The cost of local law enforcement support during a recent visit by former President Donald Trump — and the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office decision not to bill anyone for it — is drawing criticism from Pitkin County commissioners and some members of the community.
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, attended a fundraiser at a private residence just east of Aspen on Aug. 10. The U.S. Secret Service coordinated with local law enforcement and airport officials to plan for his visit, utilizing at least 70 public safety officials in the jointly coordinated response that resulted in nearly $50,000 in personnel costs.
The Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office views the coordination as mutual aid to a fellow law enforcement agency, which does not require an immediate reimbursem*nt of the cost of services.
Sheriff Michael Buglione said he does not believe it is his office’s responsibility to issue invoices to private citizens for services requested by a law enforcement agency, and he did not do so for the Trump fundraising event.
“I don't like the optics of the sheriff demanding or requesting money from a private homeowner,” he said. “I think that that request should come from the Board of County Commissioners or someone who thinks that we need to be reimbursed for this time.”
The choice not to charge anyone or any entity for the local law enforcement support during Trump’s visit appears to be a departure from former Sheriff Joe DiSalvo’s approach in past scenarios. DiSalvo said he would attempt to bill hosts of private fundraisers for candidates for straight and overtime pay for local law enforcement.
“These are fundraising efforts. It's not — I don't call it mutual aid. We were doing it because we were helping other agencies and making their job better,” DiSalvo said. “[The Secret Service or other federal public safety agency is] requesting assistance, and it's fine, but I don't think the taxpayer should be burdened for it.”
The opinion sections of local newspapers have been flooded with letters of indignation over Buglione’s decision not to charge the host of the private fundraiser, the Trump campaign or the Secret Service.
At a work session Tuesday, the Pitkin Board of County Commissioners unanimously requested county staff to send a letter to the sheriff, encouraging him to request reimbursem*nt.
“I would like for us to amicably request that the sheriff request reimbursem*nt for recent expenses outlaid due to a visit by former President Trump for political purposes and having seen no sort of community element to that,” said Commissioner Kelly McNicholas Kury, receiving an emphatic “Yes!” from Commissioner Francie Jacober.
At the work session, County Manager Jon Peaco*ck said it’s been the county’s practice to track expenses through the Incident Management Team and bill the Secret Service over time, distributing funds as needed to partner agencies. Estimated costs for personnel hours are baked into local budgets already, he said.
Buglione, DiSalvo, and Undersheriff Alex Burchetta all confirmed that the sheriff’s office has never had a written policy on billing private citizens, campaigns, political parties or anyone else for requested mutual aid.
The Aug. 10 event
Trump attended a private fundraiser benefiting his campaign, the Republican National Committee and other conservative groups on Aug. 10.
He flew into the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport that Saturday afternoon and traveled with an estimated 50-car motorcade to the private residence of John Phelan, just east of Aspen. Couples could attend the event with a minimum $25,000 donation. Host committee couples donated or raised $500,000 — there were at least eight hosts.
The estimated cost of over 70 law enforcement personnel clocking 390 hours was $48,557 — a mix of both straight and overtime pay across at least 13 agencies.
The sheriff’s office first reported the estimated cost to be $69,297 in a press release, but Burchetta said the formula in the Google Sheets calculation mistakenly counted some personnel twice, artificially inflating the number.
Sheriff Michael Buglione, who ran as a Democrat in 2022, said his office considered the request from the U.S. Secret Service as mutual aid from a fellow law enforcement agency, which he believes should not be associated with a request for reimbursem*nt.
“I don't care who the person is. I'm being painted as this Trump sympathizer, which I'm not,” he said. “If ex-President Trump comes in again, or [Vice President] Harris, they're going to be treated the same and it's a mutual aid agreement with the Secret Service.”
Burchetta defined mutual aid as “a partnership between public safety agencies that when a request is made for assistance, we help each other out.”
Buglione and Burchetta emphasized that the job of local law enforcement was not to “protect the protectee,” but to protect the public and the community through impacts of the visit.
“My responsibility is not invoicing,” Buglione said. “It's to keep the community safe and minimize the impact to the community that we all live in.”
Burchetta said the bulk of local law enforcement focused on traffic impact mitigation and public safety.
“Our role in this visit on [Aug. 10] was to ensure that our community was safe,” Burchetta said. “When [the motorcade] went down Main Street, they weren't obeying traffic laws. They were going through traffic lights. They had lights and sirens on. Our role was to ensure that our public was safe — that no one was stepping off the sidewalk into a crosswalk and didn't see the motorcade for whatever reason.”
They both said that the July assassination attempt on Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, justified the level of mutual aid requested by the Secret Service and what the incident team ultimately agreed to, though Burchetta said these conversations are always a balance of available versus requested resources. An attendee died and two others were injured at the rally in Butler, the Associated Press reported.
According to Secret Service regulations, the agency is authorized to protect former presidents and major presidential and vice presidential candidates 120 days ahead of an election. Trump fits both categories.
In a number of high-profile visits to Aspen in the past, DiSalvo’s approach varied, though he said he always viewed any private fundraising event as a cause to request reimbursem*nt from the event host.
When Michelle Obama visited with her daughters for ski trips in 2012, 2013 and 2014, DiSalvo said he provided a number of deputies or coordinated with other officers assisting the Secret Service.
When then-Vice President Mike Pence attended a private fundraiser for Trump’s reelection campaign hosted at the Caribou Club in 2019, DiSalvo said he tried to identify the host to request reimbursem*nt. According to 2019 reporting from Rick Carroll at The Aspen Times, two private citizens eventually cut checks to Pitkin County. (Carroll is now the managing editor of the Aspen Daily News.)
In those instances, the money goes to the county’s general fund, DiSalvo said.
DiSalvo, who now lives in California, said he worked with former sheriffs, including Bob Braudis, to determine the unwritten “philosophy” for charging the host of private fundraisers who host an attendee that requires Secret Service or other government protection.
Buglione said if county commissioners are interested in drawing up a written policy for seeking reimbursem*nt after mutual aid events, he would be open to the conversation. But it would not mean his office would “automatically do it,” he said.
DiSalvo and Buglione’s 2022 race for the sheriff’s position played out personally as the two former brothers-in-law lobbed insults at each other throughout their campaigns. DiSalvo first won the office in 2010 and was re-elected twice but Buglione successfully opposed his bid for a fourth term two years ago.
