Toledo bills campaigns for costs of visits

The City of Toledo has issued bills to the McCain and Obama campaigns for the costs of public services during visits by the candidates and their surrogates.

I asked for further information because the McCain campaign had six visits but got billed nearly $28,000 while the Obama campaign had eight visits and was billed just under $22,000.

This is the response from the Police Department that Jason Webber, the city's public information officer, sent to me:

"The timing of the visit impacted the cost. A weekend visit necessitated more overtime because I have less personnel working that I can draw from for the dignitary protection detail. A weekday visit necessitated little overtime because I had a lot of personnel already scheduled to work. An overnight stay with no speech required less resources than a speaking event. The numbers you were provided represent overtime costs only. They do not include costs associated with on-duty personnel assigned to the detail."