Port may get bill for police presence
By Matt Batcheldor
The Olympian
March 09, 2007 
http://www.theolympian.com/101/story/69518.html


OLYMPIA - The city of Olympia is considering charging the Port of Olympia for 
police services during protests of the port's military shipment last May.

The move comes as a military shipment this week through the Port of Tacoma also 
draws protests. Olympia's finance committee will take up the issue Monday and 
might recommend that the whole council take action.

"The question is: Why should a city government bear the cost of a national 
policy?" said Councilman TJ Johnson, finance committee chairman. "If it's the 
intention of the federal government, of the military, to do things that cost our 
community money, should we be asking for reimbursement?"

The question is part of a larger issue: Should the city charge any organization 
whose events require a large police presence, such as Lakefair? The city's 
general government committee is drafting an ordinance with some new rules that 
the city could vote on by June, City Councilman Joe Hyer said.

The Thurston County Sheriff's Department already has asked the port for 
reimbursement but hasn't recovered anything.

Nearly 40 people were arrested last May during the 10 days of protests against 
military shipments through the Port of Olympia. The protests turned violent on 
the final day, when some protesters damaged port gates and police officers fired 
pepper spray.

The Thurston County Sheriff's Department provided security to the port, but 
Olympia police were called as backup.

City Manager Steve Hall said it cost the city $9,513 in overtime payments and 
$4,532 worth of comp time, which is time the officers get off in return for 
their extra work. Twenty-nine police officers and four corrections officers 
spent a total of 213 hours at the event.

Charging the port is just one option for reimbursement, Johnson said. The city 
might also attempt to seek reimbursement from the Army.

"The options range from doing nothing to bill someone," said Johnson, an 
outspoken critic of the war in Iraq.

Port spokeswoman Patti Grant said the port hasn't decided whether to reimburse 
the city or county. She said the port is discussing the issue with the county 
but hasn't been contacted by the city about it.

"We welcome the opportunity to talk to the city about the charges that were 
incurred," she said.

Johnson has been active in a new group called Olympia Port Militarization 
Resistance, which has formed a public-information campaign and is lobbying 
public officials to dissuade future shipments at Olympia's port. The group also 
began protesting the Tacoma shipments last weekend. It does not advocate 
violence, its members say.

But Grant said the port will continue giving the military, an "ongoing 
customer," access to the port.

Johnson said the issue was placed on the finance committee's agenda at the 
beginning of the year, before the city learned about the Tacoma shipment.

Thurston County Sheriff Dan Kimball said county officials want the county to get 
its money back, too. The protests cost slightly more than $9,000 in county 
money, not including reimbursement from the port for the usual security detail 
of two or three officers.

Kimball said he's not expressing an opinion about the war by asking for the 
money.

"I only see these protests getting bigger and more time-consuming and expensive, 
and I don't have a budget for it," he said.

The sheriff's office sent a letter to the port asking for reimbursement, and the 
port answered that it would ask the prosecutors to seek restitution from the 
people who caused the damage, Kimball said. But he said it isn't likely the 
county could recover the damages that way.

The sheriff's office already has an agreement to charge the port for one or two 
deputies to provide security during port shipments. After the protests last May, 
the sheriff's office drafted a new agreement that would charge the port for 
additional officers if needed. The port hasn't signed it.

"If they don't sign it, we won't provide the service," Kimball said.

Hyer said the city doesn't have the money it once did to staff special events. 
City leaders have trimmed budgets after their ability to raise tax revenues was 
hampered by taxpayer initiatives in the past several years. The motor-vehicle 
excise tax was axed in 2000, and a 2001 initiative limited property-tax revenue 
increases to 1 percent a year, not enough to keep up with inflation. Meanwhile, 
city expenses for items such as health care and gasoline are rising faster than 
the cost of inflation.
 
Lakefair will get bill

Lakefair cost Olympia $49,096 last year and $46,332 in 2006 for expenses 
including police, parks and public works, City Councilman Joe Hyer said. He said 
that starting this year, the city will charge the Lakefair organization for 
garbage disposal and a police command post. This year's festival is July 18-22. 
Hyer said the city isn't picking on Lakefair by focusing on its costs, but said 
the expenses far exceed the city's costs for other festivals, none of which are 
more than $7,000. Lakefair representatives didn't return a message left at their 
office.