Plan May Save Jobs at McClellan Base : Military: Pentagon proposal is designed to preserve about half the 11,000 jobs that would be lost if the facility near Sacramento is shut. State officials say it is not enough.

The Pentagon formally presented to President Clinton on Wednesday a plan designed to save about half the 11,000 jobs that otherwise would be lost by closing McClellan Air Force Base near Sacramento but officials said that no decision is likely until later this week.

At the same time, the plan was attacked by California officials, including the state’s two Democratic senators and Gov. Pete Wilson. They blasted it as “contrived,” “unacceptable” and “half-baked.”

The proposal, worked out informally with the Base Closure and Realignment Commission, would close McClellan as the panel recommended but allow the Pentagon to channel some of the maintenance work being done there to private firms, which then could employ many of the same workers.

The proposal would enable Clinton to appear to be aiding California while not interfering with the independent base closing process, which was designed to shield decisions about closures from political influence.

There have been three major rounds of base closings and no President has yet rejected recommendations by the commission. Republicans have charged that even by raising the McClellan case, Clinton is injecting politics into the process.

The White House is loath to anger California voters a year before the 1996 presidential election. The state has 54 electoral votes and the commission has ordered several California installations closed, including the Long Beach Naval Shipyard.

California, which enjoyed a huge influx of defense-related jobs during the Cold War, has been hard hit by earlier base closing rounds.

Clinton was briefed on the latest proposal by Defense Secretary William J. Perry in a meeting Wednesday that included White House Chief of Staff Leon E. Panetta, White House National Security Adviser Anthony Lake and vice presidential aide Jack Quinn.

Administration officials said later that no decisions were made and that the White House has asked for additional information on several key points. The President is expected to make his decision by the end of the week.

Under the law, Clinton has until July 15 to accept the panel’s recommendations--involving McClellan and dozens of other bases nationwide--intact or to reject them entirely and ask the panel to craft a new list for his consideration.

Under the Pentagon proposal, the President would accept the commission’s recommendations but express hope in an accompanying letter that the panel might find a way to allow the Defense Department more “flexibility” in re-channeling the work done at McClellan.

The commission then would have to decide whether to alter its recommendations. Presumably, it would approve a plan similar to that worked out by the White House and the Pentagon.

The commission has authorized a similar scheme for Kelly Air Force Base in Texas, ordering that it be shut down as a military installation but allowing the Pentagon to parcel out some of the work done there to private contractors.

In the case of McClellan, the commission was more rigid, not only recommending that the base be closed but directing that maintenance work performed there be transferred to Tobyhanna Army Depot in Pennsylvania.

McClellan has served as a maintenance and repair center for high-technology weapons and equipment, ranging from sophisticated radar devices to satellite sensors--work that requires a highly skilled work force.

Officials said that although there is some dissatisfaction within the commission, a majority of the panel is expected to go along with the Pentagon-drafted compromise. The Pentagon’s plan clearly was a disappointment to White House political strategists, some of whom had hoped that the Defense Department would provide Clinton with a rationale for rejecting the commission’s recommendations on military grounds.

The proposal still has not satisfied California’s senior elected officials. In Sacramento, Republican Gov. Wilson called on Clinton to reject the commission’s closure recommendations altogether, saying that the proposal to give work to private contractors to keep some of the jobs in California is “a kind of half-baked political solution.”

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) called the new proposal a “contrived” and “inadequate” substitute that is likely to generate far fewer jobs than the Pentagon and some of its supporters hope.

She called on Clinton to reject the commission’s recommendations as “the surest, simplest and most concrete way” to ease the pain in California.

Feinstein said that she had asked about a dozen times since last week to meet with Clinton but had been turned down. “The White House has not been very communicative,” she said.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) urged Clinton to reject the compromise plan, saying that the move would be “unacceptable because of the risks it would pose to national security as well as the regional economy in the Sacramento area.”

Times staff writer Bill Stall in Sacramento also contributed to this article.