From Aug. 25 to 28, Denver, Colo., will become the center of the universe to 4,048 Democratic delegates and a similar number of alternates, more than half of the members of Congress and elected leaders from every state, over 1,000 vendors, 15,000 or so national and international members of the media, political junkies, volunteers and the merely curious—perhaps 50,000 in all. Add to that the protest groups, which boast projections of an additional 50,000 activists, several prepared to break the law.

The Democratic National Convention (DNC) will indeed be a National Special Security Event.

Planning for security began last August with the Secret Service as lead agency. Attending regular meetings were representatives of the Denver Police Department, the Colorado Department of Homeland Security, the Colorado Division of Emergency Management, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Colorado State Patrol, the Capitol Police, the Postal Inspection Service and the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms.

Seventeen sub-committees covered topics from safety and security for airports, fires, the legal system, environmental health, public works, protestors, campers, hotels, entertainment venues, public transportation, hospitals, “dealing with the media” and other subjects that no one will discuss.

“We can’t really talk about it,” said Jerry DeFilice, external affairs specialist for FEMA.

“We can’t talk about much of it, but we’re starting to see things gel,” confirmed Major Gen. Mason Whitney, director of the Colorado Governor’s Office of Homeland Security.

While operational details are not being released, some security measures were public at press time, mostly about roles and responsibilities.

Inter-governmental agreements have been completed, outlining who will be working where and when, and how much they will be paid. The Secret Service has the legally mandated role of creating and implementing the security plan. The FBI is in charge of crisis management. FEMA is responsible for consequence management.

The Colorado Department of Homeland Security is charged with development of a homeland security strategy and its implementation across the state, to include training and execution.

“Our job is to develop strategies to prevent and detect terrorist activity, protect the infrastructure, respond to manmade or natural catastrophe and recover from any of the above,” said Whitney.

Police officers from the towns of Boulder, Longmont, Lafayette, Louisville and Erie and half of the Aurora Police Department will be available for five days. All officers will be paid the same for overtime duty, regardless of their rank.

Protocols for channeling media inquiries have been established. A 24-hour media team will operate for a week to respond to media queries.

Training exercises, including simulations and tabletop scenarios considering multiple incidents, are ongoing to prepare for both routine and crisis situations. The Denver Police Department meets with small groups of downtown businesses every week to brief them on how to be vigilant.

Ellis Stanley Sr., a nationally respected emergency planner, is on board to oversee the city’s overall integrated emergency management and business continuity plan. Stanley is a veteran of four Olympics Games, nine host cities of World Cup Soccer games, Super Bowls, World Series and NBA championships, the 1994 papal visit and three national political conventions.

The Multiple Agency Coordination Center, the MACC, will be established as a 24-hour operation. Representatives with a physical seat will likely include every salient federal, state and local agency or department.

Additionally, a unified command center, administered by the Denver Police, will be the pulse-point for several field locations throughout the city.

Follow the money

By law, the national party conventions are not supposed to cost the taxpayers of the host city. But it’s still unclear how much the event will cost and who will pay for it.

“We know what we have to do, we’re just not sure how to pay for it. We’ll have to pry some additional money from the feds,” Lance Clem, public information officer for the Colorado Department of Public Safety, told HSToday.

“We’ll have enough money to pay for everything,” maintained Katherine Archuleta, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper’s senior adviser on policy and initiatives and the go-to person for questions regarding city involvement in the convention. “We have lots of volunteers and a really tight relationship with the [Democratic National Convention Committee], and that makes a big difference.”

Congress appropriated $50 million each to the Republican and Democratic national committees for their conventions. In addition to the $50 million, the Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee was responsible for raising $40.6 million in hard cash and another $15 million in-kind by July 1. These funds were meant to pay for renovation and use of the Pepsi Center, site of the convention, a media party for 15,000 people at Denver’s famed Elitch Gardens Amusement Park, a party for 10,000 volunteers and costs associated with law enforcement and security before, during and immediately after the event.

Protocols for spending are taking shape. The federal monies go to the City of Denver. Costs for law enforcement from Denver and surrounding counties, sanitation, emergency medical treatment and other similar services provided by the city may be paid from the federal $50 million, although when those funds will arrive is unclear. State personnel, such as the State Patrol or CBI, will be involved. To the extent their help may be considered beyond the normal workload, the state might make a claim on some of the federal monies.

In the event of a crisis, the governor can mobilize the National Guard, in which case federal monies would cover the expenditure. “We can alert the F-16s if we need them,” said Whitney.

“There are still questions about what will be reimbursed to the City of Denver by the DNC Host Committee, such as expenses of legal staff,” said Jeanne Faatz, Denver City Council member and chairperson of the Finance Committee. “We expect to need a tremendous amount of law enforcement resources.”

As of March, Denver had received only $5 million of its $50 allocation. Expenditures included a heavy rescue unit, a hazardous materials vehicle, a Denver Fire Department urban search and rescue unit that can go into crowds and a unified command center administered by the police department. It was a good deal for the city: the new units and command center will be used as primary equipment with old ones kept as reserves.

Elbra Wedgeworth, a Denver City Council member, shepherded the bid to bring the convention to Denver. The economic impact to Denver is calculated at $160 million in direct and indirect spending. “I have absolutely no security concerns for the convention,” she said. “We are really comfortable with the infrastructure that’s in place for this to be safe and successful.”

Asked in March about the state of fundraising, Wedgeworth hedged. “We met our first threshold of $15 million and we’re on track for the rest,” she reported.

But downtown businesses, notably convention hotels, were balking at making voluntary contributions as they looked at rising costs, some of them the result of state actions. On Nov. 2, 2007, Governor Bill Ritter (D) signed a controversial executive order allowing public employees to form unions and strike, which may also serve to increase demands for private sector salary increases, and Colorado voters approved an increase in the minimum wage in the November 2006 election. (Effective Jan. 1, 2007, the wage increased to $6.85 per hour and to $7.01 in January 2008. It’s adjusted annually for inflation in all subsequent years.)

Add to that a state law banning smoking in all public facilities, including bars and casinos.

Taken together, hospitality expenses are up and revenues are down—not an optimum situation for fundraising.

The tightening economy combined with potential disruptions made some business leaders edgy. As the marketing director for a large hotel syndicate put it, “Regarding security, there’s a lot of moving parts and we’re still looking for answers. Our hotels are for our guests, but how do we tell the difference between a guest and troublemaker?”