Utah leaders worry that Defense Depot Ogden now may be doomed after a base it hoped to compete with for survival escaped the base closure consideration list Wednesday.
The Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission refused to add the Tracy-Sharpe depot complex in San Joaquin County, Calif., to the list, choosing not to act on Utah arguments that studies show Ogden is more efficient and cost-effective.Utah officials had said they were assured Tracy-Sharpe would be added - and Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, had even issued a press release the day before trumpeting that news. They were left puzzled about why the commission changed its mind.
It also comes after California newspapers charged that Ogden supporters had "lied" about data and tampered with graphs made by a Pentagon contractor in their fight against Tracy-Sharpe - which Utah officials say is a misinterpretation.
Typical of the gloom among Utah leaders was a statement by Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah. "This is a signal they intend to close DDO," he said. "It doesn't look good."
Bill Johnson, military affairs aide to Hansen, said, "The trouble is the DLA (Defense Logistics Agency) has a lot of extra warehouse space that everyone agrees should be eliminated. Without adding Tracy-Sharpe, that leaves no one else on the list to allow that kind of closure except DDO."
"We're quite surprised," said Mike Pavich, president of Hill/DDO '95, which leads lobbying for the base. "It means we do not get the opportunity to follow any further the arguments we have made so far. . . . I don't know that it's the end of the world, but it's tough."
Utah officials entered the closure commission hearing Wednesday fully expecting Tracy-Sharpe to be added and were surprised that it wasn't even on the agenda of bases expected for discussion - and indeed it never came up.
When the Deseret News asked commission chairman Alan Dixon why, he said, "If something never came up here today, it was because staff found there was good reason not to put it on here."
He added, "There were several (bases) as recently as yesterday that were candidates for this list that were dropped off through final discussions back and forth. . . . Frankly, we had cases where one or two commissioners thought something ought to go on. Clearly, that was not the view of the majority."
Ogden supporters had argued that data in a Peat Marwick accounting firm study for the DLA showed Ogden was the most cost-efficient depot and should be saved.
The DLA disagreed, saying depots cannot be compared because, for example, Ogden handles many small items that can be moved quickly and cheaply, while others may move large items like drive shafts for ships that reduce cost-effectiveness. It said the study also was meant to make accounting uniform, not determine cost-effectiveness.
To try to solve the dispute, the closure commission staff last week met with Peat Marwick officials who wrote the study.
Reporting on that, the San Joaquin News Service in California said it showed Ogden supporters "allegedly lied and tampered with graphs" from Peat Marwick's study in earlier presentations.
Johnson, who was in the meeting, said that interpretation is wrong. He said Peat Marwick officials did say the data could not be used to prove or disprove which depot is most efficient - and the DLA also said it does not know which is most efficient.
Johnson said Peat Marwick officials also complained that Hill/DDO '95 officials had put the company's logo on a chart it reconfigured from the study and used in earlier presentations to the closure commission.
"All the text and the data were the same, just in a different format. They said the company logo then should not have been included. They didn't make that big of a deal about it," Johnson said.
Bennett said that with his experience in business, he cannot believe that the DLA has no idea which of its depots is more cost efficient. He believes they erred when they, as they admit, did not consider such information in closure decisions.
"I think they knew, and they didn't want to get into it because it might make them change their mind," Bennett said.
He said he and other members of the Utah delegation will ask the commission to quickly reconsider the issue - and again think about adding Tracy-Sharpe to the closure consideration list.
Such additions by law could be made through Wednesday - but Dixon said the commission plans no more such additions, and they would be made only in extreme situations.
Hansen said, "Without any data available to compare cost efficiency, I do not understand how the decision to close DDO can stand."
The Pentagon has estimated that closing Defense Depot Ogden could cost 1,113 jobs directly there and indirectly cost another 1,834 in the surrounding area.