RGJ Exclusive: BLM wants $1 million VIP compound from Burning Man

Editor's note: This story has been updated since its original publication on Friday morning to reflect additional reporting from the weekend.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is asking Burning Man organizers to build a separate compound with amenities such as flushing toilets, washers and dryers, and 24-hour access to ice cream for government officials staying in Black Rock City.

A Burning Man spokesman estimated the compound would cost the event more than $1 million, bringing its 2015 permit fees to about $5 million. The renderings of the compound obtained by the RGJ show various accommodations set aside for VIP visitors but don't indicate who the visiting dignitaries will be.

The request, unprecedented in Burning Man's history, has turned into a point of contention as organizers negotiate with the agency for their annual permit to stage the event in the Black Rock Desert. No permit has been issued for this year's event, which runs Aug. 30 to Sept. 7. Typically permits are issued in early August.

Both U.S. Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. Mark Amodei reacted strongly Friday to the BLM requests. Amodei set a meeting next week with a Nevada BLM official. Reid wrote a critical letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell.

"Part of Burning Man's philosophy is self-reliance, and living with the elements is part of the experience," Reid wrote. "Flush toilets and laundry facilities can be found about ten miles away in Gerlach, Nevada, if BLM's employees need such amenities."

Burning Man has refused to comply with the BLM's request, which the federal agency submitted on June 1, according to Burning Man spokesman Jim Graham. In its response, Burning Man gave the BLM until Monday to set a meeting to hash out their differences.

"We want to work this out. We're getting close to the event, but we feel that there are more common-sense and cost-effective solutions," Graham said.

Burning Man declined to comment on whether its refusal to comply with BLM's requests would interfere with the permit's approval.

The BLM has said it needs the elaborate encampment to support staff at the event. The agency is raising concerns about safety after a woman was run over and killed by a vehicle last year, and says the additional staff will attend to assess security conditions.

Among the amenities included in the request are flushing toilets to be cleaned daily by Burning Man staff, a laundry with washers and dryers, on-demand hot water, air conditioning, vanity mirrors, refrigerators and couches. The event, known for its emphasis on self-reliance in harsh conditions, provides only basic amenities such as nonflushable portable toilets, for ticketed attendees.

"These are not extravagant facilities," Craig Leff, a spokesman for the BLM's Washington, D.C., office said in a phone call Saturday about the accommodations at compound. "We would like to offer basic amenities for staff that will be on hand."

BLM officials contend that their staff can no longer stay in the "primitive" accommodations available in Gerlach, which is about 20 minutes from the event location.

"We're very concerned about where we put people that are part of our staff and that are part of the support and permitting," BLM Winnemucca District Manager Gene Seidlitz said on Thursday.

"It's safe to say that if you were working 14 to 16 hours a day in white-out conditions on the hot playa, you don't want them to be unrested. Safety, security and health is paramount. That, I will not forgo."

Another BLM spokesman said the amenities were similar to what the U.S. military provides overseas.

"This is the same stuff they have for deployments in Afghanistan," Stephen Clutter, with the Nevada state BLM office, said Saturday.

Details of the BLM's request were included in an email exchange obtained by the RGJ between a Burning Man official and Bob Abbey, the former BLM director who is now a consultant for Burning Man organizers.

"Having been a career BLM employee, I expect agency employees to behave competently and professionally in their interactions with the public," Abbey said in his email. "I don't see these traits being applied in their dealings with (Black Rock City)."

Abbey went on to say that BLM won't "change their strategy of threatening your permit until you agree to everything they are demanding including the latest BS proposal for providing VIP facilities for law enforcement and (Department of Interior) officials."

BLM Special Agent Dan Love of Salt Lake City was cited multiple times as the person behind many of the BLM requests, according to the emails. Love will have a personal bathroom trailer to be shared with only one other official, according to documents.

Love also led the BLM operation against Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy that ended in a standoff with Bundy's armed supporters. He did not return requests for comment this week.

The VIP encampment, called the Blue Pit, is a new request this year. It is in addition to the more bare-bones accommodations for the employees who will be staying at the BLM's headquarters, which houses up to 150 working staff during the main event.

The headquarters also are expected to have trailers with flushable toilets and sinks, though no showers or washers and dryers are requested. The headquarters will be located at the end of the 12-mile playa entry road, 12 miles north of Gerlach. The Blue Pit compound is about two miles past the playa on County Road 34 near an old gravel pit.

Amodei, R-Carson City, is investigating where the BLM's directions are coming from, he said Friday from Washington, D.C.

"My primary concern in this is from a government and ethics standpoint. This is the first time this has come up. This didn't happen last year, or the year before," Amodei said.

Amodei is meeting Thursday with Seidlitz at the Winnemucca office. While Amodei initially intended the meeting to be about the Nevada sage grouse, the main topic now will be Burning Man, he said.

"We're sure as hell going to want to know who's sleeping there," Amodei said of the exclusive compound. "If you love Burning Man, buy a ticket, take leave and go have a blast."

Amodei's office does not believe that the demands are coming from the BLM's Winnemucca or Nevada state offices.

Instead, Amodei said he thinks higher level officials with the U.S. Department of Interior or the BLM's Washington, D.C., office are giving directions.

Leff said he thought the request came from the bureau's Winnemucca office, but was likely a collaboration among several personnel.

BLM acting state director John Ruhs didn't return phone calls to the RGJ on Friday for comment.

Reid, D-Nev., also reacted Friday to the RGJ report that appeared the same day online. Reid wrote to Department of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell.

