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The bills are in: Security for the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit will
cost taxpayers at least $23.9 million -- about $1.4 million more than
anticipated.
The federal government will reimburse up to $8.5 million of that amount, with the rest coming out of local coffers.
Police and county administrators justify the costs, saying they had
to prepare for the worst -- violent protests like the ones during the
1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle.
''A lot of the cost you're looking at was to have a [police] presence there to make
sure we were prepared,'' said County Manager George Burgess. ``The fact
that the presence was there was what insured that you didn't have a lot
of what you had in Seattle.''
Business leaders say the cost of securing the city was worth it because it will
improve Miami's shot at securing the FTAA headquarters. But
demonstrators in the smaller-than-expected crowds say it was an
expensive assault on free speech.
While two civilian panels search for the truth, protesters are lining up to sue. More litigation costs are coming.
Last summer, before the November summit, authorities told The
Herald they estimated security would cost $16.1 million, including the
federal reimbursement but not counting the lawsuits.
It is not clear when that number was revised, but in the months
before the summit the city of Miami budgeted an extra $2.9 million and
Miami-Dade County allocated an additional $2.5 million. The federal
government also committed more than originally anticipated, bringing the
budgeted total to $22.5 million.
Miami-Dade County released its cost figures Friday night, and they
will be distributed by Burgess on Monday to the County Commission. The
county was the last of the police agencies involved to provide FTAA
expenses.
LOTS OF OVERTIME
According to those figures, the county spent $10.45 million in
overtime, supplies and equipment -- more than the other 21 agencies that
contributed to the effort combined. Most of that came from the police
department, which spent $5.7 million on overtime alone.
County police also spent $4.5 million in regular salaries,
according to records released Friday. The total county costs, including
regular salaries, were nearly $15 million.
By comparison, the Miami Police Department, the lead agency
coordinating the deployment, spent $3.26 million for everything --
overtime, supplies, equipment, even the regular salaries of people
working on FTAA.
Miami-Dade Police Director Carlos Alvarez was not available
Saturday, but his spokeswoman, Cmdr. Linda O'Brien, said the department
had to prepare for the worst, given what protesters had done in cities
like Seattle during free trade summits.
''We had to anticipate the best we could with the information
we were given and gathering,'' she said. ``And we expected to have more
violent protesters than we did . . . Historically, if you look at the
property damage and the injuries in these situations in past cities, we
would have been foolish not to be as absolutely fully prepared as we
possibly could be.''
O'Brien noted that there was almost no damage to businesses
downtown -- a few were spray painted with small graffiti -- compared
with $3 million in damage to Seattle's downtown in 1999.
Police here arrested 234 people, compared with about 1,300 people
during similar demonstrations in Washington, D.C., in 2002 and about 600
people in Seattle in 1999.
O'Brien said the county's costs were so much larger than the other
agencies because of the size of the department -- 3,000 law enforcement
officers and nearly 2,000 civilian employees. The entire department
moved to 12-hour shifts for the five days of the deployment, incurring a
lot of overtime.
Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas was not available Saturday but his
chief of staff Javier Soto said, ``The mayor's not going to second-guess
the law enforcement agencies in their deployment of resources for this
event.''
Miami Mayor Manny Diaz could not be reached.
Sgt. Angel Calzadilla, assistant to Miami Police Chief John Timoney, said police needed to blanket the downtown area.
''You can put a price tag on the physical damage that we prevented
but you can't put a price tag on the damage to the city's image that we
prevented by being out there,'' he said.
Early predictions for the Miami summit put the crowds at between
20,000 and 100,000. But only an estimated 10,000 people showed up to
demonstrate in Miami -- compared with 50,000 who protested in Seattle.
Former Ambassador Luis Lauredo, executive director of the FTAA
Ministerial and American Business Forum and one of the event's main
organizers, declined comment on the security costs.
But Brian Neff, vice president of the South Florida Manufacturers Association, said the costs of security were worth it.
