Opponents of transferring thousands of jobs from Fort Monmouth, N.J., to Aberdeen Proving Ground won?t get their day in court until July.
The American Federation of Government Employees Local 1904 said the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure decision to close Fort Monmouth was tainted when the Army ignored or suppressed estimates that the cost of the move would be more than twice what the commission said.
“What is at issue here is not simply a cost overrun. What occurred here was fraud,” said Eugene Lavergne, attorney for the AFGE.
Lavergne was seeking a hearing Wednesday in Trenton before U.S. District Court Judge Mary L. Cooper, but filed his briefs too late, causing the case to be postponed until July 24.
Cooper ordered the case to be put on hold last year pending further BRAC actions, which allowed Lavergne to amend the suit to include the congressional testimony of Victor Ferlise, deputy to the commanding general for operations support.
Ferlise certified the cost of moving the base at $1.44 billion, not the $780 million that the BRAC commission was told. Afraid his original estimate would not be well-received, Ferlise said he asked for an independent audit of the figures but was ignored until after the decision was made.
“That all leads me to the conclusion that this was a predetermined conclusion on the part of the Army leadership that is unfounded and ill advised,” Ferlise said.
Some at Monmouth said the July hearing won?t stop the move.
“Although it?s fact that the BRAC is closing in on double the original cost and will easily exceed that here at Fort Monmouth, the general feeling is that the current administration will do what they want anyway,” said Mark Hendrickson, an employee at the base. “Most of us here think that any effort to keep Fort Monmouth alive is futile.”
msantoni@baltimoreexaminer.com
