NATIONAL CITY - The City of National City is tired of waiting for former Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders to pay his months-old bill. The U.S. Senator and his campaign owe the city more than $28,000.
“We spent public money for a political purpose. You can’t do that without reimbursement,” National City Mayor Ron Morrison said.
National City hosted a campaign rally for the Vermont Senator in May 2016 at Kimball Park. Seven-thousand people attended the event, which cost $28,337.28. The city sent the campaign a bill a few days later. It wasn’t paid.
They sent delinquent notices once a month for the next four months. The city sent a demand letter for the money in October. National City still hasn’t been paid back.
“I think in the public eye, when they see something like this happening, they go, ‘Why?’” the Mayor said.
National City gave 10News copies of the bill and delinquent notices. They charge the campaign for neighborhood services, public works, fire inspection and permits, and security from the National City Police.
“We don’t do political favors,” Mayor Morrison said. “We don’t give mulligans. It just doesn’t work that way.”
Morrison said the bill is too small to file a lawsuit to get the money back.
“We’ll turn it over to a collection agency like we would any other delinquent bill,” he said.
10News called the Senator’s Washington, D.C., office and was told to send an email to the media relations contact. The same email inquiring about the delinquent bill was sent to the Sanders Presidential Campaign and the San Diego County Democratic Party Chairperson. There was no response as of Tuesday evening.
