Brad Shannon:
The Politics Blog

Brad Shannon maintains this blog. He is political editor at The Olympian and can be reached at 360-753-1688 or bshannon@theolympian.com.

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Olympia: Baird's town-hall security cost $5,739

• Published October 26, 2009

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The taxpayer cost for security at U.S. Rep. Brian Baird's late-August town hall meeting on health-care reform was $5,739.41, Olympia police are reporting.

"I would say most of that was overtime,"� police Cmdr. Tor Bjornstad said today. He added there might have been additional costs if officers who took comp time caused others to run up overtime that wasn't included.

Bjornstad said the response, which included at least 20 police officers at The Washington Center for the Performing Arts, was reasonable, given the reports of skirmishes at other events around the country during the stormy August.

"I guess we were just looking at what was happening across the country. We'd had some calls from a group that planned to protest in the area. That never came to fruition but when you have that kind of heads up you take precautions," Bjornstad said.

City officials and council members have not complained, and many officers heard event-goers give thanks afterward and say they had felt "secure," Bjornstad added

If it's any consolation to taxpayers, the amount is roughly a third of what far-right television personality Glenn Beck cost the taxpayers of Mount Vernon, when that city's mayor invited its native son to receive keys to the city recently.

The Seattle Times reported Friday the taxpayer bill was �$17,748.85, mostly for 239 hours of police overtime.�� The Times also reported:

Well, says Ken Bergsma, the town's police chief, better to be prepared than not. The chief says the crowd of 800 to 1,000 demonstrators that greeted Beck for his early-evening appearance on Sept. 26 was the biggest protest he's seen in his 32 years as a Mount Vernon police officer. Bergsma says he told the City Council, "I'd rather be before you justifying the cost of the staffing involved, as opposed to being before you to explain why it was underplanned and understaffed."

Baird said at the time his staff "certainly expressed to police that we want to be sure there was adequate personnel there to ensure the public safety." He also said before the town hall: "I think we need to plan these things so they go productively, and constructively and people have a chance to be heard, and the questions answered. I think that's prudent."