No shortage of planning for presidential weekend

Tahoe Daily Tribune

July 27, 1997
By Rob Bhatt
Tribune Staff Writer

Heads of state do not travel light.

U.S. Secret Service and White House staffers brought enough communications equipment with them to Lake Tahoe to fill a U.S. Air Force C-141 Starlifter cargo plane. A typical C-141 is 28 feet longer than the MD-80 Reno Air used to service the South Shore airfield in 1995 and its wingspan is 33 feet wider.

The Air Force C-141 carrying the executives' entourage communications equipment landed last Monday at Lake Tahoe Airport, but the logistical planning for the presidential trip to the area began several weeks ago.

Advance teams from the White House and the Secret Service spent the last two months scouting out the sites the president and vice president could visited and places for support crews to set up shop.

Harveys Resort Hotel/Casino was one of the area hotels used for communications and planning offices for both the presidential and vice presidential staffs.

Members from the White House staff and Secret Service began checking into their rooms at Harveys on July 18, said Jim Van Deusen, the resort's sales director. By Thursday night, federal employees were occupying 115 rooms. That number grew to 150 for Friday night and tapered off to about 130 for Saturday.

Even though the place was crawling with G-men and women, their presence could hardly be noticed Friday evening as the casinos filled with typically diverse summer crowds.

"They probably don't want to get a bad reputation," one blackjack dealer speculated about the federal agents' low profile.

Van Deusen complimented White House officials for being considerate of the resort's needs.

Federal officials were "tough negotiators" and received discount rates, although they paid more per room than the normal government rate.

"They were empathetic to our needs, because this is our peak season," Van Deusen said.

Of course, the federal government's use of Harveys may turn out to be a tremendous marketing tool for the resort.

Said Van Deusen, "We like to think that we offer deluxe accommodations and a level of quality of product that would meet the expectations of a White House entourage."

Vice President Al Gore was accompanied by the gamut of law enforcement officers - federal, local and state - during his visit Friday to the Tallac Historic Site outside South Lake Tahoe.

Secret Service agents - both uniformed and in plain clothes - combed the area all day. Others included bomb squad technicians from the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department, U.S. Forest Service officers and El Dorado County sheriff's deputies.

Escorting Gore's motorcade from Lake Tahoe Airport to the Tallac Site was a 16-member squad of motorcycle officers from the California Highway Patrol's Valley Division in Sacramento.

Their primary duty was to keep the highway clear for the second in command - including blocking off sections of the highway as the roughly 15-vehicle motorcade passed.

"It's a change of pace," said Sgt. Ted White, supervisor for the CHP's protective services division. "It's enjoyable to get away from the rigors of your day-to-day occupation."

Most of the officers in the unit are assigned to routine patrol when they are not helping provide security for dignitaries.

Secret Service agents were at the Tallac Site before 8 a.m. Friday checking and re-checking the forests surrounding the Tallac Trailhead and Lake of the Sky Amphitheater for possible security threats.

One Forest Service employee said Secret Service agents for the past several weeks have come to the Tallac Site to check and recheck the location. A Secret Service agent said the only people they encountered Friday morning were joggers who routinely use the trail.

Uniformed Secret Service agents patrolled the area with dogs trained to detect explosives. They also used mirrors attached to broomstick-sized poles to check for explosives or other dangerous materials attached to the bottoms of vehicles. The security sweeps at the Hyatt Regency at Incline Village were more intensive for Saturday's presidential proceedings. Most law enforcement agencies around the Tahoe Basin had their patrol boats assigned to the lake on Saturday to assist in security. And the presence of most area agency heads, including Chief David Solaro and Cmdr. George Brown of the South Lake Tahoe Police Department, was requested at an incident post at Incline Village.

If Secret Service officials needed to change plans due to unplanned circumstances, they wanted immediate access to the people who could authorize motorcade escorts or other security measures.

All told, the weeks of planning and scores of officers paid off in the form of a well-run and incident-free visit to the area by the nation's top leaders.