Cost of hosting Pope and DNC hot topic at Philly budget hearings

Philadelphia City Council is concerned about how much it will cost to host a papal visit and the Democratic National Convention in 2016.   

Desiree Peterkin Bell testified at a council budget hearing that the Nutter administration is working hard to handle the security costs of Pope Francis and the DNC coming to town.

“For the DNC normally there is a designation or earmark for $50 million,” she said.  “What is unclear is whether or not that will be left for both  RNC and DNC.  Obviously we are going to push to get all that money.”

Peterkin-Bell says they have teamed up with Cleveland, the city hosting the Republican convention.

“We don’t see this as a partisan issue at all, what we see this is an issue of public safety,” she said.

 The World Meeting of Families has already been designated as National Special Security event, which means that Department of Homeland Security and Secret Service will be supplementing Philadelphia Police on security.