Rudimentary cost dynamics of privatized military housing

As NOPE has learned through reading the original Laurelwood housing lease agreement and the dozens of supplements to the contract since 1990, the 300 mostly vacant Laurelwood homes on NWS Earle have thus far cost the Department of Navy (read: U.S. taxpayers) $70-$75 million, or about $250k apiece...so far.

Although no one would argue with the need to provide quality homes for our service members, the issue of whether privatization - in other words, hiring a private company to construct and manage brand-new military housing - saves Uncle Sam any money is valid and should be challenged by our legislators in Washington.

Take this from the Central Penn Business Journal, which reports the Navy will pay Lincoln Military Housing $7.2 million to demolish 55 old (1960s-era) homes and build 31 single-family homes for sailors and officers at the Naval Support Activity Mechanisburg base in Cumberland County, near Harrisburg, PA. Sounds nice, right?

NOPE is not in the real estate game, but let's hypothetically put the cost to bulldoze the old homes at $1.2 million. Back-of-the-envelope math would then put the cost to build the 31 new, 2,000-square-foot homes, at $200k apiece ($6.2 million), excluding the fees that Uncle Sam will presumably pay for many years to Lincoln to manage the homes.

In a small sample of existing homes in the Mechanicsburg, PA market (home to the base) on Realtor.com, meanwhile, we found nearly 70 already on the market (many looking brand new or less than five years old) for under $250k. Based on NOPE's past discovery from GAO research showing the trend among servicemembers to live in homes outside the military base, we can only question why the Department of Defense continues to view MHPIs, or privatized military housing ventures, as a panacea to military housing needs, particularly in developed areas such as Mechanicsburg, PA, where there is a supply of ready housing.

Citing the Laurelwood homes built under Section 801 (only 7 such communities were constructed under this code; the government found it a disastrous methodology), it is clear that MHPIs are a better alternative, but would the military not be better served (in cases like Mechanicsburg), to simply buy homes within the community and hire a property manager who would oversee the houses and service members' needs?

Just food for thought as we sit around (now inside the 30-day deadline of expiration of the military-use phase of the Laurelwood contract) waiting for the Department of Navy to come to a decision (and hopefully its senses) on proposed civilian housing at NWS Earle...

Drills at NWS Earle today: APP

APP.com reports that "emergency drills" at NWS Earle could cause traffic delays along Rt. 34 in Colts Neck this morning. Although a week after the range stated in a Navy press release, this could be part of Exercise Solid Curtain-Citadel Shield '10, which is part of "an anti-terrorism/force protection exercise conducted nationwide."

Approaching the 30-day deadline for expiration of the military-use phase of the Laurelwood housing lease, we wonder whether the drills at NWS Earle incorporate scenarios of potential espionage or an attack from within the base upon rental of 300 Laurelwood housing units to civilians for the next 30 years (remember, anyone capable of cutting a rent check will be able to live in the housing, inside the base); or what would become of the civilian tenants inside a Naval Weapons Station in the event that a terror attack here or elsewhere prompts a base lockdown.

These are just some of the host of intriguing questions the Department of Navy should answer to the public sooner rather than later.

Laurelwood: Monmouth County's "Road to Nowhere"

All the talk this past week about the Department of Navy's exchanges with the NJ DOT pertaining to construction of a two-mile road from a few hundred meters south of NWS Earle's main gate and thru the weapons base to the privatized Laurelwood homes got us thinking that it was worth stepping back a bit to recount the monetary parameters of the road, which as we all know would provide anyone with unimpeded access (i.e. no guards, no background checks).

NOPE's position, of course, is not that any road-construction estimates be refined or allocations changed, but rather that the Navy simply buy out the Laurelwood property and avoid the entire presumed $10.8 million expense to build and enclose the road in 7-foot security fencing. (Again, we say this recognizing that NOPE's primary argument - to void the Laurelwood lease - is moot, with the DoN having signed away this contractual right once it allowed Laurelwood's owner to refinance the mortage in 2002.) This estimate does not include the costs for environmental remediation. That $10.8 million initial cost, plus ongoing maintenance, represents what NOPE's Business Case Analyst Fulton Wilcox points out as a powerful argument for not moving ahead with “unfettered access.”

Published comments from the Acting Assistant Secretary of the Navy suggest that about half the costs of building the access road would be paid by the Navy to acquire and build fencing, gates, bridges, and other non-roadway specific costs. The other half, constituting construction costs of the actual roadway, is apparently to be paid by Laurelwood Homes, LLC, owner of the housing units. Based on our partial understanding of who pays how much, Fulton shares an impact estimate.

