Sheriff responds to Ellis letter about Donald Trump's Macon visit
Bibb County Sheriff David Davis responded to claims Thursday made by former Macon Mayor Jack Ellis about the sheriff's office's involvement with Donald Trump's campaign visit to Macon last month.
In an opinion piece in Thursday's Telegraph, Ellis contended that other cities where Trump has visited passed on the costs for added police presence to the campaign.
"Not so in generous Macon-Bibb County, Georgia," Ellis wrote. "One of the poorest cities in the country took on all of those costs."
Davis acknowledged that the Bibb County Sheriff's Office paid roughly $15,000 in overtime pay incurred on Nov. 30, but he said that has been standard practice when national candidates visited in the past. Bibb deputies provided security at the Macon Coliseum as well as an escort to the venue.
He said the sheriff's office became involved at the request of the Secret Service.
"When we're asked by a federal agency to assist, that's what we do," he said.
The sheriff also noted that similar assistance had been given, at the department's expense, when former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, former Vice President Dick Cheney and President Barack Obama visited Macon, both on the campaign trail and after election.
"In the past when these types of events have happened, there's not been any ask of reimbursement," he said.
Ellis disputed that statement. He said that campaigning candidates have been billed for any extra law enforcement expense related to their visit.
"They're responsible for security in that facility," he said Thursday. "Nowhere have we had that much overtime."
Davis said the sheriff's office budget has funds built in for overtime that may need to be paid for events unforeseen at the beginning of the fiscal year. That could include bad weather or even Cherry Blossom Festival events, but this time it was a campaign stop.
In response to Ellis' assertion that other cities had passed on those costs to the Trump campaign, Davis said that those were likely cities where such visits were more frequent.
"If every other week we were having some sort of national candidate come in, then that's a conversation we would probably have on a local level," he said of charging campaigns for added deputy presence.
To contact writer Jeremy Timmerman, call 744-4331.
This story was originally published December 24, 2015 at 8:40 PM with the headline "Sheriff responds to Ellis letter about Donald Trump's Macon visit ."