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Hill Air Force Base will lose 261 jobs as the Air Force restructures its civilian workforce and downsizes one of the base's major components, the Ogden Air Logistics Center.
Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said the center's commander, Major Gen. Andrew Busch, told him officials hope to achieve the cuts through attrition and early retirements.
Angry with the Air Force for its failure to consult Utah leaders about its plans, the governor said he worries what other cuts are in the works for the base where 24,000 Utahns work.
"There are 261 jobs now. Is going to be 500 jobs next year? A thousand? Is it a leak in the dike that's going to expand into a gusher?" he asked.
The governor and the state's congressional delegation are protesting the "secret" decision. "Part of our apprehension is because nobody is communicating with us and we fear for the worst," Herbert said. "We ought to be in on the conversation."
The air logistics center will be turned into a depot, or a satellite of a center in Oklahoma. The Ogden center is not one of the five "lead" centers that will remain standing after Oct. 1, 2012, according to an Air Force statement.
Besides the air logistics center, Hill's other main component is its fighter wings.
Utah's elected officials vowed to fight the cuts at Hill. In a joint letter to Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley, they said the plan jeopardizes Hill's future modernization. The delegation and the governor say the Air Force violated its own policies for making such major decisions.
"The secretive and subjective process used by you and the Air Force … offends the very notions of fairness and open government," they wrote to Donley.
In its announcement, the Air Force said it plans to eliminate 9,000 civilian jobs nationwide, as it complies with the Secretary of Defense's order that it cap civilian employment at the 2010 level while adding 5,900 jobs for the Air Force's top priorities.
"We are making difficult choices about how to deliberately restructure and posture the force and will continue to look for new ways of accomplishing the mission," Donley said in a statement. "We can't afford business as usual."
The measures come as the Department of Defense looks to slash $400 billion in spending over the next five years.
Brig. Gen. Gina Grasso, director of manpower, organization, and resources, said the Air Force hopes employees will voluntarily give up their jobs, presumably through a range of inducements. Civilian staffing will be adjusted at all levels of the Air Force, she said.
While noting many decisions have yet to be made, the Air Force said it is reorganizing its largest employer of civilians, The Air Force Materiel Command — which is the umbrella organization for the Ogden Air Logistics Center — to eliminate more than 2,100 jobs.
Instead of having a headquarters staff on each base with an air logistics center, the Air Force is creating a lead center for each of its five mission areas, such as a test center, a research laboratory and a nuclear weapons center.
Ogden's center will be renamed Ogden Air Logistics Complex, part of the Sustainment Center at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee said in a written statement, "I plan to fight this plan on all fronts."
Added Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, "I'm going to continue to press the Air Force on maintaining the current logistics center infrastructure and do everything I can to ensure the 24,000 jobs at Hill remain in northern Utah."
Clearfield Mayor Don Wood questioned the Air Force's conclusions. "They didn't do a business case analysis on this restructuring ... so it isn't apparent that it will yield efficiency and cost savings."
Layton Mayor Steve Curtis said he's frustrated by the "veil of secrecy" that surrounded the decision. "It's very hard to gauge how it will affect us," Curtis said. "Hill will continue to be important as far as aircraft maintenance."
Syracuse Mayor Jamie Nagle said she hopes the job losses can be achieved through attrition. "But if they do lay people off, we are aggressively pursuing the creation of a job center in Syracuse to help ease unemployment in the county," she said.
Mark Knold, chief labor market economist for the Utah Department of Workforce Services, said Hill's civilian jobs generally "are good-paying jobs, so you don't want to lose any employees from Hill."
Customers at two bars near the base's south gate were just learning of the cuts Wednesday evening. At the cozy Do Drop Inn, Tami Thomasson of Layton said she works at the Internal Revenue Service but has applied for many jobs on base.
"I don't see why they have to cut the jobs, especially with the current unemployment," Thomasson said. "There are other ways they could save money. Why cut the jobs? Why hurt the little people?"
Just around the corner, Layton resident Heather Voelker stood behind the bar at Linda Lou's Time for Two, a club where she works as a server.
"It's going to hurt this area economically," Voelker said. "Everyone from the base uses these businesses right here." A barbershop and a tailor also are located on the corner near Hill Fill Road and State Highway 193.
Voelker worries about friends who work on the base.
"I don't know if I'm personally frightened," Voelker said, noting that Linda Lou's attracts customers from elsewhere as well. "But I feel bad for the people it is going to affect."
Tribune reporters Cathy McKitrick and Steve Oberbeck contributed to this report.