Group Leaves for D.C. to Lobby for Bases : Navy: Delegation members say they will focus on military leaders in hopes of keeping the Point Mugu and Port Hueneme facilities off a closure list.

A Ventura County delegation left for the nation’s capital Tuesday, saying its members will concentrate on military leaders in this first lobbying trip to make sure neither the Point Mugu nor Port Hueneme Navy bases ends up on the Pentagon’s list of recommended closures.

“If the Department of Defense wants to close you, you have a 90% chance of getting closed,” said Cal Carerra, co-chairman of a special countywide task force that dispatched the group to Washington. “You don’t want to be on that list.”

The 10-member delegation will spend most of today meeting with an array of Navy admirals and Defense Department officials to point out the unique military value of retaining the two bases.

Although an independent Base Closure and Realignment Commission will not determine the final hit list until July, the commissioners have relied heavily in previous rounds on Pentagon leaders’ recommended base closures. Those recommendations will be released March 1.

The delegation decided to go to Washington now so it could have a say before Pentagon leaders make their final decisions, said county Supervisor John K. Flynn, who is leading the delegation with Supervisor Maggie Kildee.

“This is our first stab at it,” Flynn said at a news conference before leaving for Washington. “We will probably have to make two more trips.”

The supervisor said other communities have also sent lobbying groups to Washington, but he believes Ventura County’s BRAC ’95 Task Force is better prepared.

The task force of public officials, defense experts and business leaders has spent weeks preparing briefing booklets that emphasize the unique assets of the two bases, including Port Hueneme’s deep-water port and Point Mugu’s expansive sea-test range used to test missiles and other weaponry.

“When you have 20,000 people whose jobs are at stake here, we have to get involved,” Flynn said. “We can’t ignore it.”

The three-day trip is not designed exclusively to defend the county’s bases from potential closure, Flynn said. Instead, the delegation plans to point out there is room for expansion at Point Mugu and Port Hueneme.

“We are going to be positive and not put down other bases,” Flynn said. “We are going to invite other (military) activities to come to our bases.”

As in the past rounds of base closures in 1988, 1991 and 1993, Washington officials will close some bases and send their operations to other installations. It’s possible that either or both bases could wind up with more operations and more employees.

In various scenarios being considered by the Navy, both Port Hueneme and Point Mugu are being examined as sites to receive some additional military operations.

But Defense Department officials are looking at weapons testing centers to consolidate because of perceived duplication among the Army, Air Force and Navy in testing missiles. As a result, Point Mugu’s Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Division, is considered vulnerable to closure or realignment. The Naval Construction Battalion Center at Port Hueneme faces less of a threat.

The delegation bound for Washington knows of Point Mugu’s position and is prepared to make the technical arguments why its weapons-testing operations should remain where they are.

To help build the case, the county’s delegation is bringing its own defense experts: Bob Conroy, a Camarillo defense contractor and former naval aviator who used to help run operations in Point Mugu’s sea-test range, and Ted Rains, recently retired technical director of the Naval Surface Warfare Center at Port Hueneme.

Other members of the delegation include: former U. S. Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino (R-Ventura), Moorpark Councilman Bernardo Perez, business leader Carolyn Leavens, county government administrators Richard Wittenberg and Penny Bohannon, and BRAC ’95 Task Force coordinator Bill Simmons.