"I read today the account in the Reno Gazette-Journal of the unprecedented and extravagant requests allegedly being made by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as conditions for permitting Burning Man for their annual event in September 2015," he wrote. "Burning Man has been held in the Black Rock Desert for 23 years and, in addition to the untold cultural benefits that the annual festival brings to Nevada, the event contributes an estimated $35 million to Nevada's economy each year."

Reid went on in the letter to question the necessity of the BLM's request.

"While I agree that the BLM should take its permitting duties seriously and work with Burning Man to both guarantee the safety of its participants and the protection of the environment, providing outlandishly unnecessary facilities for the BLM and its guests should be beyond the scope of the permitting requirements," Reid wrote.

"Part of Burning Man's philosophy is self-reliance, and living with the elements is part of the experience. Flush toilets and laundry facilities can be found about ten miles away in Gerlach, Nevada, if BLM's employees need such amenities."

While one map names some of the government officials who will be staying at the compound, it does not name the dozen or so "VIPs."

The RGJ has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the schedules of federal officials who could be at the event.

In years past, visiting government officials have stayed in Gerlach or at BLM's barracks nearby.

Most of the VIPs will be state and federal BLM officials who are concerned with the safety and security of Burning Man based on a BLM assessment of the 2014 event, Seidlitz said.

The assessment includes a critical review of the handling of Alicia Louise Cipicchio's death in 2014. Cipicchio, 29, was hit by a vehicle during the early morning hours of Aug. 28.

Burning Man and BLM officials traveled to Washington, D.C., in April to discuss officials' concerns and also Burning Man's proposed growth to a 100,000-person event in the future. About 70,000 are expected to attend this year.

As to who will be included in the VIP crew making its way to Burning Man this year, Seidlitz said that he likely will not know until the day of the event.

"Right now, I don't have the exact names. But there are those in upper leadership at the state level of BLM and the national level of BLM," Seidlitz said. "Based on the issues and concerns of last year, it does have the interest of the Department of Interior."

Seidlitz said that Washington officials are concerned about upholding the standards of the "American public" and they will be coordinating visits to Burning Man while making other stops in the West.

"Burning Man is on everyone's list. They come out to see the event, and to meet with everyone from BLM," Seidlitz said, adding that officials also will be watching Seidlitz to ensure that he is addressing Burning Man's safety concerns from last year.

None of the VIPs will be staying the entire period that the Blue Pit compound will be set up, from Aug. 27 through Sept. 11. Many will be popping in for a day, maybe a half-day, Seidlitz said.

Burning Man would need more time to comply with the BLM's requests as is, Graham said. Some of the staff already are preparing to go to the playa to begin setup of the event.

BLM is "asking for services and amenities that seem to be beyond what should be required to administer the permit," Graham said.

"Every year, it's an ongoing negotiation. Every year, we reach an agreement and consensus, but these things were kind of big," Graham said.

Seidlitz said that the BLM is willing to compromise on its list of requirements. He said Burning Man officials haven't outlined their issues with the request to him yet.

Last year, Burning Man paid the BLM more than $4 million for the special recreation permit, which allows the event to have up to 70,000 people each year.

Burning Man detailed the costs paid to the BLM annually in a letter sent Wednesday. Among the dues that Burning Man paid BLM last year were: $2.75 million for cost recovery, $700,000 for land use permit fees and $600,000 for headquarters infrastructure.

The permitting cost has gone up substantially over the past four years, despite the unchanged population cap.

In 2011, Burning Man paid $858,000; in 2012, $1.4 million and in 2013, $2.9 million.

This year, Burning Man expects the additional requirements alone to cost between $1 million and $1.2 million, which would bring total dues paid to the BLM to nearly $5 million, Graham said. Burning Man's special recreation permit is the largest in the country.

"There's always something. Every year, we work through it," Graham said.

BLM spokesman Clutter was optimistic an agreement could be reached.

"We've been working for 22 years with (Black Rock City). It's complex; we all do want to make it successful," he said Saturday. "We're confident that we're going to be able to work through these."

The exclusive compound for officials and VIPs would significantly increase Burning Man's cost this year.

Burning Man estimated in its letter that it would cost an additional $250,000 "just in plumbing and sanitation for this facility" and another $50,000 for the washers and dryers. For the first time, BLM is also asking Burning Man to cover the $253,000 cost of new radios.

More routine costs include the $120,000 for portable buildings and stages and $109,300 for the rental of Bruno's Motel in Gerlach for BLM administration and law enforcement personnel.

The BLM insists that it needs the "assets and services," according to 13 pages of "statement of work" documents. Statement of work documents detail the work that Burning Man is supposed to contract out.

The memorandum of understanding is a 2014 agreement between BLM and Burning Man that outlines the BLM's general expectations through 2016.

Included in the documents are two brochures for Portable Restroom Trailers LLC, a company that provides "luxury" service trailers. The restroom trailers include ceramic urinals and flush toilets as well as "on-demand hot water tanks for endless hot water."

Also included are documents that insist Burning Man contact two Utah-based food vendors, Houston's Catering and Meier's Catering. Burning Man stated that it would prefer to use the local, Gerlach-based Empire Store as a food vendor.

"(The proposal) is very, very preliminary," Seidlitz said Thursday. "Nothing has been signed. It's just one step in a very long dance of what we do with them per the (memorandum of understanding)."

Jenny Kane is RGJ Media's Burning Man reporter. She has been covering the beat since January. Prior to joining the RGJ, she worked at the Virgin Islands Daily News and the Daily Times in Farmington, N.M. Follow her on Twitter @jenny_kane.



