Police wait for marathon to pay up

The Salt Lake Marathon is a little over a week away, but the hundreds of law enforcers who will be used to direct traffic and keep the runners safe have not been paid yet.

Wednesday, one department said if they didn't receive payment up front, as was outlined in their contract with Chicago-based Devine Racing, they would pull out of the event.

"They're going to have to pay us for us to staff the event," said South Salt Lake Police Chief Chris Snyder.

Not only has South Salt Lake not been paid, but Devine Racing, as of Wednesday, hadn't even applied for their permit to hold a special event in their city, he said.

The marathon is scheduled to run April 18. A little under two miles of the course runs through South Salt Lake. But that small portion still requires 30 officers at a cost of about $15,000, Snyder said.

"It's not fair to this police department's budget, to our elected officials, that we foot (the bill)," Snyder said.

Snyder said for a year, Devine Racing has known about the bill. Their original deadline was earlier this week. Part of the contract called for pre-payment in full. If Devine doesn't come up with the money by the end of the week, Snyder said he's not going to provide any officers.

"If they end up running through South Salt Lake it's going to be at their own risk," he said. "I can't leave 30 people on the hook for an event that may or may not happen. Government does not function that way."

Snyder, a marathon runner himself, said he was sympathetic to the runners who had trained for months leading up to this and would like the race to go on as scheduled. But based on the Devine's history, he admitted he was worried.

In other marathons, such as Las Vegas and Los Angeles, there have been problems of bounced checks and vendors and winners not being paid or having their payments delayed for months.

Messages for Salt Lake Marathon race director Scott Kerr were not returned by press time.

Salt Lake City police Chief Chris Burbank said his city still had not been reimbursed for the work its officers did for the race last year. Burbank said his department would provide public safety for the event again this year because he'd rather pay for the expense of officers doing proactive work rather than paying for them to respond to a runner that was hit.