War Chest Grows in Bid to Keep Bases Open : Military: A task force’s fund-raising efforts to keep two Navy facilities in the county open get a boost from three area cities.

Pledges of financial support this week from west Ventura County’s three largest cities have dramatically increased the momentum of the battle to block possible closure of the county’s U.S. Navy bases, organizers leading the fight said Thursday.

With Wednesday’s pledge of $19,530 from the Camarillo City Council, the Ventura County BRAC ’95 Task Force has received more than $120,000 in pledges from three cities, the county and individuals, said Cal Carrera, co-chairman of the task force.

“This thing is really starting to snowball,” Carrera said. “I think people in the county are finally starting to realize what a threat to the county a base closure represents.”

The task force’s goal is to raise $350,000, Carrera said. That money will be used to pay for the services of a Washington lobbying firm and possibly hiring a task force executive director.

While Port Hueneme turned down the group’s request for financial assistance last week, representatives of the task force say they are encouraged by their success in Ventura, which gave $19,930, and Oxnard, which will contribute $32,450.

The task force next week will ask for contributions from Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks and Moorpark at city council meetings in those cities.

The cities of Santa Paula, Fillmore and Ojai will also soon be approached for funds by the task force, officials said.

The County Board of Supervisors made the first contribution to the campaign late last month, pledging $10,000, office space and staff time to help complete a contract between the task force and the lobbying firm.

Wednesday, task force officials warned Camarillo officials that they may return to all the contributing cities for additional funds should either the Naval Construction Battalion Center at Port Hueneme or the Point Mugu Naval Air Weapons Station wind up on the Base Realignment and Closure list. Federal officials are scheduled to release the list March 1.

“It’s admittedly late in the game,” Carrera said of the timing of the lobbying effort. “But, we believe that our (campaign) budget is valid as long as we stay off the closure list. If we get on the list, we’ll be back.”

Mayor Ken Gose said he supported making the pledge to the task force, but cautioned that the campaign might not be enough to save the bases from closure.

“We’re going to do the best we can but there’s some possibility we may not be successful,” Gose said. “We have to understand what tremendous competition there is among these bases to stay open.”

Meanwhile, about 50 Ventura County-based defense industry leaders met Thursday at a luncheon in Camarillo to discuss ways of coping with the Pentagon’s continuing efforts to downsize military forces--a directive that has caused the loss of an estimated 7,000 defense-related jobs in the county during the past two years.

Douglas Henton, a manager of the Silicon Valley Network, a consortium of Northern California business and defense executives, said Ventura County defense executives should prepare for possible base closures and shrinking defense contracts similar to those that have occurred in the Bay Area.

“It’s important to start thinking about the development of ‘dual-use’ technologies,” Henton said. “These are products that are in demand for defense and civilian commercial markets and which will help ensure your survival.”

Henton said one technique defense contractors can use is to join together in the development of technologies in so-called industry clusters, with groups of competing companies sharing resources and working together on product development.