"The Navy’s $5.4 million share of construction costs will reduce the Navy’s expected savings by not having to buy the Laurelwood housing units from perhaps $25 million to $20 million. In addition, as we have previously published, the Navy will incur thirty years of ongoing costs to maintain and secure these improvements and in providing security and various services to the tenants living at Laurelwood, and those costs almost certainly will far exceed the purported savings.

It is also important to estimate the potential impact of the approximately $5.4 million cost of the roadway on the civilian tenants occupying Laurelwood. Although these are rough estimates and subject to error, they do highlight the burden of having to support a single-purpose 1.4-mile long “driveway.”

Assuming that the private cost of money is 6% per year, the property owner would need to increase monthly rents by about $110 per unit just to recover the $5.4 million investment and associated interest payments. Also, the road needs to be maintained over thirty years. If annual road maintenance consumes about 3% of the original cost of the road, the additional rent needed to recover roadway maintenance would be about $45 per month.

Therefore, the total cost per housing unit of this enormously extended driveway will probably be more than $150 per month. What that added $150 per month provides the tenant is a circuitous drive between high security fencing and, behind the fencing, a view of assorted military structures, a superfund site or two, and of ammunition-handling trucks and trains."

As can easily be seen, based on Fulton's commentary and NOPE's view of the Navy-NJDOT permit application mess, the DoN's EIS proves nothing more than a flawed, cursory document that Navy leaders in Washington had hoped would sneak through without anyone's notice. NOPE will continue to keep issues such as this in the public eye, to highlight how ludicrous it would be to provide civilian renters unimpeded access thru a fully functional Naval weapons storage depot for the next 30 years, solely because the DoN got itself into a bad housing contract in the 1980s and does not want to do the right thing and buy out the contract. Again, NOPE is not a mouthpiece for Laurelwood Homes, LLC, for it is not our concern whether the owner makes another cent from a deal for which the DoN has already paid $70-$75 million; rather, the realities of the situation and the documentation put forth by NOPE dictate that buyout is the only logical fate for the Laurelwood homes.

Fulton Wilcox's take on Navy's apparent NJ DOT faux pas

As noted yesterday, the Department of Navy may only have itself to blame for failing to meet its contractual May 1 deadline to provide Laurelwood Homes, LLC, the right-of-way to start constructing a costly, multimillion-dollar road to nowhere (i.e. Laurelwood housing inside NWS Earle), over which civilians with no background checks will have unimpeded access thru the base thru 2040. Here is the analysis offered to NOPE supporters by Business Analyst Fulton Wilcox; we welcome your feedback here:

"The Navy’s expressed “purpose and need” for providing unfettered civilian access to Laurelwood housing depends on a state road connection permit, but the Navy has refused to apply for the connection permit because of the Navy’s sovereign immunity. The present impasse prevents anyone from submitting a “complete” DOT request for a roadway connection, so obviously there is nothing for DOT to approve.

Given the significant legal issues involved, the matter has been escalated from the New Jersey Department of Transportation to the Attorney General’s office. New Jersey Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Fradel has asked the Navy to provide more specificity to the Navy’s assertion of sovereign immunity. Following such fact-finding and debate, there perhaps will be discovered some way to break the impasse, but at best the road connection permit will be extraordinarily expensive.

The Navy surprised us all, including perhaps itself, in creating this impasse. In the Laurelwood EIS, the Navy detailed its permit-dependent proposed actions, but nevertheless did not disclose that it would “no show” permitting itself because of the Navy’s sovereign immunity. Also, it did not describe the impact of being a “no show” permit applicant nor describe how it would mitigate the impact.

Further, in the Laurelwood lease agreement, especially the portions related to the Navy’s “purpose and need,” the Navy made commitments to obtain permits without mentioning nor providing for its assertion of Sovereign Immunity. For example, Supplementary Lease Agreement 43 states that “the Government, assisted by the lessee, will immediately begin the process to obtain all necessary permits…” but the Navy is invoking sovereign immunity rather than moving “to obtain all necessary permits.” No permit presumably means no road connection or a connection, which itself leaves many liability risks and accountabilities to be addressed, which in turn means no “unimpeded access” to Laurelwood.

