Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett’s proposed budget has the same $90,000 salary and benefit package for his four bodyguards, an expense that some County Council members and union officials question.

“There’s no demonstrated need that he needs some security,” said Walt Bader, the chief negotiator for the Fraternal Order of Police union. Instead, Bader said, the cash-strapped county would be better served using the money to protect battered women and scared witnesses rather than having high-paid bodyguards at Leggett’s “beck and call.”