At a time when the Department of Defense budget is under pressure, some military bases are re-examining how they operate to find ways to save. And increasingly, they’re looking to the Monterey Peninsula.
About 15 years ago, Congress passed pilot legislation allowing the Army to partner with the Cities of Monterey and Seaside to share operating services as a way to cut costs. More recently Congress authorized that all military installations could enter these intergovernmental services agreements with state or local governments.
“I think what we’re all looking for is avoiding duplication in government,” says Congressman Sam Farr (D-Carmel) who wrote the language. “When you sit down and say, 'hey, we’re doing these two things back to back, side by side why don’t we consolidate and find savings?' It’s amazing what kind of savings you can find.”
Locally what’s become known as the Monterey Model has saved millions.
“Why would you stop at the gate? Why would you have a fence line separate your maintenance,” says George Helms, General Services Superintendent for the City of Monterey.
Helms and his staff are based on the Presidio of Monterey, home of the Defense Language Institute, where they handle everything from building remodels to street and sewer maintenance for both the City and the Army. The City of Seaside has the same arrangement with the Army for its offices that remain on the former Fort Ord.
Helms says the main goal of this partnership, known as the Monterey Model, is to keep costs down for the Army. “Most of the good ideas don’t come from me or the managers generally. They come from the line staff who see things happening every day, and come back to me and say saying, 'let’s try this. I think we can make it more efficient',” says Helms.
Take for example the card key door locks used on the Presidio. It used when things went wrong with the locks they had to be replaced for $700 a piece, but Helms’ staff figured out a way to fix them for just $70.
“The day that you become complacent is the day it becomes too expensive to operate this installation and then we become very susceptible to a BRAC action,” says Helms.
And that gets to the heart of what initially motivated this unique partnership. Twenty years ago, the Fort Ord Army Base became the largest base ever shut down by Base Closure and Realignment, or BRAC, resulting in a $500-million loss to the region.
And city officials worried the remaining military installations, including the DLI, would be future targets of the unpredictable BRAC process.
“It’s so complex, I think no one can tell you what the rational is,” says Hans Uslar who was part of the team that worked on the first agreement with the Army back in 1998. Uslar is now Monterey’s Assistant City Manager and says while the City can’t exactly BRAC proof itself.
“There is however always a huge quantitative analysis, and one of those elements is cost of operating a base. So we hope we contribute to that by having a lower cost for our military base,” says Uslar.
The idea is lowering the cost to the military makes the Presidio a less attractive target for closure. As a contractor the city does not subsidize the Army; however, it saves the federal government money by not adding on a profit to the cost of services it provides.
Money is also saved through the sharing of equipment. And the partnership gives both the benefit of the economies of scale leading to lower pricing on everything from street resurfacing to lamp posts. It all adds up to a savings of roughly $2-million a year for the Army.
Since this started nearly 15 years ago, the Monterey Model has inspired partnerships elsewhere including at Fort Gordon, Georgia and Fort Bragg, North Carolina. And now the Air Force is exploring similar arrangements.
“There’s an evolution happening in the military of how we look at installations,” says Tim Ford, CEO of the Association of Defense Communities, a DC based nonprofit.
“I think we’re starting to move away from this idea that that a base has to be a city unto itself. That it has to provide all of these services separate from the community,” says Ford.
But as he sees it, the threat to military communities is not BRAC.
“The threat is just downsizing. I mean we have the Army going down to 420,000 active duty. That means significant cuts around the country,” says Ford.
Cuts to the defense budget have already been felt in Monterey. Colonel Paul Felinger is Garrison Commander for the Presidio. He says the Army’s relationship here with the City has endured some difficult times.
“Sequestration is the law of the land now. We had two furloughs last year. The city was forced to reduce its workforce here on the Presidio of Monterey, but there’s trust and there’s confidence that we’re going to see this thing through. We know it’s a long term investment,” says Col. Felinger.
An investment , he says, other military installations and communities will have to make.