The cross-jurisdictional surprises may continue. It may be that that sovereign immunity extends to other state permitting processes – e.g., environmental – and to many other aspects of the Laurelwood privatized environment. Sovereign immunity or other jurisdictional issues may come up in many other contexts, such as the Navy’s relationship to civilian tenants or visitors. For example, recently the Navy extracted itself from being a “named defendent” in a liability case involving a private trucker injured by a fall at NWS Earle – see http://www.websupp.org/data/DNJ/3:05-cv-04839-19-DNJ.pdf.

Although the Navy believes that renting to civilians is its low-cost option, in fact the costs of dealing with a thousand or more tenants in a very strange jurisdictional setting is likely to eat up the purported savings as well as divert scarce resources into struggling through avoidable disputes."

- Fulton

Feb. 26 Attorney General letter exposes DoN's brazen arrogance and lack of regard for Earle's neighbors

NOPE has obtained a copy of a February 26, 2010 letter from New Jersey's Attorney General, Paula Dow (to NWS Earle officials) that clarifies a long-held NOPE stance that our Department of Navy was part unprepared, part arrogant in dealing with the state in assuming it could build an unimpeded civilian access route to the Laurelwood homes from Rt. 34 without the state's approval.

In short, the Navy argues to the state that it is exempt from regulation under New Jersey's Highway Access Management Act and State Highway Access Management Code. AG Dow's letter would suggest otherwise, and requests the DoN provide NJ DOT with answers to a 6-bullet questionnaire seeking documentation not only about Laurelwood housing and the privatized plan to rent the homes to civilians, but also proofs of title and other jurisdictional certifications before NJ DOT reconsiders the Navy's views regarding the aforementioned NJ regulations.

As we all know, the Navy has until May 1 to clear the way for Laurelwood's owner, Teri Fischer, to begin construction of the 2-mile proverbial "road to nowhere." Otherwise, the Laurelwood lease's Supplemental Agreement No. 43 sends the parties to buyout.

Thursday, we will post Fulton Wilcox's (NOPE's business case expert) analysis of this matter, including an interesting take on how the DoN is, itself, to blame for creating this DOT impasse.

NOPE's goals for the homestretch

NOPE leadership met last night to discuss actions inside of five weeks until expiration of the military-use phase of the 52-year Laurelwood lease and proposed conversion to unvetted rental and unimpeded access thru NWS Earle to civilians this year. Owing to the outpouring of community support, NOPE has made great strides, but the job is not yet complete, so we need all of our supporters to remain focused on our mission - no civilian housing at NWS Earle.

By month's end, we hope to see thru the passage of S-762/A-2014 and signature by Governor Christie, setting the wheels in motion for postponement of DOT and DEP permit issuance to the Department of Navy for proposed construction of its 1.7-mile "Road to Nowhere" (the Laurelwood homes, in this case) until the N.J. Treasurer's office can conduct a cost-benefits analysis, which we are confident will reveal an enormous unfunded federal mandate on N.J. We will keep our eye on whether A-2014 gets posted for vote in either committee or by the full Assembly Session, and understand that a number of NOPE supporters answered our call to contact Assemblyman Conners, respectfully encouraging him to post A-2014 ASAP.

Meanwhile, we will follow up with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) this week on the progress of its investigation into the Laurelwood housing situation (from security, financial and environmental perspectives missing from the Navy's own "Environmental Impact Statement" of 2008) and hope for a report before the lease's "military-use" phase expires on April 30, although we recognize that the release could come after that date. Regardless, we are confident that the probe will validate NOPE's case from multiple fronts and prove that the Laurelwood EIS was incomplete and a waste of everyone's time and dollars.

Supporters: Make a Quick Call to Assemblyman Conners

NOPE is asking all supporters to make a quick and respectful call to N.J. Assemblyman Jack Conners at his Delran office (856-461-3997), and simply state: "As a NOPE supporter and concerned New Jersey resident, I kindly ask that you post bill A-2014 for review by the Assembly."

You might be asking, "didn't we do this already back in November, with Senator Codey?"

Well, yes, we did, but then again we're dealing with Trenton, so we need to make another call, since we're in a new legislative session and our 2009 efforts stalled with Mr. Codey. However, our bill in this year's session is this close to passing soon, so we need your help.

Assemblyman Conners chairs the N.J. Assembly's Military and Veterans Affairs committee, which is tasked with considering this bill (which unanimously passed the state's Senate 37-0 on March 11; the Senate's version is S-762) and needs to be taken up...again...by the Assembly, which last fall passed this exact same measure. But because then-Senate President Codey withheld the measure from full Senate vote and politicized the issue, the nonpartisan bill expired and had to be renumbered and re-reviewed by both the Senate and Assembly committees that unanimously passed the measure.

