City dishes out $1 million for Occupy Philly
City Budget Director Rebecca Rynhart announced that the city dished out a little more than $1 million for the protest, mostly in police overtime.
City dishes out $1 million for Occupy Philly
Jan Ransom
Updated: To include additional information
The costs are in and Occupy Philly left behind a hefty tab for the city to pick-up.
City Budget Director Rebecca Rynhart announced today that through Wednesday the city dished out a little more than $1 million, mostly in police overtime for the movement against corporate greed which began on Oct. 6.
That number is far lower than the city’s projected $2.5 million they had anticipated spending in police overtime if protesters stuck around on Dilworth Plaza until the end of the fiscal year, which ends June 30, according to the quarterly city manager's report released Nov. 15.
Rynhart said $930,000 was spent in police overtime and the remainder of costs includes clean-up.
“A big portion of [the costs] was in the last week with all of the activity that was taking place,” Rynhart said. “The cost in the last week were over $400,000 alone.”
Protesters were evicted early Thursday morning and 52 protesters were arrested during a showdown with police. Shortly, after the eviction, clean-up began on the Westside of City Hall –the area is now fenced-off.
But that doesn’t mean the Occupy movement is over and City Finance Director Rob Dubow said costs could increase depending on Occupy’s next move.
“We don’t know what could happen in the rest of the year but we could wind up spending more than we have spent so far,” Dubow said.
These costs come at a time when more budget cuts are on the horizon, due to weak tax revenues in the first few months of the fiscal year. City department heads were asked, in September to prepare plans for 2 percent budget cuts. Dubow said departments are still going through the cut process. Police, prisons and fire departments are exempt.
Meanwhile, the city says Occupy Philly owes it money for electricity they used, but mayoral spokesman Mark McDonald said that total is not yet clear.
thanks, losers! now get jobs and start paying taxes, so you can contribute to the debt you caused the city.— main liner- Hopefully the city has learned it's lesson and will turn loose the water cannons the second the nitwits start up again. Ackerman and Occupy...two million dollar mistakes.— jimmymack
- Good For the Boys in Blue With OT just in time for the Holidays !!— dmanphilly
- Not sure why the city had to spend a million on police overtime for a nonviolent protest. Imagine what a violent one would cost? How does this compare to the legal settlement payouts to protesters who were illegally held after being arrested during the Republican Convention in 2000?— bobcitydoc
Comment removed.- And most of the homeless didn't gravitate there CP? Agreed Bob, paying the boys in blue for their donut breaks... — podunko
- So, how many arrests were affected at Dilworth during these protests? Makes you wonder just what the city gets out of its PD overtime in general. Anyway, these costs remind me of that conservative bumper sticker, "freedom is not free." I guess free speech is not free either. We spend two billion a day as a country on our "freedom", what is an extra million over the course of a month for a major US city on the same? I also like that you are in intellectual bed with the likes of main liner and jimmy jack above..really adds to to your credibility. — bobcitydoc
- If the city had used minimal police presence there and something terrible happened, the Occukook lawyers would have been the first to sue the city for lack of police protection.
- Sure is a lot "ifs" for a million bucks! — Worker1
- bobcitydoc, it's the spending on police overtime that ensured the protest was non-violent and didn't break laws. What makes you think that without oversight there wouldn't have been much more obstruction of traffic and property?— Ratiocinational
- I guess we will never find out because the opportunity was never provided. — Worker1
- Geez, that's about the same amount that the city paid slug Ackerman!! Two million of the taxpayers money, for who, for what??— dogman5
- Overkill with the overtime. A few cops now and then would have been all that was necessary to ensure "whatever," but instead an army is sent in to monitor a peaceful protest. Those actions alarm me more than any young folk with wooden signs and backpacks hanging out at the plaza.— Yob
Follow Chris on Twitter
David Gambacorta spent a small eternity writing about cops, drug dealers and serial killers. Now he’s writing about power and politics – which sometimes reminds him of the old crime beat. He joined the Daily News in 2005. And yes, he knows you’re not quite sure how to pronounce his last name. E-mail tips to gambacd@phillynews.com
Follow Dave on Twitter.
Jan Ransom, a native New Yorker, joined the Daily News in 2010 after graduating from Howard University. She has since written about the difficulty of filing police complaints, tax deadbeats and life after violent home invasions. She joined the Daily News City Hall Bureau in 2011 and has plunged headfirst into reporting on administration budget battles and City Council shenanigans. E-mail tips to ransomj@phillynews.com
Follow Jan on Twitter
Sean Collins Walsh is from Bucks County and went to Northwestern University. He joined the Daily News copy desk in 2012 and now covers the Nutter administration. Before that, he interned at papers including The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News and The Seattle Times. E-mail tips to walshSE@phillynews.com
Follow Sean on Twitter
