Mayor Joe Schember's administration is trying to recoup taxpayer-funded overtime costs for city workers assigned to the event.

Donald J. Trump for President Inc. is about to get a $35,000-plus bill from the city of Erie.

City Finance Director Paul Lichtenwalter said Tuesday that the city later this week will formally request a $35,129 reimbursement from Trump's campaign committee for taxpayer-funded, employee-related costs incurred by the city during Trump's Make America Great Again rally Oct. 10 at Erie Insurance Arena.

The event drew more than 12,000 people to downtown Erie, forced the closure of a number of local streets and mandated increased security.

The Erie Times-News reported on Oct. 12 that the city arrived at a preliminary estimate cost of at least $21,000, nearly all of that in overtime for city workers assigned to the event.

At that time, Lichtenwalter indicated the cost could be higher. Other cities across the country have incurred significant costs when hosting Trump rallies, most of them related to public safety and security.

Lichtenwalter said Tuesday that the city had compiled more exact figures for the total overtime for police officers, firefighters, and Department of Public Works employees who worked the event.

Lichtenwalter said the reimbursement request will be sent to the Trump campaign committee's headquarters in New York City.

Trump's committee currently has more than $33 million on hand, according to Federal Election Commission filings, and paid $17,500 to rent Erie Insurance Arena for the rally, said Casey Wells, executive director of Erie Events, which manages the arena.

Representatives of the Trump committee could not be reached for comment.

Erie Mayor Joe Schember, who has expressed doubts about whether the city will be reimbursed, said that while city officials were honored to host Trump, "it was purely a campaign visit to support local candidates. In fact, there was a large fundraiser for the president's own campaign fund while he was here.

"For this reason, we feel it is fair for the president's campaign fund to reimburse city costs that taxpayers would otherwise have to bear," Schember said.

Erie Bureau of Fire Chief Guy Santone said about 9,000 people were inside the arena for Trump's rally, and at least another 3,000 who could not get in were outside.

There was also a few hundred anti-Trump protesters downtown. No serious incidents or disturbances were reported.

Trump supporters, as well as some public officials throughout the country, have argued that cities have a responsibility to provide the necessary security for such an event, and that Trump's rallies can bring a positive economic impact to municipalities that host them.

However, VisitErie, the region's tourism and promotion agency, did not examine the economic impact of the Trump visit and has no plans to, said John Oliver, the group's president.

Oliver said the organization believes the economic impact of the visit was "minimal" because it believes a large number of those who attended the rally were from the Erie region; the rally was not a multi-day event, such as a convention; and VisitErie does not believe, based on feedback from restaurants and hotels in the area, that Trump's visit generated significant dollars at those businesses.

"That's not to say that some people didn't come in from out of town and do that," Oliver said. "But we didn't get the feedback or the feeling that those people represented a large number that would make a significant impact on our economy."

Kevin Flowers can be reached at 870-1693 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ETNflowers.