Fort reuse panel to look at proposed new company
Patriots Alliancesuggests Tech Preserve to transition move to Md.
BY SUE MORGAN
Staff Writer

WEST LONG BRANCH - Fort Monmouth civilian employees reluctant to move south with their jobs by 2011 might be able to find work at a proposed new "company" ... at least for a while.

A public-private partnership that could keep those civilian employees employed even as the move of the fort's highly technical missions to the Aberdeen (Md.) Proving Ground goes forward, is one way to ease the transition while maintaining the base's level of service to the armed forces on the battlefield, according to Robert F. Giordano, an independent military contractor.

The partnership between the U.S. Army and the private sector, dubbed Tech Preserve Inc., is proposed by members of the Patriots Alliance, a Tinton Falls-based coalition of fort subcontractors, Giordano said.

Speaking before the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Planning Authority during its second meeting on July 26 inside Monmouth University's Woodrow Wilson Hall, Giordano presented the Patriots Alliance's plan for Tech Preserve to the 10-member panel and about 60 persons in attendance.

If the state-sanctioned authority were to adopt the Tech Preserve functions as part of its overall redevelopment plan, civilian workers choosing not to relocate with their jobs to Maryland would continue working even as the fort moves toward its eventual shutdown by the Pentagon, said Giordano, a member of the Patriots Alliance's board of directors.

The public-private revitalization authority, which has nine voting members, has been directed by the state government to come up with a redevelopment plan incorporating new jobs and land uses for the 1,126-acre U.S. Army base after it is shuttered in September 2011.

Though Giordano, principal of RFG Inc. in Allentown, and Patriots Alliance co-chairperson Frank C. Muzzi tried to persuade the authority's seven voting members present to publicly endorse their proposal that night and to form a subcommittee to study it, a few members hesitated to fulfill their wishes.

To do so, the authority would have to adopt Tech Preserve as part of the overall redevelopment plan, create the related subcommittee, and separate the Patriots Alliance proposal from any land use initiatives, Giordano said.

In the end, the authority agreed to somewhat of a compromise by approving the Patriots Alliance plan "in concept," according to authority chairperson Robert Lucky.

"I motion to establish a committee, but not pick a committee," said Joseph Colfer, an authority member who represents organized labor.

The structure of a Tech Preserve subcommittee will be formed based upon the recommendations of the authority's bylaws subcommittee composed of Colfer and two other panel members, Oceanport Mayor Lucille Chaump and Monmouth County Freeholder Lillian Burry, Lucky said.

Under the Pentagon's Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process, over 5,000 civilian jobs and 400 military jobs now at the 89-year-old Fort Monmouth are to be relocated to the Maryland base.

Only about 20 percent of the civilian workers at the fort now can be expected to follow their jobs, said Giordano, as he narrated a slide show displaying research done by the Patriots Alliance into previous BRAC rounds.

"[Tech Preserve] is an attempt to incentivize [sic] those who do not go," Giordano said. "It's not an attempt to subvert [the] BRAC [process] by keeping them here."

About 4,000 employees of military contractors working at the closing U.S. Army base would also be incorporated into Tech Preserve's functions, said Giordano, himself a technical manager at the fort for 33 years before entering the private sector,.

Many of the civilian workers involved are employed by the military's

Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) mission, Giordano said.

The short-term partnership's concept is based on using the Fort Monmouth workers remaining in New Jersey to help train those who take over their positions in Maryland, he continued.

"It's going to take awhile for Aberdeen to grow in capability," Giordano said.

The Aberdeen workforce would be trained for their new jobs at Fort Monmouth, where civilian employees possess an average of 18 years of on-the-job experience, he said.

Moreover, soldiers on the battlefields overseas will still receive the highly technical equipment that they depend upon to communicate with one another and keep tabs on the enemy, Giordano pointed out.

Tech Preserve would also provide for continued revitalization of the fort's host communities - Eatontown, Tinton Falls and Oceanport - even as the military starts to vacate the base.

"We would protect [the] C4ISR [mission] while growing the Aberdeen force," Giordano said. "We would provide local revitalization by using the expertise that remains."

If the authority allows Tech Preserve to go forward, it would set up a "win-win" for the military, the Aberdeen base, and the fort's host communities, he said.

"We'd be stabilizing the attrition from Fort Monmouth and the lack of manpower at Aberdeen," Giordano said.

Based on previous BRAC rounds and studies, Giordano predicted that most fort workers who are 45 years of age or older will not relocate. However, those under 35 years of age are more likely to move, he noted.

Before Tech Preserve is formed, the Patriots Alliance must receive the military's permission to get the plan up and running, said Giordano, who said he has been in touch with U.S. Army Secretary Joseph Whittaker.

With the clock ticking toward the fort's closure, the authority's imminent endorsement is important, said Muzzi, principal of Eatontown-based MTC Technologies, another subcontractor.

"We're putting things up front for your deliberation rather than waiting six or nine months," Muzzi said.

Eatontown Mayor Gerald J. Tarantolo, another authority member, cautioned his colleagues to consider other ideas for revitalization and job creation before just adopting the Tech Preserve plan.

Rutgers University has applied to the authority in an attempt to conduct classified research similar to some of the work that is done by civilians at the post now, Tarantolo said.

"Before we make a decision, let's look at the bigger issues," said Tarantolo, who noted that he had heard Giordano's presentation previously.

"What is proposed by Bob and by Rutgers could be great," Tarantolo went on. "We could have a winner there."

Noting that Rutgers has been the victim of cuts to its research programs, Giordano dismissed that idea.

"Rutgers' research is very basic and not what is done at Fort Monmouth," he said.

According to Giordano's research, as presented during the slide show, Fort Monmouth pumps $689 million into the local tax base. The contracts awarded to military subcontractors amount to about $321 million, and federal Defense Department contracts amount to $925 million.