Chicago grapples with costs of G-8, NATO meetings
Comments (...)CHICAGO (MCT) — When the White House picks a city to host a major international event, the first response from local leaders is often excitement over being the center of attention. But then comes the anxiety over who’s going to pay for everything.
The federal government pledges to pick up the costs for national security events like the back-to-back G-8 and NATO meetings of world leaders in Chicago this May, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel has promised local taxpayers won’t be on the hook.
The Emanuel administration and local organizers have said little about any discussions with federal officials over the security tab that could make up the bulk of the projected $40 million to $65 million in local costs. But officials from previous host cities say it’s critical to get started early in sizing up security costs and getting a federal commitment before the event begins.
“Nothing’s a done deal until it happens,” said Eric Tanenblatt, who led planning for the 2004 G-8 in the coastal resort of Sea Island, Ga. “It was always a priority for us.”
State officials formed a budget committee a year before the summit and soon came up with a $25 million security estimate for local and state costs, said Tanenblatt, who oversaw the planning as the former chief of staff to Gov. Sonny Perdue.
“One of the things we made clear at the outset was that we as a state were facing budget issues and we, as the state, did not have the resources to pay for it,” Tanenblatt said.
By March 2004, three months before the summit began, Congress had awarded Sea Island planners the full $25 million, said Ken Davis, spokesman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.
More recently, in preparing for the Republican National Convention in Tampa this August, Florida officials announced back in September 2011 they would need $55 million for security costs. Congress has already committed $50 million to that request.
Chicago planners have said it’s too early to estimate costs because they are waiting for more details from the U.S. Secret Service, which is in charge of protecting at least 60 world leaders attending the summits to discuss global economic and security policies.
Chicago host committee president Lori Healey, who served former Mayor Richard Daley in several capacities including leading his failed Olympic bid, has said the total cost includes hospitality events as well as security and other public costs. But neither Healey nor the Emanuel administration would discuss details.
Officials in several cities, including 2009 G-20 host Pittsburgh, said it was important to push the federal government for reimbursement funds as early as possible.
In Pittsburgh’s case, the Obama White House — with then-chief of staff Rahm Emanuel at the helm — announced the location of the G-20 summit just four months before it took place. City leaders scrambled to make plans and there was some tension leading up to the event without a firm commitment of federal funds to pay for security costs.
“There was a huge (discussion). It went on for weeks,” said Bill Flanagan, who headed the host committee. “Everybody was reluctant to make the investment until it was clear how they were going to be reimbursed.”
Late in the planning stages the federal government did deliver a $10 million grant, and then another $2 million afterward to ultimately cover all of the local costs, which were cheaper than expected because few demonstrators showed up, Flanagan said.
Chicago officials have said the main hang-up in settling on security estimates remains the unknown plans of the Secret Service.
But while Secret Service is focused on protecting politicians, the larger task for local law enforcement is managing crowds and preventing unauthorized access to restricted areas, a task that depends more on crowd estimates, said Marc Hamlin, assistant chief of the Tampa Police Department.
“I don’t think the costs depend on the Secret Service. It depends on what occurs at the event,” Hamlin said.
In Denver, which hosted the 2008 Democratic convention, officials arrived at a $50 million estimate for security costs eight months before the event, which included the nominee, Barack Obama, giving his acceptance speech before tens of thousands of people at INVESCO Field.
Denver Deputy Chief Michael Battista said his department had early estimates for what security might cost late in the year prior to the August 2008 DNC, and had approval for $50 million in federal funds by the first quarter of 2008.
“I built in a heavy cushion on the personnel part of it,” Battista said. After the convention, that cushion let Denver return $8 million of the $50 million from the federal government.
Georgia officials needed 11,000 officers to secure a 90-mile corridor between Sea Island and Savannah, where much of the logistical operations of the summit were run. While the G-20 leaders were housed on Sea Island, President George W. Bush also invited a group of African leaders who were lodged on nearby St. Simons Island, further complicating the security perimeter.
Authorities were also concerned about factors that could have made protests worse, namely that Bush was running for reelection while dealing with an increasingly unpopular war in Iraq.
The Chicago summits have their own complexities.
Obama is in the middle of an election year while dealing with a bad economy. This will be the first G-8 held in a major city since the 2001 G-8 in Genoa, Italy, during which protesters rioted and a demonstrator was killed by police.
Combining the G-8 with a NATO summit has heightened anxiety even further, especially given the current economic and political climate, the strength of the Occupy Wall Street movement and the momentum of the presidential race.
Jen Martinez, a spokeswoman for the Chicago host committee, said the size of the double summits in a metropolis makes planning — and arriving at cost estimates — more complex. She noted that Washington recently raised the estimate of dignitaries from 60 to as many as 80.
But she praised the work of “our federal partners” and said “everything’s going great.”
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