San Francisco spent more than $11 million on overtime for police and other city workers during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit last month, while a special committee created for the event laid out $7.75 million for events attended by international leaders, foreign dignitaries, CEOs and members of the press, newly released records show.
In total, the city raised more than $20 million in private donations to cover many of the expenses of hosting the international summit. These events included President Joe Biden’s lavish party at the Exploratorium, which featured a fireworks show and performance by pop star Gwen Stefani.
Other top expenses for the geopolitical gathering, which featured a bilateral meeting between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping and welcomed leaders of 21 total APEC member economies, included: $1.37 million for marketing and printing costs; $1.13 million for hotels for first responders; $785,800 for “consulting”; almost $744,000 for “delegate hospitality”; and $500,000 for the ambiguous category of “contingency.”
“Expenditures on such events were within the discretion of the special events committee,” Mayor London Breed’s office said in a statement.
Approximately $7 million in donations, which included $4.6 million from the Native American tribe in charge of Graton Casino, could go toward reimbursing the city for overtime expenses, which totaled almost $11.3 million—including a whopping $8.8 million for police and over $900,000 for sheriff’s employees.
“We understand that the special events committee may provide a contribution to the city of remaining funds from the private donations so that the city can use the funds to cover remaining APEC-related costs, which would include overtime,” the Mayor’s Office said.
Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who serves as president of the Board of Supervisors, said the city set aside $10 million in reserves during the budget process to help pay for APEC overtime and related city services. He added that it’s too early to say if the city went over budget.
“We were prepared to spend $10 million of the taxpayers' money,” Peskin said. “That was what the mayor asked us to allocate in our ever-shrinking budget.”
Overtime expenses to the city also included nearly $640,000 for the fire department and more than $530,000 for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.
Other top expenses for the APEC special events committee included $405,000 for “project management,” $300,000 for tickets to the APEC CEO Summit and $150,000 for administrative support.
Donors who supported the effort to reach an ambitious fundraising goal of $20 million included the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria ($4.65 million), cryptocurrency company Ripple ($2 million) and million-dollar donations from MEBO International, Prologis, Sutter Health, Salesforce, Visa Foundation, Kaiser Permanente, Emerson Collective Fund and Apple.
The total cost to the city remains unclear. City officials have estimated the event would create more than $50 million of economic activity in the city through spending on hotel rooms, restaurant meals and other items.
However, a number of businesses around the Moscone Center, where most of the events took place, have complained the conference and related security scared off customers and have called on the city to reimburse them for losses.