''It would be a very small price to pay should we get the FTAA
headquarters,'' he said. ``I think it would be a great thing for the
community to get that. Sometimes you've got to spend money to make
money.''
Supporters say bringing the FTAA secretariat to Miami would cement
the city's image as the trade hub of Latin America and generate
thousands of spinoff jobs.
But protest groups say the massive deployment was a waste of money.
''It was way out of proportion to what the events were,'' said
Miami resident Steve Showen, who demonstrated with the Green Party. ``It
was a way to try to turn it into something it was not, as if the city
was being invaded.''
STUNNED BY COST
And County Commissioner Joe Martinez, a former police officer and
chairman of the public safety committee, said he was stunned to hear the
county spent more than all the other agencies combined.
''I don't know how many officers we had out there compared to
everyone else but we weren't even the primary department there,'' he
said. ``We were on the fringe, so that one is surprising.''
Protesters have already filed one lawsuit in federal court and have
sent Miami police three notices to sue in state court. Others may be
coming.
For example, Carl Kesser, an independent cameraman, was seriously
injured when a beanbag hit him in the head and lodged under his skin
near his eye. He suffered nerve damage and partial paralysis on one side
of his face.
Police say they didn't target Kesser specifically. He has not filed
a notice of intention to sue, but his attorneys have contacted the
city.
The Miami Police Department isn't the only one expecting lawsuits. Each of the other departments involved may also face claims.
The AFL-CIO, for example, has complained of members being arrested
and even brutalized. Of the thousands of union members involved in the
demonstrations, seven were arrested.
The county's Independent Review Panel is investigating allegations
that protesters, including the unions, have made against the county
police. The city's Citizens Investigative Panel is doing the same for
complaints against the city.
Their investigations may take months. And the costs of the investigations have not been estimated yet.
Herald staff writers Susan Anasagasti and Charles Rabin, Herald
researcher Elisabeth Donovan, and Herald database editor Tim Henderson
contributed to this report.
BY THE NUMBERS
Miami FTAA security:
Money spent on security: $23.9 million
Number of protesters: 10,000
Number of arrests: 234
Damage: Negligible
The arrests so far:
Dropped, dismissed or acquitted: 75 (32%)
Adjudication withheld or prosecution deferred: 77 (33%)
Convicted: 1 (0.4%)
Still pending: 79 (34%)
Unknown: 2 (0.6%)
How did Miami's response compare?
• Seattle 1999 World Trade Organization
Money spent on security: $9 million
Number of protesters: 50,000
Number of arrests: about 600
Downtown damage: $3 million
• Philadelphia 2000 Republican Convention
Money spent on security: $10.4 million
Number of protesters: 4,000
Number of arrests: 391
Damage: Several thousand dollars to repair 23 police cars vandalized
COUNTING THE COST
Here are the costs for security at the Free Trade Area of the
Americas summit. They include the salaries of officers and employees
assigned to FTAA security plus overtime, supplies and equipment.
• Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement: $50,974
• Florida Highway Patrol: $904,381
• Florida Department of Law Enforcement: $649,989
• Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission: $781,260
• Coral Gables Police: $579,430
• Fort Lauderdale Police: $56,889
• Hallandale Beach Police: $10,979
• Hialeah Police: $364,396
• Hollywood Police: $90,962
• Miami Beach Police, Fire and other agencies: $787,404
• Pembroke Pines Police: $51,950
• Plantation Police: $17,288
• Sunrise Police: $24,926
• Miramar Police: $45,623
• Monroe County Sheriff's Department: $43,503
• Pinecrest Police: $26,553
• Miami-Dade County Public Schools: $476,831
• Broward Sheriff's Office: $336,767
• Miami Police and Fire Departments: $3,620,275
• Miami-Dade County: $14,974,758
TOTAL: $23,895,138
SOURCE: Miami-Dade County, Miami Police Department for their costs.
The other costs were submitted by the individual agencies to the City
of Miami grants office, which released them to The Herald.
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