The administration of Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan is assembling a bloc of community and business groups to make a forceful case against troop reductions at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson during an upcoming Army "listening session" about possible personnel cuts at the base.
During a special work session with Anchorage Assembly members Friday, City Manager George Vakalis said the goal will be a "very well-orchestrated presentation" to reinforce the importance of Alaska to the military, and avoid the worst-case scenario of JBER losing several thousand positions to align with a constrained Army budget.
The advocacy plans are shaping up as U.S. Army and Defense Department officials are traveling to 30 Army installations across the United States and overseas, determining how to shed tens of thousands of positions. The 2011 Budget Control Act requires the Army to reduce its strength from a height of 570,000 soldiers to 450,000 by the end of September 2017, a number that could fall even further to 420,000.
Through the "listening sessions," Army officials are gathering feedback on how the communities that surround the installations would be affected by the cuts.
"Every community is going to be doing something," Vakalis said Friday. "They're all affected. We're affected. Fairbanks is going to be affected. But the bottom line is … it would be a major negative impact for our community."
In a worst-case scenario, up to 5,300 soldiers and civilians could be cut from JBER and 5,800 from Fort Wainwright, according Lt. Col. Alan Brown, a public affairs officer at JBER. With a total of about 6,000 Army soldiers on base, that type of reduction would be "significant," Brown said. Some 10,000 to 12,000 family members would be affected.
Army officials will be in Anchorage on Feb. 23 and Fairbanks on Feb. 24 to meet with community members. Exact times and locations are being finalized, and will be broadcast widely, Brown said.
Brown called the listening session a "great opportunity for the Anchorage community to talk directly to the Army decision-makers."
At Friday's meeting, Vakalis elaborated on remarks made by Mayor Sullivan earlier this week about the effort to build a strong presentation for Army officials.
He said the city will be seeking to hire a contractor to help coordinate the effort.
This marks essentially the second phase of an ongoing national troop reduction process for the Army. The first round of cuts occurred in 2013, and Alaska fared relatively well, losing 800 positions at JBER but gaining 500 positions at Fort Wainwright.
In November, the Army said an environmental analysis found no significant impacts if cuts were made in Anchorage and Fairbanks. The next step was to evaluate the socioeconomic impacts to the community, the Army's statement said, referencing the upcoming February meeting.
Matthew Felling, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, said Alaska has historically been successful in resisting military reductions. He also noted that the development is one piece of a national tour of army structure, size and analysis.
"Alaska has always been extremely vocal, and they have come out in volume to talk and attest to the importance of our military," Felling said.