Costly Preparations : Drug Money to Pave Way for President

The county has provided bulldozers, trucks and a cement mixer. A rock quarry is hauling tons of crushed gravel. Squads of jail inmates are scrambling to spruce up the area. The transit district will supply 20 buses for the lucky few.

Now there’s talk of serving lunch.

The expenses for the special ceremony planned at a remote ranch will be paid by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, Sheriff Brad Gates said Friday.

The site was used by a drug smuggler, and President George Bush will use that stage Tuesday to turn over to Gates and other law enforcement officials $4.39 million--their share of money confiscated during a heroin raid last year.

How much will the VIP-only visit cost?

“I have no idea where we are with that right now,” Gates said Friday. “It will come out of the drug money itself.”

Most officials don’t have firm estimates, but grading and clearing work to improve the road and build two helicopter pads needed for Tuesday’s 2-hour visit could total as much as $40,000, possibly more. And there will be extras: phone lines, latrines, extra sheriff’s patrols, among other expenses.

‘Money Well Spent’

Members of the Orange County Board of Supervisors were not available Friday afternoon to discuss the costs involved. But county officials said there is little or no concern about the wisdom of spending the money for what is essentially a media event. This despite Gates’ reputation for regularly coming hat-in-hand to the Board of Supervisors for more money.

“I haven’t done any research on it, but I believe the drug money can be used for sheriff’s programs related to drug enforcement, and I would guess that a visit by the President could fall under this category,” said Deputy County Counsel Art Wahlstedt. “I would speculate that the whole thing is for publicity against drugs, and that would probably be OK, especially since (the ranch) is going to be used as a training facility, part of which might involve anti-drug stuff.”

“It’s money well spent,” Gates said in an interview Friday. “The money is similar to what we would spend whenever the President is here. . . . I certainly feel honored as an officeholder, a citizen and a father.”

Added Gates: “The exposure, based on what the President says about communities getting involved in turning off the faucet of (drug) consumption, will help and certainly his presence here and his conversation will add to getting that goal accomplished for us.”

Gates said that many of the improvements will be of benefit later, when the ranch becomes an anti-narcotics training center.

Nobody was willing to guess Friday afternoon about what the county’s final tab will be.

County bulldozers were being used, along with work crews to trim trees, grade roads, parking areas and helicopter pads, said Bill Reiter, the county’s public works operations manager.

Reiter said that 25 to 35 honor farm inmates are being used to clear brush and work on a fence at the site, a number which could rise to 65 over the weekend. Inmates have been there before, driving posts for a new fence.

“Probably our charge is going to be from $25,000 to $40,000, but that’s only a ‘guesstimate’ and it could go higher,” Reiter said.

The county was buying tons of road material from Ortega Rock on Ortega Highway, about 10 miles from the ranch, but John Schmutz, general manager of the firm, said he had no estimate of the final cost.

“We’re supplying and hauling on as-needed basis,” Schmutz said. “The price depends on the customer. The county has annual contracts with us, so (on price) we take care of the county.”

Without any discounts, Schmutz said, the cost to a new customer would be about $6.60 a ton, plus $3.30 per ton-mile for delivery. Schmutz said he did not know how many tons were being used. A steady stream of trucks was delivering the crushed aggregate base for the roadway Friday, each truck carrying 10 to 15 tons, a dispatcher said.

Bob Love, administrative director for county’s General Services Agency, said his agency was procuring materials and issuing contracts as needed.

“Our instruction to staff is to assist them (the sheriff and the White House) and get whatever they need,” said Love. “The sheriff’s special narcotics fund is supposed to reimburse us for everything. We’re talking about getting electricians, plumbers, catering trucks out there, and I don’t have a handle on everything yet. We were told to do whatever it takes.”

An Orange County Transit District spokeswoman said her agency would supply 20 buses for transportation to the ranch, with no estimate yet of the cost. Normally, it costs the district about $60 an hour to run each bus, or $1,200 for a fleet of 20, not including administrative overhead.

“Also, we will have some mechanics out there in case something happens,” said Claudia Keith, the spokeswoman.

County Administrative Officer Larry Parrish said he was counting on Gates’ personal assurances that all county expenses will be paid by the Sheriff’s Department. In fact, several county agency chiefs said Friday that Gates’ staff had given them an account number to which expenses could be charged.

“Frankly, I thought I was free of this when I left Santa Barbara,” said Parrish, referring to former President Ronald Reagan’s frequent visits to his Santa Barbara ranch when Parrish was that county’s chief administrative officer.

Recalling a presidential visit to Santa Barbara with Queen Elizabeth several years ago, Parrish said: “It nearly bankrupted us.”