First it was the $65,225 private bathroom, ostensibly for “security reasons”. Now Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett is charging county residents upwards of $360,000 for a four-man security detail that, even by the standards of pampered public officials in Washington, is jaw-droppingly excessive.
Leggett once described himself as “the guy who flies coach and spends sparingly,” but he’s living more like a rock star these days – at taxpayers’ expense. As The Examiner’s Alan Suderman reported Monday, County Council members are finally questioning the need for Leggett’s high-priced security detail when the budget is more than $520 million in the red. County officials refused to answer questions about whether any specific or credible threats have been made against Leggett – which would be the only possible justification for spending that much money to protect just one individual.
As a disgruntled Montgomery County taxpayer put it: “I know that the mean streets of Rockville [where Leggett lives] pose some hazards, but primarily from yuppie motorists text-messaging with one hand while adjusting the in-vehicle DVD player for the kids with the other.” Leggett’s security detail is even more outrageous given the fact that his proposed budget includes an ambulance fee that will make many senior citizens living on fixed incomes hesitate before calling for emergency medical assistance.
It’s also interesting to note that Leggett and Prince George’s County Executive Jack Johnson, who has a three-man bodyguard, both live in a state with some of the strictest gun laws in the nation. When Sen. John Ensign, R-NV, attached an amendment to the D.C. voting rights bill that would allow District residents to buy handguns in neighboring states, the director of Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s Office of Crime Control and Prevention went ballistic. Yet the chief executives of Maryland’s two most populous and affluent counties are apparently so afraid for their personal safety they need to be surrounded by armed guards at all times.
In contrast, no objections to the Ensign amendment were raised in Virginia, where state law allows ordinary citizens to carry concealed weapons. It’s no coincidence that the Old Dominion is also the place where scores of government functionaries go about their daily business without feeling the need for an official pistol-packing entourage offering round-the-clock protection.
