#Occupy Pinehurst
In case you missed it, the Charlotte City Council held its annual planning retreat last week and in a move of fiscal responsibility and general sanity, councilmembers elected to hold forth in the basement of the Government Center.
Wait, what? That can’t be right. And of course, it isn’t. Councilmembers shacked up for the three-day soiree in the posh confines of the exclusive Pinehurst Resort. The total cost to taxpayers footing the bill for councilmembers and a bevy of about 40 city staffers to live the high life was just shy of $57,000, which, granted, barely registers a drop in the city’s billion dollar-plus budget.
But just to put the numbers in perspective, officials relate that it cost about $447,000 to police the Occupy Charlotte encampment and Occupy-related protests and marches. The encampment, which by most best guestimates never exceeded two-dozen or so overnighters with maybe a handful more mulling about during the day, started last October and ended last week when police tore down the tents. So call it four months. Do the math and it averages $3,634 a day.
Run the same numbers for the three days of Occupy Pinehurst and it saps taxpayers for about $18,985 per day. City officials say hotels and meals wracked up the biggest expense for the retreat – no leaky tents and Happy Meals for councilmembers and upper-echelon staffers – with a price tag just shy of $40,000. A facilitator to keep the council’s kumbaya mojo flowing cost about $10,000, while rental of audio-visual equipment ran about $6,000.
OK, so it’s not exactly a fair Occupy Apples-to-Occupy Apples comparison; but after councilmembers just blew close to $60,000 for three days in Pinehurst, when most of us mere peasants are struggling to make ends meet, I’m not overly concerned about comparative fairness.
So, that said, exit question: which was the better deal for taxpayers? Shelling out $3,700 a day so police could babysit the Occupy Charlotte campers to stop them from soiling in sewers looting and pillaging? Or forking over $19,000 a day so councilmembers could luxuriate at the Pinehurst Resort and craft some nifty new ways to raise our taxes?
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