Seabee Base to Lay Off 180 Civilian Workers

Nearly 200 civilian workers at the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Port Hueneme will be laid off due to budget shortfalls and a smaller workload, military officials announced Monday.

By mid-October, 180 jobs--about 17% of the current civilian work force--will be eliminated. This year, the base faced a $9-million budget shortfall due to federal cuts in military spending and a loss of military contract work, Seabee officials said.

Layoff notices will begin going out in May, officials said.

This round of layoffs marks the latest in a series of reductions at the base. Since 1994, more than 300 civilian jobs have been lost at the Seabee base, in attrition, layoffs and buyouts.

“We’ve been challenged over the last several years with a reduced budget to support our mission and a decline in requests for services from our major customers,” said Capt. Daniel Hambrock, commanding officer of the battalion center. “Although we have taken significant measures to avoid losing valuable employees, we find we must do so to operate within our budget.”

From 1990 to 1995, Ventura County lost 3,500 directly defense-related jobs at Port Hueneme and the nearby Naval Air Weapons Station at Point Mugu because of ongoing consolidation and downsizing of military bases, according to county officials.

The Point Mugu Navy base and the Seabee base contribute nearly $1 billion annually to the county’s economy, county officials say.

County Supervisor John K. Flynn, a member of the Ventura County Regional Defense Partnership (RDP 21)--an organization founded to lobby on behalf of the bases in the aftermath of the federal base closure process--said the job losses will be a big hit on the county’s economy.

“When you add it to the jobs that we have lost since 1992, it does have an impact on the economy of Ventura County. Those are good paying jobs,” Flynn said. “This is one of the fallouts of a reduced defense budget and it is one of the reasons why we have RDP 21. We are going to see more of this before it ends.”

Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), who has lobbied strongly on behalf of the Point Mugu Navy base, maintains that the layoffs should not affect the economic viability of the county’s bases.

Gallegly and others have been working hard to bring four squadrons of E2-C Hawkeye aircraft from Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego to the Point Mugu Navy base.

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The arrival of those squadrons--if it occurs--could be announced as soon as next month and would mean 1,100 new jobs, Gallegly said.

Gallegly also noted that the Navy recently invested millions of dollars in a new commissary, Navy Exchange store and a housing development on the base.

“The fact remains that Port Hueneme is the only deep-water port between San Francisco and Los Angeles,” Gallegly said. “If this base did not have viability, we would not have approval for the construction. As long as there is a Navy, there are going to be Seabees.”

Base officials say they will help laid-off employees find new jobs or transfer to other bases.

But the anxiety among some employees is palpable, some say.

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“It’s been real important to keep the work force as informed as we possibly could,” base spokeswoman Linda Wadley said. “It’s a very tough time. I think there is some nervousness.”

Representatives of the National Assn. of Government Employees, which represents civilian employees at the base, would not comment on the layoffs.