D.C. Trip Cut, but Not Lobbying to Preserve Bases

Ventura County leaders have decided to forgo a second lobbying trip to Washington early next month, but continue to push the Defense Department to protect the Point Mugu and Port Hueneme Navy bases from the upcoming round of base closures.

County supervisors and other prominent leaders on Tuesday sent a letter to Defense Secretary William J. Perry to emphasize the military importance of the Naval Air Warfare Center at Point Mugu and the Naval Construction Battalion Center at Port Hueneme.

“We would be first to say ‘give them up’ if it were in the national interest to do so,” the letter said. “But their performance and continuing function would stand any test administered to prove high military worth.”

A countywide task force to protect local bases had planned to dispatch a delegation to the nation’s capital in early February, but decided to cancel the trip upon the advice of the group’s Washington, D.C., lobbyist.

The cancellation was a strategic decision, balancing the need for a strong show of local support with the risk of wearing out the welcome of Ventura County leaders, task force members said.

The decision also conserves finances of the BRAC ’95 Task Force, which has collected about $200,000 from government and businesses to lobby on behalf of the county’s bases and their 20,000 workers.

“I’m closely watching those funds,” said Carolyn Leavens, a task force member and president of the Ventura County Economic Development Assn.

Supervisors John K. Flynn and Maggie Kildee led a 10-member delegation to Washington in mid-December that met with an array of Pentagon, congressional and White House officials.

Little has happened since then. The Navy has yet to offer Perry a list of which bases it is willing to sacrifice. And, Congress has not finalized the list of members of an independent base closure commission that will vote on the final hit list of bases to close.

So any new delegation would risk covering some of the same ground with the same people as the previous one, Flynn said.

Instead of assembling another large group to cut a swathe across Washington, Flynn suggested that the task force will send one or two people as needed to deliver messages to specifically targeted individuals. He likened it to a “stiletto approach.”

Under the Base Closure and Realignment law, Perry must unveil a proposed hit list of bases on March 1. Until then, the Pentagon’s process is a closely held secret.

Meanwhile, the supervisors, Leavens and former Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino (R-Ventura) signed the three-page letter to Perry that outlines a number of unique features of each base.

Specifically, it highlights the 36,000-square-mile sea test range off Point Mugu that allows Navy ships and aircraft to fire missiles in an area with minimal civilian intrusion.

It also mentions how the deep-water Port of Hueneme helps the Seabees mobilize quicker in emergencies by allowing the naval mobile construction battalions to load material and gear directly onto ships bound for overseas.

“More importantly, there is a synergism between the two bases, which would be impossible to replicate,” the letter said.

Missile-testing programs at Point Mugu rely on the deep-water port to harbor old ships used for target practice. And Seabees often fly from Point Mugu when they travel on overseas missions.

Flynn said the letter is timed to reach Perry just before he receives recommendations from the Navy, Army and Air Force.

“We want to make sure the secretary of defense knows our position on the military value of those two bases,” Flynn said.

The letter also mentions the widespread support for the county’s two Navy bases and how county policies have not allowed urban growth to encroach on the wide-open space needed in Point Mugu’s sea test range to fire high-tech weapons.

But the letter carries a warning: Should Point Mugu close, it says, the area could become so developed that the Defense Department will have a hard time reactivating the test range for military purposes.