Although the bill already passed this year's Senate session, this year's Assembly session needs to sign off before review and, hopefully, passage by Governor Christie. It is important that this be done before April 30, at which point the Laurelwood housing lease changes from the military-use to the 30-year civilian rental phase.

This is why we ask that you call Assemblyman Conners as soon as possible.

Earle main gate improvements contract update

According to the Veterans Today Network (about halfway down the linked page), P&S Construction Inc. of Massachusetts won a bid, valued at nearly $6.3 million, for main-gate enhancements at NWS Earle's primary entrance on Rt. 34 in Colts Neck. The improvements evidently will be made by October 2011. We will see if we can find out more about this over the weekend, as federal government documents initially put the contract budget at slightly more than $8 million.

Again, we note that this contract is not directly related to the Laurelwood civilian housing situation, but shows the utter hypocracy of spending millions of dollars on improving the main gate to keep people out of NWS Earle, while at the same time a few hundred meters south the Department of Navy is so eager to rip a hole open in the fence to provide unimpeded access through the base to unvetted civilians...all for the sake of getting out of a bad 1980s-era housing contract.

NOPE will continue to expose this hypocracy and eagerly awaits an announcement from the DoN within the next 40 or so days, pertaining to a buyout or some other compromise on the Laurelwood privatized housing contract.

Just a fly in the ointment

Greater Media's News Transcript has run another story on the Laurelwood housing situation, this time honing in on NJ Senate passage of S762 (i.e., the cost-benefits analysis of civilian rental housing proposal at NWS Earle), but failed once again to reach out for a response from NOPE regarding a half-baked concept to turn the complex into veterans-only housing.

Not to sound callous, but the same group of advocates from Neptune Housing Authority, one Colts Neck resident and one Tinton Falls resident posing this time as "the MonmouthATeam" continues to espouse the benefits of vets-only housing at Laurelwood, but for two years has not produced a single, viable, detailed document to the public for how their plan to convert Laurelwood into a veterans housing panacea will work (we have long asked for this). For that matter, it is clear that they have not read ANY of the federal documentation put forth about the Department of Navy's civilian housing plan and unfunded mandate on New Jersey, and this group continue to try to tug at peoples' heartstrings (i.e. homeless vets need housing, with which no one would disagree), rather than assessing the DoN's true motivations for putting any civilians inside an active Navy weapons station and giving them unimpeded access to boot.

NOPE supporters should be clear that this MonmouthATeam's initiative is nothing but noise. And enough already that there's no available rental housing in Monmouth County. Look, we know that federal, state and local legislators from both political parties (a miracle unto itself) squarely oppose and/or have serious, valid questions about the DoN's stated plan for Laurelwood housing, and Laurelwood's owner has come out practically begging for a buyout (i.e. she wants no part of these houses and the eventual headache of the 30-year civilian use phase of the contract). In addition, the Navy, itself, knows it would be ill-advised to compromise Earle's mission capabilities by turning Laurelwood into a civilian free-for-all, all for the sake of skirting rent obligations for underutilized housing.

So, please DoN, let's come public and end this charade once and for all. Enough already. Void or buy out the contract and level Laurelwood. You are wasting your own time (and money), and clearly ours.

Denver Post: "Tectonic shift in terror's battle lines"

Regardless of whether Jihad Jane and Jihad Jamie are merely crackpots or truly involved in terrorism (or a combination thereof), this column from Mike Littwin of the Denver Post provides unique perspective on the changing face of terrorism (i.e. disenfranchised Americans drawn in by radical Islam). Perhaps most startling is the line from Jihad Jamie's grandma, concerned her 6-year-old grandson is a "terrorist in training."

These types of stories tie into NOPE's longstanding concern that it is increasingly difficult for authorities to identify terrorists, and that by letting civilians pass thru NWS Earle and live in the Laurelwood homes unimpededly for the next 30 years, the Department of Navy is exposing itself, and us, to a major threat.

Inside 50 days to deadline...wake up, Department of Navy!

NOPE suggests it is about time the DoN end its charade and announce progress toward a buyout and teardown of the Laurelwood housing complex on NWS Earle. This nonsense continues to tax state and federal legislators and local and state taxpayers' time and money, while at the same time we have been nothing but good neighbors to Earle for 70-plus years.

