Panel OKs Closing Sacramento Base, Taking 14,000 Jobs : Military: Sens. Feinstein and Boxer call on President Clinton to reject recommendation to shutter McClellan AFB. Region has been hard hit by previous closures.

Ignoring the wishes of the Pentagon, a federal commission Thursday voted to close McClellan Air Force Base in Sacramento, wiping out 14,000 civilian and military jobs in a region already decimated by previous rounds of base-closings.

The commissioners on a 6-2 vote recommended that the base’s centerpiece, an air logistics center, be dismantled and its high-tech repair functions split up among the Air Force’s remaining maintenance depots.

“For California, it’s just a major hit,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). The decision, though feared by state and local officials, stunned members of Congress who witnessed the debate leading up to the decisive vote.

“Sacramento has been wiped out,” said Rep. Vic Fazio (D-West Sacramento), whose district includes McClellan, Northern California’s largest industrial employer. “I’m angry . . . outraged,” a visibly upset Fazio said after he abruptly left the packed Senate hearing room.

Moments later, the commission voted to close the air logistics center at Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio, which employs about 14,000 workers. The McClellan and Kelly closures--flying in the face of fierce opposition from the Air Force, the Pentagon and local officials in both states--were the most dramatic actions in the commission’s opening day.

After closing 22 bases and realigning five, the commission still faces a list of about 100 bases to ponder in the next two--possibly three--days of deliberations. It also spared 25 bases, including Point Mugu Naval Base in Ventura County.

The commission will meet again today, when it is expected to decide the fate of the Long Beach Naval Shipyard.

Fazio, along with Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Feinstein, called upon President Clinton to reject the commission’s findings, as he is allowed to do under the base-closing law.

“The commission went way overboard [but] it can be reversed if the President has the guts to step in and do something he’s legally empowered to do,” said Fazio.

Boxer, in a letter to the White House, said, “Mr. President, you now hold the power to correct this gross mistake.”

White House spokesman Mike McCurry said Clinton will consider rejecting the decision if the Defense Department makes a potent case against closing the repair depots.

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“President Clinton is concerned about some of the decisions of the base closing commission,” he said. “He is going to study the action taken by the commission very closely with Secretary [William J.] Perry. He will be very interested in what Secretary Perry says about how those decisions affect our national security, our force posture and our readiness.”

He said Clinton will make no decision while the commission is still meeting but will ask for Perry’s recommendation after the panel is done. “There will be a serious review,” he said.

High Pentagon officials were angry and surprised as well.

“Certainly, there is disappointment,” a senior Pentagon official said Thursday. “But I believe that the Secretary feels he wants to wait until the package is on his desk in toto, “ the official said. “It would be premature to say anything until everything is in place.”

The vote to close McClellan means that state and local officials’ worst nightmare has come true. The base is a high-technology industrial center--specializing in microelectronics, optics and hydraulics--as well as a repair facility for aircraft. The base was not on the original Pentagon closure list but was added by the commission May 10. It represents 42% of the possible California job losses in this round, while the Long Beach Naval Shipyard--the second-largest base in jeopardy--represents 12%.

Because it barely made it through the 1993 round of base closings, the shipyard’s chances are considered very bleak.

In a bit of good news, Point Mugu Naval Base, Ventura County’s largest employer, was spared by the commission, which apologetically noted that the base never should have been added to the closure list in the first place. In a symbolic gesture, the commission voted 8-0 to remove Point Mugu from consideration.

“We goofed,” said commission Chairman Alan J. Dixon, a former U.S. senator from Illinois.

Later in the day, the commission voted 5-3 to realign Onizuka Air Station in Sunnyvale, which will eliminate more than 1,800 military and civilian jobs.

The commission is scheduled to work through Saturday on its list of 177 closure or realignment recommendations. It will reconvene on Monday, if necessary.

The battle over McClellan has spanned years. It was added to the closure list two years ago for the same reason it was added this year: The Air Force has excess capacity in its maintenance depot system but has lagged behind the other services in eliminating duplicate functions.

The Army and Navy have closed or proposed to close 15 repair depots. But the Air Force has resisted closing any of its five logistics centers, which are much larger than the other service depots. The Air Force also said that high costs to close the depots would rob money it needs for operational costs.

