Ventura County Naval Base Jobs Only Slightly Affected by Cutback

While California was hit hard by a new military base closure plan announced Friday, Ventura County escaped almost unscathed even though the U. S. Navy is the area’s largest employer.

Because the plan has so little impact on Ventura County jobs, its most significant effect may be to put 33 Navy-owned acres up for sale to the city of Port Hueneme or the deep-water Port of Hueneme.

At most, the Navy’s four Hueneme facilities would lose 144 of their 21,000 jobs. But 129 Navy jobs are expected to be transferred into Ventura County, so the net job loss would be only 15, according to Pentagon projections.

“Needless to say, I am extremely pleased that the importance of Point Mugu and Port Hueneme (bases) has once again been recognized,” said Rep. Elton Gallegly, a Republican from Simi Valley.

This third round of nationwide base closures and realignments would be felt most at the Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory in Port Hueneme.

The 33-acre facility at the mouth of the Port Hueneme Harbor would be closed, and its operations moved just north onto the sprawling Naval Construction Battalion Center.

Pentagon documents say 65 jobs would be cut by consolidating the 416-employee Navy laboratory with Seabee base operations.

Many of those 65 lost jobs, however, are expected to be reassigned elsewhere on the Seabee base as attrition allows, said a government source familiar with the process.

The new plan also includes cuts of two data-processing units at 11,000-employee Point Mugu Naval Air Station and the 7,200-employee Port Hueneme Seabee base. Job losses total 79. But another 129 jobs would come to the Seabee facility under the plan.

The 2,350-employee Naval Surface Warfare Center at Port Hueneme, would be affected only at its two Virginia satellite facilities, a spokeswoman said.

The most significant result of the new plan to the local economy could be to offer the oceanfront Navy laboratory site to the city of Port Hueneme or the Port of Hueneme as excess property.