More military communities are forging partnerships with their local bases on everything from garbage pickup to use of solar arrays.
Some bases have teamed with nearby communities for years, but in 2013 Congress sanctioned “P4 agreements” through which state and local governments share services, usually to increase efficiency and save the military money.
In Tucson, Air Force officials have been leading meetings to identify partnerships that could help Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and the community. After three sessions to brainstorm and prioritize ideas, six possibilities have emerged:
- Work with the UA and community colleges to identify and fill internship positions requiring key skills needed at D-M.
- Team up with the University of Arizona and local heritage groups so airmen can practice and maintain foreign-language skills.
- Work with local, state and federal first responders to improve communications among agencies.
- Partner with city and county parks and recreation departments to share use of D-M facilities, including the Mirage Club and conference center, pools, sports fields and outdoor equipment.
- Work with the UA’s Valley Fever Center of Excellence and the College of Agriculture to study the relationship between the respiratory disease and turf grass, focusing on the health of Air Force working dogs.
- Use students from local medical programs to play roles and provide other support at D-M’s annual Angel Thunder combat search-and-rescue training exercise.
LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS
The new partnership authority can help both the base and the community, says D-M’s commander, Col. James Meger.
“That was a great thing Congress did, to kind of break down some of the stovepipes and prohibitive language that was in some of the laws,” Meger says. “Because everyone realizes it’s better when we’re more integrated. It’s more efficient and more effective.”
The Air Force’s Community Partnership, which includes a step-by-step brainstorming and prioritization process, is a way to find and formalize new opportunities between two public entities — the Air Force and a government — or the Air Force and a private organization or company. (The name P4 stands for public-public, public-private.)
“Maybe we’ve not been looking or flipping over all the rocks that we need to, to see what else we can do to integrate better, because there are things that just work fantastic,” Meger says.
The base already works with the city on some services, including trash and recycling pickup, and it links in with Pima County’s wastewater system. Though D-M has its own security forces and fire department, it uses off-base ambulance services.
“I have two stoplights on base. Do I need all the people to maintain and run two stoplights?” Meger asks.
He cited a huge solar array built on base in 2013 that provides more than 35 percent of D-M’s power and saves the base some $500,000 annually.
“It’s a huge win for us, huge win for the environment, huge win for the local contractors and agencies,” Meger says.
David Godlewski, chairman of the Southern Arizona Defense Alliance, says such partnerships can provide tangible community support that could prove invaluable when the Pentagon looks at consolidating bases.
“It’s something that’s still evolving, but I think it’s going to be key here,” he says.
MONTEREY MODEL
Defense communities across the nation are looking for ways to use the new partnership authority.
In March, some 350 government leaders, consultants and military officials at an Association of Defense Communities conference toured a pioneering military-community partnership at the Presidio of Monterey, California, home to the Pentagon’s Defense Language Institute.
Through a partnership with the Army, which runs the Presidio, the city provides an array of infrastructure and services, including facilities and roads maintenance, fire protection and pest control.
A 2000 Army audit showed the arrangement saved the Army 41 percent of its costs for such services, or about $2.5 million.
For example, Monterey provides building maintenance with 35 employees, eliminating the need for 70 Army positions. When an influx of students created a hot water shortage in some dorms, city maintenance staffers retrofitted rather than replaced water tanks, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars, city maintenance supervisor Jon Anderson says.
Working to replace failed electronic door locks, Anderson’s staff discovered a pile that had been replaced at some $700 apiece. An employee figured out how to fix many of them simply by replacing an electronic part for about $70, Anderson says.
The value of the partnership goes beyond maintenance to how the Presidio interacts with the community. When a new access procedure was expected to create long lines outside the Presidio gates, the city modified traffic signals and lanes to minimize problems.
“GIANT SUCKING SOUND”
While the Monterey Model has been called a success, you needn’t drive far to see what happens when major military bases are shuttered.
Just a few miles north of the Presidio, boarded-up barracks still overlook the grounds of the former Fort Ord, which the Pentagon shut in 1994.
“When it closed, 33,000 people left — you could hear the giant sucking sound,” says Fred Meurer, a city services consultant and former Monterey city manager.
Much of the land has been redeveloped into a branch of California State University, a state coastal park and a national monument featuring miles of recreational trails. But issues including old munitions cleanup, water, and environmental concerns have stalled some major redevelopments for years.
LESSONS FOR OTHERS
During the Tucson partnership meetings, groups helped winnow a list of 40 ideas. Some, such as installing a wastewater treatment plant on base, were dropped because of their cost and difficulty. Others, such as letting the public use base facilities like the golf course, might require essentially moving D-M’s fence line.
“Obviously a big concern is always security, but there are ways we can coordinate for that — I mean, we have contractors on our installation every day; the city is on our installation every day,” Meger says.
Community partnerships can give the Pentagon reasons to keep a base, Monterey’s Meurer says, but they must have value. The Air Force needs to make careful decisions about which partnerships make sense.
Just because something is cheaper, D-M’s Meger says, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s better.
