DECISION EXPECTED TODAY ON VENTURA COUNTY JOBS.Byline: Lisa Friedman Washington Bureau ARLINGTON, Va. - The federal BRAC Brač (bräch), Ital. Brazza, island (1991 pop. 13,824), 152 sq mi (394 sq km), off the Dalmatian coast in the Adriatic Sea, Croatia. It is a popular summer resort and tourist spot. Supetar (Ital. Commission is expected to decide early today on the fate of about 6,000 positions at Naval Base A naval base primarily for support of the forces afloat, contiguous to a port or anchorage, consisting of activities or facilities for which the Navy has operating responsibilities, together with interior lines of communications and the minimum surrounding area necessary for local Ventura County. The Base Realignment and Closure Base Realignment and Closure (or BRAC) is a process of the United States federal government directed at the administration and operation of the Armed Forces, used by the United States Department of Defense (DoD) and Congress to close excess military installations and realign Commission on Wednesday delayed a decision on the move, which would transfer the jobs to China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station. In a decision that affects Ventura County, however, the panel unanimously voted to block the closure of Riverside County's Naval Surface Warfare Center Noun 1. Naval Surface Warfare Center - the agency that provides scientific and engineering and technical support for all aspects of surface warfare NSWC , which would have moved about 850 analyst jobs to Point Mugu's Naval Base Ventura County. In bucking the Pentagon, commissioners appeared sympathetic to Norco employees who had said they would not move to a region with higher housing costs and property taxes. Many others said they did want to brave the more than 100 miles of traffic to Point Mugu by commuting. But even more compelling, commission members said, was economic data proving the move would cost the Defense Department $16 million and not provide the originally expected $400,000 in savings. At the same time, BRAC officials lent credence to the argument from Norco employees that their reluctance to move to Ventura County would create a ``brain drain brain drain n. The loss of skilled intellectual and technical labor through the movement of such labor to more favorable geographic, economic, or professional environments. ,'' causing the Navy to lose key military intelligence. Rep. Elton Gallegly Elton W. Gallegly (born March 7 1944), an American politician, has been a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives since 1987, currently representing the 24th District of California (map). , R-Thousand Oaks, who represents Point Mugu, said while he would have liked to see those jobs come to his district, he was sympathetic to the ``brain drain'' argument. That's because workers at Point Mugu, whose jobs face transfer to Ridgecrest, are making the same argument. ``Mugu would have done an incredibly fine job with that operation,'' Gallegly said of the Naval Surface Warfare Center. But, he said, ``the numbers were not there, and the commission recognized that. I hope the commission makes the same type of judgment'' with Naval Base Ventura County. Other sites in Southern California did not fare as well, with the panel agreeing to shutter a number of Army and Marine reserve centers throughout the greater Los Angeles area The Greater Los Angeles Area, or the Southland, is the agglomeration of urbanized area around the city of Los Angeles, California, United States. There are two "official" definitions—the Los Angeles metropolitan area consisting only of the Los Angeles and Orange including the Navy Marine Corps Reserve Center in Encino. |
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