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While cities across the United States are pondering how to get either the feds or presidential candidates' campaign funds to pay for the crushing costs of providing security when a political gorilla comes to town, San Jose doesn't know how much Bill Clinton's and John Kerry's meet-and-greets at the end of June cost its taxpayers.
San Jose Police Department spokesman Sgt. Steve Dixon said he doesn't know of any way to even estimate how much the two visits cost. Kerry stopped by San José State University on June 24 to give a stump speech, and Clinton held court at the Stevens Creek Barnes & Noble on June 29 to sign copies of his new memoirs.
"I have not been able to get an accurate estimate of the number of officers that worked overtime for those visits," said Dixon. "It is very difficult to try to track down all of the officers assigned to those events and then try to figure out which ones were on regular time and which were on overtime. Many of those officers who were in special operations during the Clinton visit have moved on to other assignments."
The city auditor's office confirmed that, indeed, the city not only doesn't know how much the taxpayers spent on security for the VIP visits, the city's budget guard dogs can't even estimate the cost.
According to Robin Klenke, internal auditor for the city, San Jose's financial management system includes "cost centers." A division, a unit or a program may constitute a cost center, collecting costs of police department staff assigned to each grouping.
"When officers working in all areas of the department come together to police special events, costs of officers working the event roll to their normal assignment and cost centers throughout the department—unless a single 'cost center' has been created for all involved to charge to. You could do a breakdown to compile total costs, but that's a lot of work. The police department staff budget analyst confirmed that total costs for these special details would be hard to pin down."
To calculate the cost of Clinton's visit, for example, the analyst would have to identify the badge numbers of the police officers covering the event, match the badge numbers to their pay rate, identify the cost center that tracks their assignments, and then figure out if each officer was working a regular shift or overtime.
In Lincoln, Neb., according to the Omaha World-Herald, the mayor is asking the federal government for $32,000 to cover the cost of a Vice President Dick Cheney visit.
"I shared the 'concept' with my boss—we both think [it's a] great idea" to bill the candidates or the federal government for the cost of security, "but probably not going to happen here," said Klenke.
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