Lil Wayne concert costs Sheriff's Department $65,000

I see a bunch of people talking trash about the Sheriff because he has so many officers. I promise you, that if the Sheriff hadn't had so many officers and something did happen there would be even more talk about the lact of job the Sheriff did. The Sheriff was in a lose-lose situation. I drove by NHHS when the even was going on. I saw a bunch of people sitting and walking around outside the school. Those are the ones that probably had weapons and drugs on them and couldn't get inside because of LEO. IF LEO was not there, there would have been a problem inside

You cant blame lil wayne for what the cost was. The kids wanted him and if they would have showed up, he would have performed and the money would not have been wasted. Lil wayne has hot music and they wanted to see him. You dont have to like it but the kids do.

In an outrageous display of arrogant deception the Sheriff of New Hanover County pins an overly inflated cost of doing business once again on the backs of the taxpayers. This accounting of expenditures came in an email to all media sources at 5:15 on Friday afternoon, just about bedtime for all those news directors and editors who might give a crap about such waste. Of course any good responsible elected official would have asked and perhaps demanded the cost of this security prior to the expense. Of course any accountable agency would have those numbers prior to spending the money. We are talking about $65,000, 148 deputies, we are talking about surrounding a legitimate business enterprise because of imagined threats. How many potential threats left the Chili Cookoff Saturday? How many drunk drivers kill innocent people? How many drug dealers shove dope into our kids bodies? Are 148 deputies getting overtime to secure our roadways or our children? $65,000 to work a concert... Why not just unload busses of troops at Creekwood? Why not just enact a curfew? Why send a heavily armed, poorly trained paramilitary unit to the open door of an 18 year old accused of stealing a video game? Overkill. Literally. So we will ask for a breakdown of the 65k Sheriff Causey said it cost to provide security at Brogden Hall and more than likely we will get some run-around. But it is important to know where this money went. COST PER DEPUTY The county billed the promoter $1,400 for an additional for 10 extra deputies. That's $140 each. 148 deputies @ $140 each is $20,720 MISCELLANEOUS That leaves about $45,000 for what? What did Causey spend this money on? He is quoted in the Star News as saying, "He estimated $5,800 of the total costs came before the concert, in personnel time spent drawing up operational and contingency plans, obtaining maps and layouts of the site and getting aerial photographs done beforehand." ESTIMATE "he estimated..." So is the $65,000 figure accurate? What are the real numbers? AERIAL PHOTOS "getting aerial photographs done ..." How about a Google Map? That's free. (click on the link to view Brogden Hall from the air, I obtained it in less than 3 minutes) MENTALLY CHALLENGED Again in the Star Newspaper Causey says he had expenses sending two detectives to the Saturday night Lil Wayne concert in "Lumberton" but hold on a second, the concert actually took place in Fayetteville where Mr. Carter sold out the 6,000 seat Crown Coliseum. He was also quoted in the same article as saying, "Unfortunately, we spent a lot of the taxpayer's money. But I've had a lot of comments from parents who say they were glad we were there." Well, I know the father of a 16 year old girl that was taken from Laney High School, by an illegal immigrant, isn't too happy the school's surveillance cameras are so antiquated that they are unable to provide images sharp enough to recognize anyone coming in or out of the building. This girl went missing for over 2 weeks. It would have been nice to have been able to identify the missing girl in the recovered video, forget the suspect, let's just see the girl, identify her and make sure she left the building alive. Oh, and wouldn't it have helped to have had at least one deputy there making sure no one trespasses on school grounds swiping kids? This money was wasted. There are plenty of needs. Ruining a business opportunity for a concert promoter isn't one of them. Seriously, we could have paid the guy not to have the concert and saved money. A lot of money. Shouldn't someone besides us question this expense? Someone sitting on the Board of Education, and/or the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners?

Soooo...The avgerage pay per person for the 148 needed was $439.each?????Seems kinda high!!! Can I get a job working with their security? That is absolutely ridiculous. Sounds like some people were really overpaid!!!!(with the taxpayers money)

Cost taxpayers $65,000.

You will never see that money son. that guy will never pay up and good job keeping our babies safe. i am a hanover mom and he should never have been allowed o be on campus.

So once again the taxpayers will foot the bill for another waste of money. Why was this lil scumbag even considered to perform at a public school?...me think some have lost there minds....

What a waste of tax payers money. Not that Sheriif Causey was wrong in being so cautious but for allowing that thug to perfrom to start with. If it takes that much security for 4800 people then it shouldn't have been allowed to take place.