CLINTON SOFTENS STING OF CLOSING BASE.

Byline: Steve Geissinger Associated Press 

President Clinton couldn't save McClellan Air Force Base, but he brought lots of gifts on his return.

Clinton arrived at the base aboard Air Force One at midmorning Tuesday and planned to spend much of the day campaigning in Sacramento. It is Clinton's 25th visit to vote-rich California since taking office.

Greeters for Clinton's arrival included U.S. Reps. Vic Fazio and Robert Matsui, both Democrats from the Sacramento area, and Lt. Gov. Gray Davis. Assembly Minority Leader Richard Katz, D-Panorama City, and state Controller Kathleen Connell also were on hand to greet Clinton.

The visit was preceded by an announcement Monday by U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich that a $4.5 million grant will be used for training programs to teach new skills to 1,200 McClellan employees who will lose their jobs in the next two years.

Thousands of civilian workers at McClellan had looked to Clinton to save their jobs, but in July 1995 the president said he had reluctantly accepted a flawed closure recommendation by the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission. McClellan is slated to finish its transition to private hands in about four years.

The decision to close the base, part of overall defense reductions, prompted the administration's unprecedented plan to privatize the base and preserve as many jobs as possible.

The 1,200 employees who are to be served by the retraining program will lose their jobs in the first phase of McClellan layoffs, to be completed by 2001, Reich said in a conference call.

Clinton's other gifts for McClellan include keeping open an aircraft and missile microelectronics repair center, where 144 people work, and the commissary and base exchange.

In addition, $6.5 million will be spent to continue work on a futuristic metal-casting plant and $800,000 will go toward improvements on a nuclear reactor used for aircraft inspection. Material from the reactor runs a scanner that checks for cracks and other potential problems.

U.S. Rep. Fazio, a Sacramento Democrat who helped lead the doomed fight to keep McClellan open, has characterized the administration's actions as ``down payments on the ultimate future of McClellan.''

In announcing the retraining grant, the labor secretary said there may be other similar appropriations for base workers.

Clinton plans to meet today with community leaders involved in the effort to convert the base to civilian use. But first he is scheduled to address an audience at WEAVE, Women Escaping a Violent Environment, and attend a luncheon fund-raiser for Democrats.

WEAVE runs a domestic violence shelter and counseling service for family violence and sexual assaults.

The president is expected to announce a new national telephone number for nonemergency police calls, to free up the often-congested 911 system, said WEAVE spokeswoman Shireen Mile.

``One of the things he wants to do is elevate the whole subject of domestic violence to a higher place on the domestic agenda,'' she said.

He will be addressing an audience of law enforcement, domestic violence advocates and WEAVE supporters, volunteers, staff and survivors, she said.