Recapping yesterday's unanimous approval of S762 by the full Senate in Trenton, the bill is awaiting a hearing in front of a state Assembly committee; we'll confirm a date once one is set, but remind our supporters the bill passed the last Assembly session 76-0. Again, approval and the signature of Governor Christie by month's end (or by the end-of-April "military use" phase of the 52-year Laurelwood lease) would signal a positive step for the community.

Separately, here is an interesting take on "Jihad Jane" (whom we wrote about earlier this week) from syndicated national columnist Eugene Robinson, and run in the Asbury Park Press.

NJ Senate Passes S762 by 36-0 Vote

The State Senate unanimously passed S762 around 3 p.m. We appreciate the efforts not only of Senator Beck, Assemblywoman Casagrande and Assemblyman O'Scanlon in pushing this measure (first introduced outside Earle's main gate in July 2009), but also thank the members of the NOPE community and federal legislators who put their support behind this nonpartisan bill, and especially leadership and countless volunteer hours that NOPE political liaison Elaine Mann put into this time-consuming endeavor.

NOPE will seek confirmation about next steps, but suspect the bill will now be delivered to the Assembly for its own review and vote (before reaching Governor Christie's desk), though we're not sure how long this will take. Recall that the Assembly in the last legislative session approved the measure (then numbered A4159 and since renumbered A2014) 76-0, so we expect much the same this time around.

It is critical for Governor Christie to receive and sign this bill ASAP, so that New Jersey's Treasurer can conduct an appropriate cost-benefits analysis of the unfunded mandate forced upon NJ taxpayers by the Department of Navy. And while the study is conducted, the DEP and DOT will be prohibited from issuing permits to the DoN to start construction of the literal 2-mile road to nowhere (Laurelwood) and the start of a very flawed DoN plan to grant unimpeded access to the privatized housing development on federal, military property through 2040.

S762 on today's NJ Senate calendar

Just reiterating what NOPE supporters already knew...but here's the legislative agenda for anyone interested in visiting Trenton this afternoon for today's 2 p.m. vote on S762, among other bills. We'll be sure to post the outcome later on.

"Jihad Jane"

The case of Pennsylvania woman and apparent Muslim sympathizer Colleen LaRose, who otherwise goes by "Jihad Jane," sheds anecdotal light on NOPE's longstanding contention, and lawmakers' growing concern, about how terrorist groups, according to this from the Asbury Park Press, "are looking to recruit Americans to carry out their goals." (Here's FOX News' take on Jihad Jane.)

To correlate Jihad Jane to NOPE's objection to the Navy's ill-advised plan to turn 300 Laurelwood military townhomes into rentals to civilians may seem a far-fetched to those who do not buy our argument that unimpeded civilian access thru NWS Earle poses security risks, but it is clear from this story that we are not immune to radical thinkers domestically, and opening Earle to anyone able to cut a rent check only raises the potential for espionage and terrorism. In short, as we have long argued, it is foolish to expose Earle's service members and surrounding communities to a significant threat, all for the sake of the DoN's inability to recognize that either buying out or voiding the Laurelwood lease is, by far, the best and only viable option.

NJ Senate to vote on S762 on Thursday

We received confirmation from the bills room in Trenton that the State Senate will vote Thursday at a 2 p.m. meeting on S762, regarding the cost-benefits analysis of proposed civilian housing and unimpeded access to Laurelwood homes at NWS Earle. See previous posts; we've more than beaten the horse on this issue.

More proof that the Navy lied to us and a U.S. Congressman about why it cannot revoke the Laurelwood lease

Through the Freedom of Information Act, NOPE obtained a May 30, 2002 letter from William Shook, attorney for Laurelwood Homes, LLC owner Teri Fischer to Department of Navy official Duncan Holaday, explaining why the Navy needed to sign away (which it ultimately did, without telling the public)its contractual right to revoke the 52-year Laurelwood privatized housing contract in order for Ms. Fischer to refinance her loan through a commercial lender.



There are a few morals here: 1) the DoN not only put the U.S. in danger (i.e. exposure to terror attacks on NWS Earle now that there will be unimpeded access to the Laurelwood development) by signing away a vital contract revocation clause, for no good reason other than to give one of its private housing contractors a sweetheart deal, and 2) during a face-to-face 2008 meeting with high-ranking DoN officials, lied to a U.S. Congressman (Chris Smith) and the public (NOPE representatives) - much as it did in its Laurelwood impact statement (EIS) -- about its motivations for going thru with the civilian-rental phase of the 52-year lease.

