County Executive Jack Doyle
wants to use grant money designated to help fight the drug war to help fight
the war on terrorism when that fight shifts to the PGA Championship at Oak Hill
County Club this August.
           In a May 5 referral to the County Legislature, Doyle
wrote that the PGA Championship “is expected to attract approximately 45,000
spectators, competitors, media, and dignitaries from across the country. Since
this is a national sporting event and can possibly be a target of terrorism,
heightened security is necessary.”
           Doyle asked legislators to accept a $250,000 Edward Byrne
Memorial Grant from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services.
Less than half the money, $114,725, would be used to pay for security services
provided at the event by the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.
           This would be done despite the fact
tournament organizers are willing to pay for any additional expenses the
Sheriff’s Office may incur while policing the event.
           The rest of the money, $135,275, would be given to the
PGA Tournament Corporation, Inc., “for additional and special security services
in connection with the PGA Championship,” Doyle wrote. The PGA would also
provide $83,333 — an amount equal to one-third of the grant — in matching
funds for the same purposes.
Doyle’s effort to use the grant money for the golf tournament hit a snag
shortly after his recommendation went public. The grant program — created by
Congress in 1988 and named after a New York City cop gunned down by drug
dealers — is primarily intended to help communities reduce violent,
drug-related crime. Doyle’s referral was submitted to the lej’s Public Safety
and Ways & Means committees in May, but was tabled after the state
questioned Doyle’s proposal.
           “They gave us the information that we couldn’t use the
funds as we’d originally contemplated,” says Chuck Turner, head of the county’s
law department. The issue has yet to be resolved.
           However, Turner also indicates that the state is
interested in providing money to prevent a terrorist attack at the tournament.
“A national event always, as I understand it, draws concerns about possible
disruptive or terrorist activities,” he says, “and the state was looking to
support the county and the PGA in sharing the cost of this.”
           “I don’t think it’s the case that there’s not going to be
adequate protection if we don’t get these funds,” Turner says. “I think it’s a
question of sharing that cost, because this is obviously a major economic thing
for the community.”
           Tournament director Bob Jeffrey says security at the
tournament will be adequate whether or not the grant money comes through. “We
have a certain committee that we set up that goes over everything, from traffic
control and parking issues to on-site security and intelligence threats,”
Jeffrey says. He says the committee has been working with the Sheriff’s Office,
the State Police, the FBI, and others to keep the event secure.
           Deputy John Helfer, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office’s
public information officer, says he has never heard of the grant. He also says
he has no idea how much additional money the Sheriff’s Office may have to spend
policing the tournament.
           “Obviously, there’s overtime and posts that the sheriff’s
department covers for us,” Jeffrey says. Sheriffs “are going to be doing
everything from traffic control to on-site security and on-site command posts,”
he says.
           Unlike Helfer, Jeffrey is aware of the grant. He says the
PGA and Oak Hill want the grant money to go toward security at the tournament
because the golf association and the county club “are always looking to lower
our costs and expenses.”
           However, Jeffrey says, “if that grant did not come
through, we would obviously be presented with a bill, I’m sure, from the
sheriff’s department for their services, and we would obviously cover that.”
Democratic County
Legislator Calvin Lee says the grant
money could be better spent addressing the area’s drug and drug-related crime
problem. “I’m under the impression that that money was allocated for drug
prevention, it was allocated for inmates to alleviate some of the stress and
the problems they’re facing, and I think it was allocated to save the county
money in the long run,” Lee says. “To take that money and to put it around the
golf tournament, that’s not a wise decision.”
           Lee says he’s also concerned that the county
administration is raising the “fear factor of this terrorism and taking that as
the principal reason why they’re making all these bad decisions.”
           “We’ve got to realize how much we’re overemphasizing the
hype of security,” Lee says. “Are we really just taking good money and throwing
it at something that we project might happen, or we fear might happen at the
event, that’s costing us in the long run in quality-of-life issues?”
This article appears in Jul 2-8, 2003.
