wire transfer confirming the payment<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cI think that the one really critical person in this Trump visit\u00a0was Brian Kennedy. He was the president of the Sports Commission, who,\u00a0pretty much four\u00a0hours before, said \u2018hey if we don\u2019t get payment by such a time your event is cancelled,\u2019\u201d Representative\u00a0Lily\u00a0Limon\u00a0said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kennedy\u00a0told\u00a0ABC-7\u00a0he negotiated a contract in advance with the Trump campaign.\u00a0Under that agreement, the campaign was\u00a0required\u00a0to pay before Trump stepped on stage. The commission, which manages the Coliseum for El Paso County, also required the campaign to cover all venue-related expenses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No agreement\u00a0with the City of El Paso\u00a0<\/p>\n
A day after the Feb. 11 rally, city officials confirmed to ABC-7, in response to the station\u2019s inquiry, that taxpayer resources were used to support the event. At the time, officials said costs were still being calculated and would be billed to the campaign once finalized.<\/p>\n
The city billed Trump\u2019s campaign more than $470,000 a month after the event, according to city records obtained by ABC-7 at the time. A one-time 21% delinquency fee later increased the total bill to\u00a0nearly $570,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Records show reimbursements\u00a0covered\u00a0a range of costs, including equipment, personnel and services such as security, cleanup,\u00a0setup\u00a0and\u00a0logistics.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to City of El Paso billing records for the rally, the\u00a0police\u00a0department incurred the highest costs at $380,942.12, followed by the\u00a0fire\u00a0department at $60,630.84, Sun Metro at $15,577.52, Streets and Maintenance at $6,452, the Department of Aviation at $6,286.57 and the Health Department at $528.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Security alone drew 476 officers from the El Paso and Anthony police departments and the El Paso and Socorro independent school districts, according to the itemized bill reviewed by ABC-7. That was in addition to El Paso County sheriff\u2019s deputies and Secret Service personnel.\u00a0<\/p>\n
ABC-7 asked to interview City Manager Dionne Mack and City Attorney Karla Nieman\u00a0to\u00a0walk us through the bill, explain how the\u00a0city develops cost estimates for larger events,\u00a0discuss how it plans to collect payment\u00a0without an agreement,\u00a0and any plans to create a\u00a0policy to guide future event planning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
City spokeswoman Laura Cruz-Acosta declined, saying there were no new developments to warrant additional interviews. \u201cYou\u2019re welcome to reference prior interviews and KVIA\u2019s previous coverage as the most current information available,\u201d she wrote in an email.<\/p>\n
City Representative Limon told ABC-7 she was not aware that the city had no prior agreements or documented discussions with the Trump campaign when asked. She described efforts to collect the outstanding amount as \u201cuphill\u201d but worth pursuing.<\/p>\n
She said she placed the issue on the\u00a0March 3\u00a0agenda to ensure the debt is not\u00a0forgotten, and\u00a0questioned why such a\u00a0large\u00a0amount of money has been left unpaid, comparing it to unpaid traffic violations or parking meter fees that are always collected.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chatman, the SMU professor\u00a0who\u00a0specializes in contract law, corporate governance, legal ethics, and fiduciary duties,\u00a0said\u00a0when\u00a0cities host large rallies, they must look beyond simple venue rentals to consider\u00a0the costs of\u00a0additional\u00a0security and the size of expected crowds.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The first is just a contract with the terms between the city or the county, whatever municipality is hosting and the organization that is hosting the rally,” Chatman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chatman says contracts for these events typically include provisions for police support that go beyond everyday operations, including\u00a0the cost of closing or barricading roads to manage traffic.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chatman said some cities include clauses that allow them to charge more if the scale of the event exceeds what was originally\u00a0anticipated. She said without those written terms, a city may have no legal mechanism to recover those costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