For those not close to our case since 2008, NOPE has objected from the get-go to a DoN plan to open NWS Earle to civilian housing, for numerous security, financial and environmental reasons, arguing the Navy should either by revoking the contract or buying it out. The Navy never told anyone it had signed away the revocation clause; NOPE found out when we obtained the lease agreement thru the Freedom of Information Act. Rather, it said the government could not afford to get out of the housing deal and did not want to be a bad business partner to military contractors.

That leaves the Navy with only the buyout option, and considering the silence from DoN leadership in Washington, NOPE can only suspect that the Navy is going through with its civilian rental phase of the Laurelwood lease. Citing the latest FOIA discovery, however, perhaps it is time for our federal legislators to call for a wider investigation of this matter, considering the thinking process (or obvious lack thereof) behind the Laurelwood housing contract mess, and to follow the money trail.

NOPE invites you to read the attached 3-page letter and share your thoughts with us.

Senate Budget committee passes bill requiring Earle probe

S762 was approved (11-0, with two abstentions) yesterday by the NJ Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee and, according to this press release from the District 12 offices of Beck-O'Scanlon-Casagrande, will go to the full Senate for vote on March 11. Kudos to District 12's team, and to the Manns (Elaine and David) and Wilcoxes (Fulton and Susan) for their testimony in Trenton yesterday on behalf of NOPE.

This is progress toward the much-needed, common sense cost benefits and security study by NJ's Treasury Department into the Department of Navy's plan to convert Laurelwood military housing into civilian rental housing within the next few months. NOPE is certain that, combined with the GAO's study on the federal level, government investigations into this debable will validate NOPE's contention that civilian housing at Earle is a disaster on many fronts.

NOPE supporters need to thank Elaine and Fulton

At the drop of a hat, NOPE political liaison Elaine Mann and business case analyst Fulton Wilcox are making their way to Trenton for today's 1 p.m. Senate budget committee meeting at which S762 will be discussed, contrary to what we expected. Originally, we were informed this was a closed-door meeting with no public involvement, but Elaine and Fulton answered the last-minute call from Senator Beck's office to attend for possible testimony. All NOPE supporters need to recognize the personal sacrifice of these two (and other) core committee volunteers, especially in our seemingly never-ending Trenton efforts.

We will provide updates later today on the outcome of this latest page in the S762 bill saga, which at this point we suspect could be moot anyway, considering word that we've gotten that the DEP's acting commissioner went ahead and checked off on Earle's permits for the proposed road to nowhere (i.e. Laurelwood). We are trying to confirm this information.

Another case of mistrust

Citing NOPE's ongoing objections to the Department of Navy's plan to convert underutilized military housing at NWS Earle into a free-for-all civilian community on an active Naval weapons base, and observations of the nearby Fort Monmouth relocation debacle and the U.S. Army's associated bill of goods, we turn supporters' attention to this story from CNN to highlight why local communities, such as ours, need to be skeptical of any DoD housing/infrastructure plans.

Residents and business leaders of Hinesville, Georgia, home to Fort Stewart, took U.S. Army leaders' word and patriotically supported their Military in building up the area's infrastructure ahead of a promised influx of 10,000 soldiers and their families. Area developers poured a reported $200 million into the infrastructure (i.e. sewer, utilities) to support the Army's need for area housing, only to the have the rug pulled from underneath them when the DoD altered course on where to send the soldiers. And, of course, the Pentagon washes its hands of any responsibility, arguing that it's best for the Army to give the answers. The Army, no surprise, was unavailable for comment to CNN.

Skeptics surely could argue that the developers did nothing more than speculate, but the CNN piece would suggest otherwise - that these people answered the Army's call to provide much-needed soldier housing (and other eventual services; i.e. schools). But, no matter how you look at it, the U.S. taxpayer is the one left holding the bag. As civilians, it is our patriotic duty to do all we can to support our Military's needs, much as we have locally for NWS Earle and Fort Monmouth dependents for decades. Yet, reciprocal consideration is absent when the DoD changes course on base staffing, ill-advisedly relocates a base for no apparently good reason, or goes full steam on projects that, ultimately, are ill-conceived and a waste of money.

