by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
In 1993, the U.S. Congress decided one of the best ways to cut the country’s operating expenses was to close dozens of military bases all over the nation. Within a few short years, Army, Navy, Marine and Air Force bases in virtually every state were closed and the land was conveyed to local governments.
In Jacksonville, Cecil Field fell victim to the cuts and thousands of jobs were relocated or lost altogether. At the time, former U.S. Rep. Tillie Fowler was a budding member of Congress. Because the base was in her congressional district and cost not only jobs, but millions of dollars in annual income, Fowler took it upon herself to assure none of the other bases in the area fell victim to closure.
Nine years later, base closures are still on Fowler’s mind. At Thursday’s Jacksonville Economic Development Commission meeting, Fowler gave a brief presentation about the 1993 closure and how important it is to lobby Congress on behalf of Mayport, NAS and Kings Bay just across the border in Georgia.
“In 2005 Congress will go through another round of base closures and I hope it does not happen here again,” said Fowler, who served eight years in Washington, D.C. and did not seek reelection in 2000, upholding her promise to only serve eight years. “I am very concerned about the bases in Northeast Florida. The economic impact of these bases is huge and you can never replicate the jobs and money lost if you lose a base. We never thought we’d lose Cecil in 1993, but we did.”
Today, Fowler is an attorney at Holland & Knight with an office here and one in Washington. As a result of her work as a congresswoman and her affiliation with the firm, the City hired Holland & Knight about six months ago to help prepare a report on the area’s bases, essentially demonstrating to Congress the strategic and economic necessity of Mayport, NAS and Kings Bay.
“Holland & Knight has been retained as a consultant on base closures,” said Audrey Moran, Mayor John Delaney’s chief of staff. “We selected Holland & Knight based on the fact we want to be fully prepared for any base closure proceedings. We also selected Holland & Knight because Tillie Fowler brings such tremendous expertise to this topic.”
Economically, closing any of the local bases would be devastating. According to Fowler, NAS employs 20,707 people with an annual payroll of $745 million. The adjacent depot employs 3,941 people who make $206 million a year, collectively.
“I consider NAS and the depot highly vulnerable,” said Fowler. “We do have some risk at that base we need to be on top of. There are forces at work at the Pentagon the last 10 years that want to privatize all the depots in the country.”
Fowler said private developers also have been quietly eying NAS as a potential waterfront gold mine.
“I have friends that are developers that would love to build houses on the river where that base is,” she said.
After sitting mostly idle for a few years, Cecil Field is destined to become the new hot spot for local development. Thursday, the JEDC named TriLegacy LLC the master developer for 2,400 of Cecil’s 17,000 acres. Eventually, the property will be a conglomeration of commerce, manufacturing and office space. Fowler said the Navy now regrets closing the base.
“They came to me and asked if they could have Cecil Field back,” said Fowler. “I told them there’s no room. They have kicked themselves for closing Cecil.”
While there is very little danger of Mayport ever being closed, Fowler is still lobbying Congress on behalf of the strategically located ocean and riverfront naval base. With three nuclear-capable bases on the West Coast and Norfolk, Va. the only such base on the East Coast, Fowler firmly believes Mayport is the ideal location for either a second nuclear-capable base or an adequate back up to Norfolk.
“My argument to the Navy has been, there’s no sense in having only one nuclear carrier on the East Coast,” she said, adding the U.S.S. Kennedy — which is undergoing a major overhaul while dry docked at Mayport — also plays a crucial role in the future of Mayport. “In 2008, we may lose the Kennedy. I don’t care what the Navy says, behind the scenes they are still talking about it. The overhaul of the Kennedy is wonderful, but the Navy is looking closely to see if we can do it.”