NEWPORT BEACH – U.S. Secret Service officials have declined to pay the city’s $35,000 bill for police services during a fundraising visit by President Barack Obama in February.

The city billed Obama’s campaign in May for the Corona del Mar visit, and the payment was due June 9.

City spokeswoman Tara Finnigan said the city was directed by officials with the Democratic National Convention to talk to the Secret Service about the bill.

“The Secret Service does not pay for police overtime associated with protective visits,” Brian Leary, a Secret Service spokesman said in an email Monday. “The (Secret Service) is not funded to pay police overtime and does not have a mechanism to do so.”

On Monday the city responded with a lengthy statement on its website explaining why the city billed the campaigns.

“It was never the City’s intention to turn the invoices into a matter of political debate or media attention,” part of the statement read. “Many cities across the nation, just like Newport Beach, send bills to political campaigns if an event is purely fundraising in nature and is not open to the public except for payment.”

“The DNC suggested we work with the U.S. Secret Service to resolve the billing issues,” she said last week.

A representative from the DNC could not be reached on Monday; however, a DNC spokesperson told the Daily Pilot that local law enforcement agencies should discuss costs associated with the visit with the Secret Service.

Leary said the Secret Service contacts the city and does request help with shutting down streets and other security-related tasks.

“The security advance process is the appropriate time for financial and logistical issues to be identified so that when a local or state police department cannot meet requests from the Secret Service, other arrangements can be made,” he said.

On July 23, the city confirmed that Mitt Romney’s campaign paid its $10,441 invoice for Romney’s June 1 visit to Newport Beach. The announcement came the same day as Romney’s visit to Costa Mesa for a business roundtable.

Newport City Councilman Steve Rosansky said the city is financially well off because officials are fiscally conservative and don’t “waste their money.” The city has reserves of almost $100 million, officials said.

“If (a campaign visit) requires extra services, then the cost shouldn’t be at the expense of the residents of the city,” Rosansky said.

He said the city is happy to welcome official presidential visits. But when there is a campaign visit, the city shouldn’t have to subsidize the costs.

“A campaign fundraiser is a big party,” Rosansky said.

Rosansky said he wasn’t concerned about who pays the bill, only that it gets paid.

If the invoice goes unpaid after 120 days, it will be flagged and sent to an outside contractor for collections, Finnigan said.

Additionally, the city sends two past due statements 30 days apart, Finnigan said.

Contact the writer: jfrancis@ocregister.com or Twitter: @joshfrancisOCR