This is precisely why Colts Neck, Tinton Falls and all of NJ is in the throes of the Laurelwood housing mess at NWS Earle - the DoN knew at the time that Laurelwood was being built in the 1980s that it was relocating the homeport of ships full of sailors designated to live at Laurelwood, yet it still went ahead with a costly housing project that, in the end, is now left for an unwitting base commander and area residents to deal with years down the road. Clearly, the Pentagon/DoD needs to articulate a clearly business strategy when justifying expenditures. Local communities should not be devastated by empty promises from military leaders, poor planning and political or leadership favors that, in the end, compounds years worth of bad decisions and complies with a model that maybe worked 50-75 years ago, but clearly does not in today's world.

T Minus 60 and Counting...

NOPE supporters and other welcome visitors to our blog (including distinguished members of the Department of Navy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Congress and New Jersey legislature, among others) already notice the snarky ticking time bomb graphic to the left, but two days into March we would have expected some kind of commentary from the Navy in Washington on its plan to move forward with civilian housing at NWS Earle (i.e. whether it will still happen as planned or the parties are discussing a buyout).

That the DoN's silence is deafening is all the more impetus for NOPE to intensify its objections heading toward the April 30, 2010, expiration of the military-use phase of the Laurelwood pact and transition to the civilian-use phase thru 2040. This means that NOPE's thousands of area supporters need to be "at the ready" to take action in the next 60 days, so stay tuned here and with your direct NOPE contacts for more details.

In the meantime, Fulton Wilcox reviewed the bid documents on the NWS Earle security guard contract up for bids and notes "there is no provision for security Laurelwood or covering the gate openings/closings for trains or vehicles crossing the proposed access road." (We remind readers that the proposed 1.7-mile unimpeded access road to Laurelwood from just south of the main access gate on Rt. 34 will cross at least one - maybe two - rail lines inside of Earle over which the Navy transports high-powered munitions and other things that go "boom" to ships at Earle's waterfront base off Rt. 36.)

As civilians, we are unclear how to interpret this discovery, but it suggests that either the winning bidder a) will have no role in securing NWS Earle from a new civilian town inside the base, or b) has no clue that it will be responsible for supplementing the DoN's responsibility to police Laurelwood and the new, proposed unimpeded access road, in addition to its primary objective of augmenting base-force protection. We will review whether to contact the contract bidders to alert them to these possibilities.

In the meantime, NOPE will continue to monitor the contract security guard situation as part of our preparations for the 60-day countdown to proposed civilian housing at NWS Earle. Much like the temperatures outside, things will be heating up very quickly for NOPE thru April.

Quick update on NJ bill S762

The NJ Senate Budget Committee meeting scheduled for Thursday at 1 p.m. in Trenton is not a public session; it is a workshop, so to rectify what we sent supporters this morning by way of the NOPE newsletter, we will not be needed to testify. Meanwhile, Senator Beck's commentary on S762 on The Breeze this morning (follow this link, around the 14-minute mark) suggests the measure will be moved out of committee and expeditiously to the Senate floor for a vote, so NOPE will keep supporters updated on this front.

S762 now on the March 4 Senate budget committee docket

The Budget and Appropriations Committee has added S762 to Thursday's 1 p.m. meeting agenda (State House Annex, Committee Room 4, 1st Floor in Trenton). As noted here Monday (scroll down), NOPE maintains a guarded, somewhat skeptical stance about whether the bill to have our State Treasurer issue a cost-benefits assessment of the Laurelwood housing plan will become reality, but inclusion of S762 on the March 4 budget committee docket at least shows the measure is moving forward in Trenton.

The one thing NOPE remains unclear about (and may never get the answer to) in this whole process is how S762 will cost New Jerseyans anything...outside the scope of salary presumably already paid to our Treasurer and the staff of that office, and why the budget committee even needs to review this bill. If we get an answer to this, we'll let our supporters know.

Brief NOPE update from political liaison Elaine Mann

Elaine informs the NOPE community that Senator Beck will be a guest of Anita Velardo this Sunday morning at 8a on "The Breeze Knows" (107.1 and 99.7 FM) to discuss a range of topics, including S762--legislation in the Senate that would order the NJ Treasurer to conduct and issue a cost-benefits analysis of proposed civilian housing at NWS Earle before the DEP or DOT could issue permits to the Navy for construction of an unimpeded access road to Laurelwood homes.

Also on that front, the Colts Neck Town Committee passed a resolution last night in support of S762, on the heels of a similar move by Tinton Falls Borough Council. NOPE continues to appreciate the unwavering support of our elected town/borough officials in fighting the Department of Navy's plan to expose NWS Earle as the next Ground Zero and in the process stick us with a $300-$500 million unfunded mandate.