Since May--and again Thursday--the commission staff poked holes in the Air Force rationale to keep all five air logistics centers open.

The staff argued that the workload of two closed air logistics centers could be absorbed by the remaining three. They also estimated lower closing costs, quicker return on investments and high annual savings.

The Air Force estimated that it would cost $575 million to close McClellan, but the commission staff said it could be done for $410 million. Likewise, the Air Force said it would take seven years to start saving money from the closure, while the commission staff said savings would accrue after one year.

These discrepancies led six of the commissioners to vote to close McClellan. But the commission was sharply divided on closing two of the air logistics centers.

Also fueling the commission’s decision were three earlier votes

sparing three Air Force research laboratories the Pentagon had slated for closure. The money not spent on closing the labs could go toward closing the maintenance depots, the commission reasoned.

But retired Army Gen. Josue Robles Jr., who offered the motion to close McClellan, had earlier emphasized to the other commissioners that closing two Air Force depots was ill-advised.

“I believe we have a responsibility to close one depot, but we must be very careful not to go a bridge too far. We should not be mesmerized by numbers [and react] like a deer caught in the headlights.”

Former Air Force Gen. J.B. Davis also warned against cutting too deeply into the Air Force depot system.

“We shouldn’t be fascinated by [the argument over] excess capacity. The bean-counters love to talk about excess capacity. But capability is what we should keep our eye on,” he said.

Both Robles and Davis voted to close McClellan but cast the only two votes to spare Kelly.

In light of the decision to close McClellan, the commission rejected Pentagon recommendations to close two smaller Northern California installations--Moffett Air Guard Station in Sunnyvale and North Highlands Air Guard Station near the McClellan base. The moves save about 300 jobs.

For Ventura County officials fretting over the fate of Point Mugu naval base, they need not have bothered.

The commission singled out Point Mugu for praise and removed the facility from the list of endangered installations. Commissioners also strongly criticized the Pentagon inspector general’s report that triggered the Point Mugu alarm.

The decision on Point Mugu boiled down to dollars and cents, with the facility’s unique geography and cooperative relationship with its sister base at China Lake in the Mojave Desert a critical plus. The commission discounted the controversial Pentagon report that said the Navy could consolidate overlapping programs and save $1.7 billion over the next 20 years by moving most of Point Mugu’s functions to China Lake.

“We basically made a mistake,” said Commissioner Davis. “Point Mugu is such a national resource that there’s no way we could tear it down.”

Throughout this third and final round of base closing (authorized by a 1990 law), California officials have argued that the state has suffered disproportionately.

Since 1988, 22 major bases have been shuttered--more than double the number in any other state. But economic impact is the sixth of eight criteria the commission uses to make its decisions. Four criteria relating to military value carry the most weight.

“We have done everything we can,” said Feinstein. “One thing is clear, the process is skewed against California. It is entirely appropriate for President Clinton to reject the entire round--and I think he should. The state is still absorbing the effects of the ’88 and ’91 rounds. Let this round go for the time being.”

In previous rounds the commission’s recommendations have quickly been accepted by the White House and Congress. But Fazio said that California, hit hard by a combination of base closings and fewer Defense Department contracts, is unique.

“I’m asking the President to be treated differently because we have a special case and the President should recognize that. He has his prestige on the line as well.”

The commission must send its recommendations to Clinton by July 1. He has two weeks to approve them and forward them to Congress unchanged--or return to the commission with his reasons for disapproval.

In its first action Thursday, the commission doled out good news in voting to spare three major Air Force laboratories in its recommendations to the President. In unanimous votes, the commission rejected Pentagon recommendations and voted to keep open laboratories at Griffiss Air Force Base, N.Y., Kirtland Air Force, N.M., and Brooks Air Force Base, Texas. Those recommendations save some 800 jobs at the New York and New Mexico bases, stave off the possible transfer of 5,000 jobs from Kirtland, and spare nearly 4,000 jobs at Brooks, according to commission documents.

Times staff writers Marc Lacey, Doyle McManus and Art Pine contributed to this article.