Monterey, Calif. – A high-powered delegation of Colorado politicians pleaded Monday with a military base-closing commission to spare a finance center still housed at the former Lowry Air Force Base in Denver.
Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, the state’s two U.S. senators and the president of the Denver City Council argued that the federal Base Realignment and Closure Commission should leave the 1,250-person center open.
“We’re hoping not just to protect the facility,” Owens said. “We’re hoping that you’ll choose to allow us to increase the size of the facility we have.”
The nine-member commission set its sights on the Denver office of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service in July, when it unanimously rejected a Pentagon recommendation to keep the office open. The office is called the Buckley Annex because it operates under the supervision of Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora.
The commission’s vote did not mean that the office will close, but rather that it will take a closer look at the operation. And that unnerved many of Colorado’s top politicians.
With about a week’s notice, Republican U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard summoned his fellow elected officials – Republicans and Democrats – to make the case for Denver at Monday’s base-closing commission meeting in California.
Denver City Council President Rosemary Rodriguez, a Democrat, said she was speaking on behalf of Denver and Aurora when she noted that the community has endured two major base closings – Lowry in 1994 and the Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in 1999.
“Our sacrifice to this process has exceeded most American communities,” Rodriguez said.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar noted that the Pentagon’s own studies have ranked the Denver operation as the “first in military value” among all other finance offices.
The military is considering a plan that would consolidate 26 finance offices and is reviewing operations in Denver, Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio, as possible locales.
But getting a closer look by the base-closing commission raises the stakes.
“Whenever the commission reviews an office, anything’s possible,” Owens said after the Colorado delegation’s presentation. “Even though we’re hoping to be a winner, anything is possible.”
The Colorado delegation made its case for the Denver office after three hours of testimony by California and Alaska officials who begged the commission to leave operations in their states alone.
The commission gathered in Monterey because it is discussing whether to close two military- operated schools based there.
The commission is scheduled to begin voting on base-closing decisions the week of Aug. 22. Philip Coyle, who presided over the meeting, said the division has to take action on 1,700 to 1,800 recommendations that affect 837 military installations.
Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at 303-820-1794 or mcouch@denverpost.com.