NWS Earle security guard contract bid update

At first glance, there is little new information to share from NOPE's routine check of the outsource security guard contract up for bids with the Department of Navy ("NECO") at Naval Weapons Station Earle, other than the award date (according to "A9" of this NECO document) will come sometime in March or April. We will update NOPE supporters of any otherwise notable findings once our Security Analyst, Jim Sfayer, and Business Case Analyst, Fulton Wilcox, have had a chance to review these highly technical documents (you can read them yourself, here).

Please revisit our January 4, 2010 blog for background on how the Myers Security contract issue bolsters NOPE's objection to civilian housing at NWS Earle. In short, NWS Earle outsources security guards to supplement base protection. NECO documents linked above shed zero light on the actual cost to the DoN or the value of the current contract to Myers, although a report from a 2009 Inspector General report put the Navy's price tag from 2004 through Sept. 2008 at $21 million, according to NOPE's findings.

Regarding this contract, and the entire civilian housing plan on an active weapons base, NOPE is concerned that the DoN lied to the public about the true cost to increase base force protection with civilian housing from 2010-2040. To be sure, DoN summarily wrote off the admitted need and cost for extra guards in its Laurelwood EIS as a purfunctory "don't worry...we can handle it." From a business case perspective, this is an utter cop-out.

As noted in Exhibit 2 of our Business Case Analysis of the Laurelwood civilian housing plan, NOPE estimates that security costs and the base commander's staff time will comprise roughly one-third of the low-ball $61 million cost to the Navy to go thru with the civilian "outlease" phase of the 52-year privatized housing contract. Such cost analysis was missing from the Navy's EIS, and NOPE suspects will come to light once the GAO issues its findings this spring and disprove DoN's contention that civilian housing at Earle makes fiscal (and security) sense.

The Department Navy, having already ill-advisedly signed away its right to revoke the lease (in 2002) during periods of declared national emergency, should finally come clean and discuss a buyout to the Laurelwood lease, and end this chirade once and for all.

Learning first hand why Trenton is a train wreck

The amazing part about NOPE is that, within a relatively small amount of time, our grassroots organization of moms, dads, senior citizens, distinguised military veterans and "average Joes" helped to get responsible, bipartisan federal legislation passed for the U.S. GAO to conduct a cost-benefits analysis of the proposed civilian housing at NWS Earle. However, we continue to spin our wheels in Trenton about companion state legislation - even when the responsible measure we support (S762) unanimously passed the full House and a Senate committee last session, only to be held up because of party politics.

Contrary to what we anticipated following S762's latest passage on Thursday by the current Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee, now we learn that the bill will not go to the full Senate for a vote, but is now referred to the Senate's Budget and Appropriations Committee, which we understand will meet next week - and where, for a 4th or 5th time in Trenton alone, NOPE - ALL volunteers with full-time jobs, family responsibilities, etc. - will need to commit more time to testify for the same darned measure.

New Jerseyans had better cross their fingers and hope the GAO study exposes the obvious flaws of the Laurelwood EIS (i.e. Department of Navy's plan to turn Laurelwood housing into unrestricted rental units to civilians), because our elected leaders in Trenton cannot figure out which was is up or down. Candidly, if and when S762 passes and is signed into law by Governor Christie, it will probably be too late; the study will NOT produce any results until at least six months AFTER Laurelwood can be rented to civilian tenants.

The intent of S762 (formerly known as S3017 until Mr. Codey and others politicized the issue during the 2008-09 session) was to simply delay required DEP and DOT permits (to the DoN and its housing developer Laurelwood Homes, LLC) until our own Treasurer could conduct a cost-benefits study of what NOPE clearly sees as at least a $300-$500 million (or more) unfunded federal mandate on New Jerseyans. More or less, NJ saying "wait a second, Uncle Sam, let's take a look at your plan and how it impacts us financially."

That's right, NJ - the DoN wants you to foot the half-a-billion-dollar bill for its own bad housing contracts, while at the same time compromising your security. Our leaders in Trenton, however, fail to recognize the urgency of this matter, and instead will move S762 to another committee for review, and then likely to the House for its two cents (after the House passed the earlier version of the bill by 76-0 in 2009).

Ah, efficiency at its finest in Trenton. Nonetheless, NOPE will be there - AGAIN - to testify for S762 if need be on the community's behalf. Do not worry. We will always watch our community's back.