Monterey votes to hire military consultant

Monterey is moving ahead with an effort to save local military schools. On Tuesday, council members decided to hire a consultant to help Monterey keep its military installations open.

City leaders said its an important because the Defense Language Institute and Naval Postgraduate School could be up for consideration for closure in the next several years. The city will pay $80,000 for the consultant.

The idea is to analyze data to identify who the city needs to be talking to at the national level, to make a case for why the schools are best suited to stay in Monterey in the wake of more defense budget cuts.

“They’re a $1.4 billion sector of our economy. And the loss of one or more of them would really be catastrophic,” Deputy City Manager Dino Pick said.

The city said the DLI has about 3,000 teaching jobs and about 5,000 people studying there, who invest in the city’s local economy. Monterey city leaders said they’ve successfully argued to keep places like the Presidio and others open in the past. The city will be going over information collected with the new consultant over the next 6 months.