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FeedBeyond and BRAC
The Department of Defense’s Base Closure and Realignment plan could mean a major boon to the local economy. Prepare to scan your security key.
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As Delaware prepares for—indeed woos—an influx of U.S. Department of Defense workers and contractors, Kerwin Gaines sees great potential, as well as one very great challenge: gaining enough security clearances to manage the work.
“Delaware possesses only a handful of Department of Defense contractors that could handle the incoming Ft. Monmouth workload,” says Gaines, a DOD security expert who owns Blue Assurance Corporation, an IT security firm. “The primary issue facing Delaware small businesses is in the area of security clearance necessary to become a government contractor.”
In 2005 the U.S. Department of Defense recommended moving the communications and electronics sections of Ft. Monmouth in New Jersey to Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, just down I-95 from Newark. The move makes central and northern Delaware one of the country’s 20 “growth communities,” as identified by DOD’s Base Closure and Realignment Commission. The shift brings the potential for thousands of high-paying skilled jobs.
Delaware, however, does not offer a defense workforce comparable to that in Maryland. That may have less to do with possessing necessary work skills—Delaware does—than it does having the necessary infrastructure security. Delaware doesn’t. And getting security clearance for DOD work is not easy. There is considerably more to it than taking a polygraph test and signing a loyalty oath.
“For a DOD security clearance, you have to demonstrate, for instance, that radio or electronic signals cannot transmit outward beyond your workspace, nor can anyone outside that workspace be able to scan into that workspace,” says Jeff Stone, infrastructure and intergovernmental relations director for the Delaware Economic Development Office.
Karen Holt, the regional BRAC manager, based in Harford County, Maryland, underscores the point.
“There’s an important personal financial aspect of the clearance process,” Holt says. “Small business employers must be able to show their employees are individually or financially stable in order to diminish any potential for espionage recruitment.” The process can take six to 24 months, according to Gaines.
Enough of the bad—or at least challenging—news. The upside is the potential for Delaware business and employment growth at a time of downturns in manufacturing employment, such as layoffs at the General Motors plant in Newport and the Invista facility in Seaford.
“Since most of the current Ft. Monmouth civilian employees will not be relocating to the Aberdeen area, most of these positions will be filled with new hires with the appropriate skills,” according to Steve Anderson of Delaware-based Anderson Homes. Anderson is involved with DEDO’s efforts to bring new residents and workers to Delaware as a result of BRAC. “The technical skills are similar to those required by the banking and financial industries, which makes Delaware well suited to help fill these positions.”
Of the 60,000 jobs involved in the Ft. Monmouth relocation, as many as 40,000 will go off-base. Up to 35,000 represent new hires from the tri-state area.
Some DOD work does not, however, require high-security clearance. During the six months ending in March, Delaware businesses received $6 million in DOD contracts, according to Juanita Beauford, director of the Delaware Small Business Center’s Procurement Technical Assistance Center, which facilitates the process. “We are also now conducting workshops specifically to deal with BRAC-related contracts and the need for gaining security clearances,” she says.
Richard Heffron, vice-president for government affairs at the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce, says low taxes, affordable homes and an easy commute, especially from the Bear-Newark area, should be especially attractive to workers accustomed to expensive, congested northern New Jersey.
“Infrastructure improvements will be the key to attracting those who are planning to relocate here,” Heffron says. “That includes improvement along the I-95 corridor and an upgrade of the Newark rail station to support a rail link between Delaware and Maryland.”
Governor Jack Markell plans to work hard “to pitch the Delaware story. We need to make sure relocating businesses and workers know about our good schools and good housing,” he says. “We need to facilitate rail and bus transportation to make them convenient. We need to ensure the universities and colleges here are producing the kind of skilled workforce these incoming businesses will require for staffing.”
All of this requires a coordinating effort among communities within a 45-minute commuting radius of Aberdeen. The Chesapeake Science and Security Corridor was established through a federal grant to unite the eight affected regions and ensure a successful BRAC implementation. New Castle County is a member of the corridor.
“We serve as a kind of neutral clearinghouse, providing information regarding employee and business relocation to all of the areas falling under BRAC,” Holt says. “Things are getting busier, too. We’re taking anywhere from 100 to 150 calls per week from individuals and businesses concerning the opportunities existing in each of our communities. That’s in addition to the BRAC implementation presentations that we sponsor on a regular basis.”
Page 2: Beyond and BRAC continues...