El Paso does not have a formal policy for recouping costs associated with large campaign events like Trump\u2019s in 2019, according to city spokesperson Laura Cruz-Acosta.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“So, there is no formal policy that is in place as it relates to it, but we do have procedures and forms that are filled out for special events, for example.\u201d\u00a0She said\u00a0the city has a special events form where people can describe the event\u2019s footprint\u00a0and whether there will be a need for street\u00a0closures for things like parades.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, there’s really no one-size-fits-all when it comes to the process, but at the very minimum there’s a starting point in terms of filling out a form in order to capture all of the details and information related to that kind of special event,” Cruz-Acosta said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cruz-Acosta said creating a formal policy for campaign events would require City Council action. She noted the council hired the Law Offices of Snapper L. Carr, which was in\u00a0November of\u00a02022, according to city records. We asked Cruz-Acosta how much it\u00a0cost\u00a0to hire the Austin-based law firm, which also serves as the\u00a0city\u2019s\u00a0lobbying group during Texas legislative sessions, and she said an open records request would be\u00a0required. <\/p>\n
According to the records we obtained through our request, the city hired the firm on a contingency basis\u2014meaning the law firm is paid only if it recovers money on the city\u2019s behalf.<\/p>\n
Limon believes cities need to become “smarter” about securing payment for services. She noted that providing services for campaigns is a “tremendous drain on public service,” particularly on first responders. She said if the $570,000 were recovered, it would directly\u00a0benefit\u00a0departments, which she said are often in need of funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Limon stressed the need for a clear policy outlining expectations for campaigns.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We can’t just say, ‘well, welcome to the city and we’ll be there, we’ll protect you, um, we’ll close roads, we’ll do whatever is necessary, and then afterwards we’re going to send you a bill and we hope that you’ll pay for it,'” Limon explained. She affirmed the city’s responsibility to offer protection but asserted that entities using city services should pay for them, regardless of the campaign.\u00a0“It’s\u00a0—\u00a0You\u00a0have\u00a0received a service from this city, and you should be paying for that service that you received. Whether\u00a0it’s\u00a0Bernie Sanders, whether\u00a0it’s\u00a0Donald Trump, it\u00a0doesn’t\u00a0matter who it is,” Limon said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Professor\u00a0Chatman said\u00a0large cities often have standardized protocols and checklists in place for event permits to ensure every host is treated the same regardless of their political affiliation. Chatman noted that smaller cities may lack these procedures because they do not regularly host large-scale events.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Best practices are to have checklists and standards and protocols in place so that you eliminate human error and human judgment and human bias.\u00a0That’s\u00a0what you want to do,” Chatman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chatman recommended that municipalities use a “360 approach” for future event planning, including\u00a0evaluating the profile of speakers, the potential for counter-protests\u00a0and the total burden on city resources.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Once it happens the first time and you see what a burden it is on a city budget, then you have to put protocols in place and have best practices for hosting these sorts of events,” Chatman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Tucson, Arizona,\u00a0the city declined to pursue about $80,000 in public safety costs from a 2016 Trump rally and about $40,000 from a Bernie Sanders rally that same year, concluding legal action would cost more,\u00a0Andy Squire, public information officer in the City Manager\u2019s Office, told ABC-7.\u00a0When Trump returned in September of that same year, however, the city required his campaign to prepay estimated public safety and facility rental costs\u2014a total of $145,222, including\u00a0nearly $116,000\u00a0for police.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the end it came down to modifying the language in the facility\u00a0use\u00a0agreements at the Tucson Convention Center, which is\u00a0city\u00a0owned and operated under contract with Legends Global,\u201d Squire said in an email response to ABC-7.\u00a0<\/p>\n
ABC-7 reached out to the Republican National Committee seeking comment on the costs related to President Trump\u2019s campaign rally in El Paso. A former campaign official said, \u201cAll questions related to local law enforcement and first responder costs we defer to the U.S. Secret Service.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A Secret Service spokesperson told ABC-7 that the agency coordinates security planning with local law enforcement partners but \u201ccurrently lacks a mechanism to reimburse local governments for their support during protective events.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The spokesperson added that the agency will continue working with Congress to seek resources for state, county, and city law enforcement agencies\u00a0assisting\u00a0in security operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) —\u00a0Seven\u00a0years after thousands crowded the El Paso County Coliseum to see then-President Donald Trump…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-302149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}