Officials Press Plea to Save Shipyard : Navy: A federal commissioner is told that closing Long Beach installations would be unwise financially and strategically.

The battle to save the Long Beach Naval station shipyard and hospital from closure took on an air of desperation Monday as local officials spent five hours pleading their case to a federal commissioner who will help decide the fate of the military facilities in less than three weeks.

The half-day visit by retired Air Force Gen. Duane Cassidy--one of seven members of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission--will be the panel’s only tour of the Long Beach facilities before it submits its list of closure recommendations to President Bush on July 1.

Meeting behind closed doors, a team of congressmen, city leaders, union officials, military officers and Sen. John Seymour (R-Calif.) argued that closing the Long Beach installations would be unwise financially and leave the West Coast strategically “naked.”

“I am very much more enlightened than I was before,” Cassidy, a former Air Force pilot, said afterward. While noting that he was “impressed” with the Long Beach facilities, the general would not say whether the meetings had changed his thinking.

The Long Beach naval station, shipyard and hospital are among 79 military facilities marked for closure nationwide. President Bush appointed the commission to determine which bases are most cost-efficient and militarily strategic. Its closure recommendations ultimately will go to Congress, which has 45 days to approve or reject the list in its entirety.

Cassidy’s visit, which included the Marine Corps Air Station at Tustin, is part of a frenetic schedule that will take at least one commissioner from the seven-member panel to each of the installations on the government’s “hit list” before July 1.

The Pentagon has recommended that some military bases be shut because of a shrinking defense budget and political reforms in the Soviet Union and its former satellite countries. But Long Beach politicians and union leaders charged Monday that the process has been tainted by backroom politics.

Critics say the Navy has withheld information about the benefits of keeping existing shipyards open rather than finishing six modern ones under construction. They also argue that the Washington-based closure panel has an East Coast bias and would be more inclined to shut down the Long Beach shipyard than the one in Philadelphia.

“All of the commission members are from the East Coast. Some of them have an interest in East Coast installations. Long Beach is not getting a fair shake,” said an angry Louis Rodriguez, president of one of the shipyard’s largest labor unions.

It would be no contest if the panel were to look solely at numbers, local officials contend. The Long Beach shipyard had a profit of more than $56 million this fiscal year by finishing work early and under budget. By contrast, the Philadelphia yard has operated at a nearly $53-million loss, according to Navy statistics cited by the city.

“I don’t see the commission’s process muddied one bit by politics,” Cassidy said in response to the charges.

“The fact is we’ve been under a fairly decreased military budget for the last five years,” Cassidy said, adding that further cuts of up to 25% by the middle of the decade must be made. “You’ve got to reduce the overhead to do that.”

Although the city of Long Beach is desperate to save all of its Navy installations, the battle for the shipyard is considered the most critical. The 48-year-old facility provides 4,100 jobs, making it the city’s third-largest employer. It annually pumps more than $300 million into the local economy.

Cassidy called the closure process excruciating. Shipyard workers called it frightening.

Times staff writer Eric Lichtblau contributed to this story.