Board Votes to Keep Commissary

Orange County supervisors voted Tuesday to urge the U.S. Marine Corps to keep open the popular commissary at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station even after the base is turned over to the county next year.

The commissary, available to active duty and retired military personnel, provides a critical service for veterans on fixed incomes who rely on the base store for discount food, clothing and supplies. The county is home to about 120,000 retired military personnel.

“This is a key issue for veterans,” said Steve Franks, chief of staff for Board Chairman Jim Silva. “This is an effort for us to say there’s local support for keeping it open. Maybe the right person will listen.”

Under the federal government’s complicated base-closure guidelines, the commissary will be closed unless the Marine Corps recommends to the assistant secretary of defense that it remain open. That decision will be based on the number of active military personnel remaining in the area as well as the cost of keeping the facility open.

The board’s vote was seen as key because it comes from all of the supervisors, who rarely agree on issues involving the fate of El Toro. And the Board of Supervisors also acts as the planning agency with responsibility for what happens once the base is closed.

The Department of Defense hasn’t decided what will be done with the commissary, federal officials said. Other commissaries have been saved, including the one at McLellan Air Force Base in Sacramento.

Veterans urging the board Tuesday to keep El Toro’s commissary open included Bill Davenport of north Tustin, who in April launched a “Save the Commissary” campaign. He and others circulated a petition urging action by the Marine Corps. It collected 5,000 signatures.

“That commissary is important to a lot of lives here,” he said.