Ald. Michael J. Murphy says he is he may try to get Summerfest to start paying for the police and fire services that have always been provided to the festival for free.
“They do have several million dollars in their reserve account and we’re in a very difficult situation where we’re literally paying overtime for officers in district stations to staff theis type of large event,” he said during a meeting of the Common Council’s Finance and Personnel Committee. “If we charge the Milwaukee Brewers and we charge the Milwaukee Bucks and these other large organizations, one has to ask himself, why do we not charge them?”
The Milwaukee Brewers pay the city more than $1 million a year to for police services, he said. The Milwaukee Bucks also pay for police, as do other organizations. Milwaukee World Festival Inc., which operates Summerfest, does not pay, he said.
“We do receive a payment for the rent of the the land to World Festival — over a million dollars….That never had taken into consideration the costs of both police and fire services,” he said.
Police Chief Edward Flynn said the true costs of policing special events previously had been hidden because of the way the Police Department tracked them. Regular-duty personnel were assigned to the events, then officers on overtime were assigned to cover some of the regular-duty assignments in various police districts.
“THe Police Department overtime was jacking up in the districts,” he said. ”In the meantime, you didn’t see that the real cost wasn’t the police districts, it was the special events.”
Flynn said he revised the way special event assignments were tracked to better monitor the costs. So far this year, he said, the price tag was $575,000.
“This is how much the city spends to police these special events,” he said. ”Whether you decide we want to recover those costs some day is ultimately your call. You should know, as we look at Police Department expenditures, that a large percentage of those expenditures go to special events at which other people make a profit.”
Thank you
Friday, October 31st, 2008Thanks to all of those who have shown their love and support since Dave’s heart attack. I could not get through without you.
This blog is heading — right now — back into the land of politics and news and matters of more public interest. It is not a place, I think, for widow’s weeds.
Onward. To whatever.
Tags: David Doege
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