2 Bases in State Off Closure List; 3rd May Follow

After an intense, four-day lobbying effort by the state’s congressional delegation, two large Northern California military installations were removed from the Pentagon base closing list, and there were strong indications that Long Beach Naval Shipyard also would be spared, congressional and Pentagon sources said Thursday.

Defense Secretary Les Aspin’s eleventh-hour changes could save more than 23,000 jobs at the Long Beach facility, McClellan Air Force Base in Sacramento and the Army’s Monterey Presidio. “California’s invigorated political leadership has had its first victory,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), part of a delegation-wide effort that sought to reduce the economic hardship from base closings. “When the facts are on our side and we present our case with clarity, persistence and unity, the Clinton Administration has shown that it will listen.”

Aspin’s recommendations will be sent to the independent Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission, which prepares a final list for consideration by President Clinton and the Congress.

Aspin and top aides finished working on the list late Thursday night. He is known to frequently change his mind at the last minute when confronted with crucial decisions.

The defense secretary had decided on Wednesday to recommend permanent closure of all nine bases in California targeted by the individual armed services last week. But the state’s economic plight and pressure from California leaders apparently persuaded Aspin to make changes Thursday, the sources said.

In a meeting with Boxer and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Thursday, Aspin indicated that reports that all nine bases would be on the hit list “may not be accurate,” Boxer said.

The bases on Aspin’s original list included the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, El Toro Marine Air Station and March Air Force Base in Southern California. Also earmarked for closure were the Presidio Army base in Monterey and five facilities in Northern California: Alameda Naval Air Station, Mare Island Naval Shipyard, McClellan Air Force Base, Oakland Navy Supply Center and Treasure Island Naval Station.

Two congressional sources who have been in contact with Aspin’s office said Long Beach had been removed from the list. Those sources and others confirmed the McClellan and Monterey were also removed.

The revisions, scheduled to be sent to the independent base closing commission today, did not bring entirely good news to California. Sources told The Times that Aspin added the Alameda Naval Depot and the San Diego Naval Training Center, which employs 14,000 people, to the closure list.

Under Aspin’s realignment plan, however, many military and civilian jobs were expected to be diverted to four Navy facilities in the San Diego area and to the Marine Corps’ Camp Pendleton, the sources said.

The Alameda Depot is the fifth installation on the list in the hard-hit San Francisco Bay Area.

Rep. Jane Harman (D-Marina del Rey) said Wednesday that she “had reason to believe that (Long Beach Naval Shipyard) was not on the list” and reaffirmed that position Thursday. Harman, a first-year member of the House Armed Services Committee, would not characterize the source of her information.

“Even if this works out, the shipyard is still at some risk,” Harman said, referring to the long base-closure process that leaves open the possibility of sites being added later.

Long Beach Mayor Ernie Kell confirmed Thursday night that “Long Beach has been spared,” saying that the city’s Washington lobbyist, Del Smith, had telephoned him at home to say the shipyard was off the list.

Kell said city officials had been lobbying heavily for the past few weeks, deluging Navy officials with letters and faxes pleading with them to allow the yard to remain open. He said the lobbyist had told him that the shipyard’s productivity and the region’s lingering recession had been key to the government’s decision.

Long Beach recently lost about 20,000 aerospace jobs. The 50-year-old shipyard, with about 4,200 workers, is the fourth-largest employer in Long Beach, with an annual payroll of about $340 million. It distributes another $120 million a year to more than 900 subcontractors and supports 7,500 secondary jobs and $350 million in secondary spending, officials said.

The optimism comes at the end of a week of intense lobbying by the delegation on behalf of the threatened bases and shipyards. With California reeling from high unemployment and earlier defense cutbacks, the 54-member state congressional delegation seized on the issue with a vengeance.

Both senators made floor speeches urging that special consideration be given to states such as California that have high unemployment. And Feinstein and Rep. Vic Fazio (D-West Sacramento) introduced resolutions urging the base closing commission to place greater emphasis on the economic impact to local communities.

But one California Republican sent a letter Wednesday arguing against the resolution. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of Huntington Beach said the bases’ military value and cost saving should take precedence--as they do now under the commission’s criteria.

“I would ask that you . . . oppose efforts to turn it into a contest about whose economic conditions are worse,” Rohrabacher wrote.

In Sacramento, Democratic Assembly Speaker Willie Brown said the Clinton Administration may be prepared to soften the blow of proposed California base closures by transferring the properties at no cost to local governments or other public entities.

Speaking Thursday after returning from a trip to Washington with other legislators, Brown (D-San Francisco) said: “I don’t think there is any reason for Californians to panic about the impending base closure process. The President was so riveted on it and sensitive to it that it was almost as if he were a Californian.”

Gov. Pete Wilson has said pending and previously announced base closures could cost California 329,900 jobs and $11 billion in lost annual salaries.

In a related matter, an expected announcement about sites for several regional Defense Department finance and accounting centers nationwide was thrown into doubt by reports that the Pentagon had decided to kill the program. San Bernardino is one of 20 cities competing for the complexes, which would bring 4,000 new jobs to the Inland Empire.

Spokesmen for Wilson and Rep. George E. Brown Jr. (D-Colton) said they had heard rumors and were uncertain what today’s announcement would bring.

Times staff writers Art Pine in Washington, Jerry Gillam in Sacramento, Roxana Kopetman in Long Beach and Shawn Hubler in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

O.C. GUNS SILENT: Local congressmen don’t leap to defense of El Toro base. B1