Remember when the Pope visited Juarez last February. The Diario reveals today that it cost the City of El Paso nearly $1,000,000.
El Ayuntamiento de El Paso gastó 933 mil dólares en el montaje del operativo durante la visita del papa Francisco a la frontera, en febrero pasado, se informó hoy en la Alcaldía.
De este total, el Departamento de Policía utilizó 572 mil dólares en coordinar esfuerzos logísticos entre agencias. El presupuesto inicial, asignado para esto, fue de un millón de dólares.
El costo se dio a conocer más de tres meses después la visita del Sumo Pontífice a Ciudad Juárez.
Para inicios de febrero, se había estimado que sólo serían necesarios poco más de 188 mil dólares por un turno de 12 horas, que se gastarían en la preparación de este operativo.
Or, for those second-class citizens who don’t speak Spanish:
The City of El Paso spent $933,000 on [police] operations during the visit of Pope Francis to the border, last February, it was reported today at City Hall.
Of this total, the Police Department used $572,000 to coordinate logistical efforts between agencies. The initial budget allocated for this was one million dollars.
The cost was unveiled more than three months after the visit of the Pope to Ciudad Juarez.
By early February, the expense was estimated would to be only a little more than $188,000 for a 12-hour shift, which would be spent on the preparation of the operation.
Remember? They had cops on every corner. Central El Paso was like one of those apocalypse movies. The expected crowds never showed up.
They even closed Scenic Drive to prevent terrorists from driving past the police academy with a Hellfire missile and launching it over the border.
That $933,000 doesn’t include the lost productivity El Paso suffered from all the offices downtown shutting down for the day.
And how about the initial estimate of $188,000? The City only missed it by a factor of five.
I guess when it’s OPM, it’s no big deal.
And, let’s not forget our tag line: “Told you so!”