Excess amount of food typical of conference

Larry Henry

Tuesday, July 29, 1997 | 10:44 a.m.

Washington Post political writer David Broder has seen it all -- except for the amount of food in the National Governors' Association press room at The Mirage hotel-casino.

"The numbers seem out of line," Broder said Monday as a hotel employee stacked 250 decorative cardboard sandwich boxes in a room where only a dozen reporters were working.

Reporters joked that they each were allowed to take 20 boxes. The boxes contained sandwiches, chips, a brownie and a green apple.

Despite some joking, the absurd number of boxed lunches underscored the cost of putting on a such a convention.

Nevada taxpayers spend $47,000 a year in dues so the governor can belong to the association, said Richard Urey, press secretary for Nevada Gov. Bob Miller. Miller's one-year term as association chairman will end Wednesday at the conclusion of the four-day convention.

Urey said 43 governors are in attendance, as are 1,500 staff members and others.

The total cost is $1.7 million, with some of the expenses being donated by corporate sponsors, including the food at a reception billed "A Taste of Las Vegas" Monday night at the Fremont Street Experience. Downtown casinos were among those who contributed food.

The boxed lunches in the press room were an in-kind contribution from The Mirage, Urey said.

At the end of the day, many of the boxes remained untouched, although attendees who weren't reporters walked into the press room and took boxes out.

A Mirage worker said some of the leftover sandwiches "will go to the employee lunchroom and the rest will go straight to the trash."