by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
The mayor’s office wants the City’s political heavy hitters to go to bat for Jacksonville in an effort to preserve the USS John F. Kennedy and Mayport.
The City’s lobbying effort to save the carrier and its $300 million impact on the local economy will include pressure from high-level military contacts and a personal pitch from Mayor John Peyton to President George Bush.
A $60 billion cost-cutting plan recently unveiled by the Department of Defense targets the Kennedy for retirement as early as September. That has prompted speculation that, without the JFK, Mayport Naval Station could become expendable. The Pentagon is evaluating the base as part of the upcoming Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process that seeks to trim the Navy by about one-fourth.
Those closures will be announced in May. Nearing the end of the BRAC process, the mayor was convinced the City was ahead in the game to keep its bases. But that was before the Pentagon’s plans to shutter the JFK became public.
“We were in about the eighth inning (of the BRAC process), and we were winning,” said Dan McCarthy, Peyton’s director of military affairs and BRAC point man. “Then we found out a grand slam had been hit against us.”
Hoping to stage a ninth-inning rally, McCarthy called for a sustained lobbying effort from Jacksonville’s political, business and military leaders. McCarthy said the City’s best hope to keep the carrier lies in congressional hands.
Florida Senators Mel Martinez and Bill Nelson and Rep. Ander Crenshaw plan to introduce legislation to require the Navy to keep at least 12 carriers in service.
That bill has received tepid support so far from the Senate Armed Services Committee, but McCarthy said committee chairman Sen. John Warner of Virginia might be receptive to the bill. Virginia shipyards would lose hundreds of millions of dollars worth of maintenance work if the JFK is retired.
Even if the legislation fails, Congress could still have a say. If the Armed Services Committee opposes the cuts, McCarthy thinks attitudes could be changed before being included in the President’s budget to be presented Feb. 7. McCarthy described Nelson as a “key player” on the 24-person committee.
“If those 24 people don’t think that it’s a good idea, I’ve got a good feeling it won’t happen,” said McCarthy.
In addition to congressional support, the mayor’s office has enlisted its top military contacts to lobby on the JFK’s behalf. The State’s top BRAC lobbyist, retired four-star admiral Bob Natter, has been asked to rally support for the carrier as has former U.S. Rep. Tillie Fowler, also a top military adviser to U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
Peyton may get a chance to do some face-to-face lobbying with Rumsfeld’s boss this Friday when President Bush comes to town. The President’s schedule hasn’t yet been announced but, if Peyton gets a chance to speak in private with Bush, the JFK and Mayport would both be on the agenda, said Susie Wiles, the mayor’s communications chief.
Other than putting its lobbying team into motion, City Hall will largely leave the debate in the hands of Congress and the Pentagon.
“This is a federal matter and a federal issue,” said Wiles. “We view ourselves as the supporting cast.”
If the Pentagon follows through on its initial plans to mothball the JFK, the City’s next priority is preserving a carrier-less Mayport. Even before the mayor’s office was aware of the threat facing the JFK, it had commissioned engineering firm Bessent Hammack and Ruckman to update a study of Mayport, detailing the necessary steps and cost to make the port ready for nuclear-powered carriers.
It will cost about $100 million to get Mayport ready for a nuclear carrier, McCarthy said Tuesday in a speech to the Chamber’s Government Affairs Committee. Safety measures require deeper channels to accommodate nuclear-powered ships. Mayport would also have to install disposal facilities for nuclear coolant. The JFK is one of two remaining carriers under diesel power.
Wiles said the BHR study would be ready in 90 days. The sooner the better, said McCarthy. The City needs to show the Pentagon that Mayport can be nuclear ready before decisions are made about base closures.
Even without the JFK, Mayport would still be viable if the Pentagon decides to move some of its remaining Atlantic carrier fleet from Norfolk to the Northeast Florida base.
Mayport is the only deepwater port between Norfolk and the Panama Canal capable of handling a carrier, and McCarthy said the Pentagon would likely look to avoid keeping its entire carrier fleet in one port.