Hotel receives check from Bush visit

The Rogue Regency received $15,000 it had been owed since October; other businesses should have been paid as well, says the Secret Service
By DAMIAN MANN
Mail Tribune

For three Jackson County hotels expecting to be paid almost $19,000 from expenses related to last year’s presidential campaign, the wait appears to be over.

"The check is here," said Bruce Hoevet, general manager of the Rogue Regency in Medford, which was owed $15,000 and received payment Tuesday.

Jim Mackin, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said money would be electronically transferred to the hotels, which included the Red Lion Hotel in Medford and the Jacksonville Inn.

"They should be receiving the funds today," Mackin said Tuesday.

Most of the hotel bills were incurred by the Secret Service during President George W. Bush’s visit to the Rogue Valley on Oct. 14-15.

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Hoevet estimated that roughly two-thirds of the hotel bill was from the president’s visit, with the remainder related to a visit by Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards.

The Secret Service owed $3,332.72 to the Red Lion from the president’s visit. Hotel officials weren’t available Tuesday to confirm whether the money had been received.

Kirsten Yunuba Stephens, an accountant at the hotel, had sent President Bush a strongly worded letter on March 28, scolding him for not paying his bills. The White House noted it was the Secret Service’s responsibility.

Since then, Don Anway, general manager of the hotel, wrote a letter apologizing to the president and encouraging him to come back to the Rogue Valley for a visit. Anway said the accountant, who still works at the hotel, was acting independently and without the hotel’s permission in writing the letter.

The Jacksonville Inn, where the president stayed, reported that it had received a partial payment for the $600 owed and expected to receive the remainder today.

Mackin attributed the delays to the installation of a new payment system.

"The lapse in payment was our fault," he said.

Mackin didn’t think delays in paying Secret Service bills was a widespread problem.

"This is the first I’m aware of," he said.

Reach reporter Damian Mann at 776-4476, or e-mail dmann@mailtribune.com