unemployment rate at 9.8%.

On Wednesday, the Orange County Chamber of Commerce joined the chorus of critics outraged over the possible shutdown of the El Toro base.

Describing the potential closure as “nothing less than an affront to our area,” chamber officials announced the creation of a task force to review the economic implications of a base shutdown in a county already hard hit by the worst recession since World War II. The action comes a day after the Orange County Board of Supervisors denounced the proposal.

County officials have estimated that El Toro’s closure--which would eliminate 1,562 civilian and 4,738 military jobs--could mean the loss of between $400 million and $500 million annually. Coupled with the previously planned closure of the Marine Corps Air Station at Tustin, the projected annual loss to Orange County could rise to $1 billion.

“While the chamber is not making a judgment on the military implications of the proposed closure, we submit that any discussion of closing such a significant facility must contemplate and develop a comprehensive transition strategy,” chamber director Wayne Wedin said Wednesday in a written statement.

Gov. Pete Wilson issued a report Wednesday saying that closure of the nine bases could cost California $6 billion a year and eliminate 328,000 jobs at the bases and among surrounding businesses.

“This is wrong for national security and it’s wrong for California’s economy,” Wilson said in a statement. “I intend to do everything in my power to prevent this kind of man-made disaster from taking place.”

The commission is expected to conduct public hearings and visit each base before coming up with its own recommendations by July 1. Those then go to the President and Congress. If the lawmakers do not specifically reject the plan, it becomes law on Sept. 1.

By far the biggest single hit at any of the California installations would come at McClellan Air Force Base, an aircraft repair facility near Sacramento that employs 12,600 civilians and 3,500 military personnel.

But officials said the impact is likely to be especially hard in areas already hit by base-closings in 1991, when the commission shut down seven bases in California and recommended consolidation of three others.

For example, March Air Force Base, which is the third-largest employer in the Inland Empire with 9,196 military and civilian employees and a $97-million annual payroll, is in an area where Norton Air Force Base and George Air Force Base are being shut down.

In Southern California, closure of Long Beach Naval Shipyard would cost 4,196 civilian jobs and 33 military jobs.

The developments came as Congress intensified lobbying against prospective base-closing recommendations, with delegations from California and South Carolina--two of the states expected to be hit the hardest by the 1993 proposals--continuing to appeal for relief.

But Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) said he is “withholding judgment” on the proposal to close the El Toro air station, which lies within his congressional district, until he gets an explanation of the move from the Clinton Administration.

“The burden is on the Administration, which has said we have to close all these bases, to explain why,” Cox said. “Otherwise, we are left with the rather obvious facts concerning the substantial contribution that El Toro makes to our national security.”

The congressman said the El Toro base “has supplied much of the Marine flying power since the Vietnam War, and during Desert Shield it deployed more than 450 aircraft and 15,000 Marines.”

Cox has asked for a meeting with Aspin to discuss the issue, but had not received an answer as of Wednesday evening.

Despite Aspin’s reported decision, Rep. Jay C. Kim (R-Diamond Bar) said he has drafted a letter to the defense secretary asking him to impose a moratorium on base closings in states with unemployment rates higher than 9%. The request would affect California and about three other states, Kim said.

“I’m not saying, ‘Do me a favor,’ ” said Kim, who represents Yorba Linda. “I think my request is very fair.”

Meanwhile, the Orange County Chamber of Commerce task force, to be led by director Wedin, will work with local government officials to develop a strategy in hoped-for discussions over the closure with the Defense Department.

“Such a strategy must consider not only implications to military personnel, but also to the economic needs of the area and, if appropriate, to the identification of steps to rededicate this major property to alternative uses,” Wedin said.

In Washington, President Clinton met for an hour Wednesday with members of the California Legislature but reportedly offered them little reassurance that any of the military bases on the list would be spared.

He also promised to expand federal efforts to assist Los Angeles and other hard-hit Southern California communities, but offered no firm plans. Clinton travels to Baltimore today to unveil a new “defense conversion” plan but it is expected to be modest.

Aspin--in an effort to blunt the mounting protests in Congress--sent lawmakers a memo arguing that keeping unneeded facilities open would only drain badly needed defense money and warning that more shutdowns will be necessary in future years.

He said that “closing domestic bases and reducing weapons and equipment purchases are critical elements of a balanced defense drawdown--one which will preserve a fully capable, albeit smaller, military.”

Officials cautioned Wednesday that Aspin could make some changes in the base-closing list before Friday morning, when the Pentagon plans to begin privately notifying members of Congress whose districts contain bases that are in jeopardy. But they said none of those last-minute changes is likely to affect the California bases.

One factor exacerbating the situation for California is that the state is heavily dependent on Navy installations and the Navy is pushing hard to close bases this year. During previous base closures in 1988 and 1991, few Navy facilities were targeted.

Aspin said his list is based on the George Bush Administration’s plans for a 1.8-million member military force, and that the additional budget cuts that Clinton is proposing would force more shutdowns.

Nevertheless, he pledged that he would not recommend any base for closure if it could “conceivably be kept open” under the plan the Administration is drafting to overhaul the structure of the armed forces. Aspin is not expected to finish that proposal until summer.

The Pentagon operates 481 installations around the country. In 1991, the base-closing commission ordered 34 domestic installations closed and called for the consolidation of 48 others throughout the United States. Some 17 bases in California were affected.

Times staff writers Robert W. Stewart and James Bornemeier in Washington, Kevin Johnson in Orange County and Dan Morain in Sacramento contributed to this story.