LIHU‘E — Unlike the Honolulu Marathon, where organizers pay for police help with traffic control, county taxpayers footed the overtime bill for Kaua‘i Police Department officers directing traffic during the recent Kaua‘i Marathon. That meant a bit more overtime than
LIHU‘E — Unlike the Honolulu Marathon, where organizers pay for police help with traffic control, county taxpayers footed the overtime bill for Kaua‘i Police Department officers directing traffic during the recent Kaua‘i Marathon.
That meant a bit more overtime than anticipated, Kaua‘i Police Chief Darryl Perry told the county Police Commission last week.
The total KPD cost of the marathon, Perry said in an e-mail Monday, was $4,671, which included 82 man hours and $1,000 in vehicle costs.
Kaua‘i Marathon organizers asked KPD leaders for an assessment of traffic-control needs for the event. KPD officers collaborated with Honolulu Police Department leaders on how they control traffic for the Honolulu Marathon, and together determined the best way to control traffic for the South Shore event, Perry said at the commission meeting.
In Honolulu, the marathon promoter pays all HPD costs incurred as a result of the marathon, but on Kaua‘i, Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. decided not to charge the organizer for police services, Perry said.
Perry said the matter of whether the organizer of the Kaua‘i Marathon should pay for police traffic-control services can be revisited.
Even with the Kaua‘i Marathon overtime, “we’re right there, on par, with expenditures,” Perry said during discussion of the KPD budget during the commission meeting at the council chambers of the Historic County Building.
