Aspin Promises to Blunt Effects of Closing U.S. Bases : Military: The defense secretary tells local officials of plans to expedite the conversion of the facilities to civilian uses and clean up more pollution on the sites.

Defense Secretary Les Aspin, seeking to rally the spirits of community leaders where military bases have been ordered shut down, promised Monday to speed up the base-closure process so that the installations can be transformed into commercial enterprises.

Speaking to local and state officials, including several from Southern California, Aspin pledged to cut red tape at the Pentagon, ease property transfers and accept increased responsibility for environmental cleanup of polluted military land.

Although such measures had been outlined a month ago by President Clinton, Aspin and his top assistants clearly wanted to portray themselves as sympathetic to the cities and regions that must bear the economic pain as the Defense Department pares its post-Cold War budget.

The Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission has recommended that 130 bases be closed nationwide. Eight large bases in California are on the list--including five in the Bay Area, the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station and the San Diego Naval Training Center.

In earlier rounds of base closings, the Pentagon had been criticized for being distant and uncaring and for slowing down the process of converting military facilities to civilian use.

Aspin, along with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell and others, sought to change that image during the combination pep talk and question-and-answer session: “Call on us early and often” for help, Aspin said.

The message seemed to sink in with many of the local officials and congressmen crowded into a large, low-ceilinged Pentagon function room.

“Everything I’ve heard today seems to suggest they’re interested in removing the obstacles and impediments and expediting the process,” Orange Country Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez said. “I’m impressed so far and think there’s some good signs in all of this.”

Vasquez said he was particularly pleased to hear Aspin commit the Defense Department to a larger role in environmental cleanup.

“That was a much further step than I had expected. To hear Aspin use the words, ‘We’ll accept responsibility,’ was very, very encouraging,” Vasquez said. “I underscored that in my notes.”

Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez), who fought and lost the battle to save Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, said that although no new initiatives were announced during the Pentagon briefing, the approach was refreshingly positive.

“If they do what they say they’ll do, it will be much better for the communities than it has ever been in the last several rounds of base closing,” Miller said.

Deputy Secretary of Defense William Perry recently visited three areas of the country hit hardest by the base closings--Alameda, Calif.; Homestead, Fla.; and Charleston, S.C. The visits went so well that Pentagon officials decided to invite more than 200 officials and members of Congress to Washington to sell Clinton’s plan for accelerated base conversion.

The base closings are something of a two-headed monster for the Administration. The surplus installations have to be shut down to save billions of dollars in defense spending, but the devastation of local and state economies has to be cushioned.

The keys to the Clinton plan are elimination of bureaucratic roadblocks to property transfers, faster cleanup of toxic wastes, the naming of transition coordinators at major bases, better access to existing assistance and retraining programs, and more generous grants to communities developing base reuse plans.

Robert Rubin, a key Clinton adviser and chairman of the National Economic Council, was the White House representative at the briefing.

“The President has been through the base-closing process as a governor, and the experience was very bad,” Rubin said. “He wants it done differently this time.”