HARRISBURG — Late last year, Pennsylvania’s top law enforcement agency revealed taxpayers would pick up the tab for more than $1 million in security upgrades to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s privately owned family home in Montgomery County.
Now those bills are coming due — but the plan to use public dollars for the entirety of the work there has hit a roadblock.
Records obtained by Spotlight PA show Pennsylvania’s Treasury Department is questioning whether state procurement rules permit public money to be used for construction work on a non-state-owned property like Shapiro’s house.
The records show that as of late January, employees were asking Pennsylvania State Police, the agency underwriting the upgrades, to provide a “detailed” legal justification.
“How does the location in question constitute being public real property?” they wrote, adding: “Please provide any policies or guidelines related to defining public property to include privately owned residences.”
Treasury spokesperson Steve Chizmar did not elaborate on the agency’s concerns, saying: “We are currently auditing those [bills] and that audit is expected to take several weeks.”
The Treasury Department is headed by Republican Stacy Garrity, who is seeking the party’s nomination to challenge Shapiro for the governor’s job in November. State revenue is deposited into the Treasury, which uses the money to pay bills for things like contracts and workers.
The upgrades to Shapiro’s house in Abington were recommended by State Police officials after a middle-of-the-night attack last April on the state-owned governor’s mansion in Harrisburg, where Shapiro and his family stay when in Harrisburg. The Democratic governor and his family and friends were asleep inside, having just finished celebrating Passover the evening before, when a man broke in and set several rooms on fire.
Though no one was harmed, the man who carried out the attack — Cody Balmer of Harrisburg — told law enforcement that had he encountered the governor during the break-in, he would have beaten him with a hammer. He pleaded guilty to attempted murder and other charges.
The attack set off a top-to-bottom reassessment of security protocols in place for the First Family. State Police hired an outside contractor who recommended changes to protections for the governor, who is guarded by a special State Police unit. The contractor’s report was never made public, but soon after, the state launched extensive security upgrades and repairs at the state-owned governor’s mansion.
State Police also quietly authorized upgrades to Shapiro’s personal home. Those upgrades, which began over the summer, were only publicly disclosed by State Police for the first time in a letter to top lawmakers late last year.
In an email Tuesday, State Police spokesperson Logan Brouse said that while the state-owned residence was being restored, the Shapiros had to live at their personal residence on a full-time basis — a move that required “serious security enhancements” to the governor’s private home.
Those expenditures, Brouse wrote, were required to carry out the duties of State Police, which include protecting the governor.
State Police determined that making those security enhancements at Shapiro’s private home was the best option, rather than alternative plans such as leasing an alternative property to temporarily house the First Family.
Brouse also said the Treasury Department has paid two invoices related to work at the governor’s private home. When asked for specifics on those bills, he did not immediately respond.
The security upgrades at the governor’s family home were carried out under the emergency construction provisions in the state’s procurement code, which lays out the process and (often complicated) steps state agencies must follow to purchase goods and services and execute construction projects.
The state’s procurement handbook defines emergency construction as “the process of building, altering, improving, or demolishing any public structure or building or other public improvements of any kind to any public real property to remove or correct the basis for the emergency.”
It is silent on whether private property qualifies for publicly funded emergency construction.
A spokesperson for the Department of General Services, which oversees procurement matters, did not immediately respond when asked what section of the emergency procurement code would permit taxpayer dollars to be used for emergency construction at a privately owned structure.
Brouse also did not cite a specific section of the emergency procurement code for the work at Shapiro’s family-owned home. Instead, he said emergency procurements are permitted when there is a threat to public safety.
Publicly funded upgrades to an elected official’s private home or other assets are rare. That’s because the state’s strict ethics rules broadly prohibit public officials from personally benefiting from their positions.
A Shapiro spokesperson told Spotlight PA last year that the governor had consulted with the State Ethics Commission to ensure that there was no improper financial gain.
But records obtained by the news organization show the governor did not request that guidance until at least two months after construction work for those upgrades began at his Abington house. His spokespeople have not commented on the timing of the opinion.
The administration did not consult with Treasury officials who are now flagging the expenditures.
According to records obtained by Spotlight PA through a public records request, upgrades include $311,230.50 for a security system, $81,043.84 for tree trimming, and $288,736 for landscaping and maintenance involving the exterior grounds.
The landscaping may end up costing the state even more. The Shapiros and one of their neighbors are locked in a heated court dispute over their property boundaries. The neighbors have sued Shapiro and State Police in federal court, alleging the landscaping work encroaches on their land. The Shapiros have countersued in Montgomery County’s Court of Common Pleas.
Asked who is paying Shapiro’s legal bills, spokesperson Will Simons said the governor is paying out of pocket for his lawsuit. Meanwhile, the governor’s Office of General Counsel is representing him and State Police in federal court (in that lawsuit, Shapiro is being sued both personally and in his official capacity).
The work on Shapiro’s private house has also attracted the attention of legislators.
A legislative committee headed by Republican state Sen. Jarrett Coleman of Lehigh County late last year subpoenaed the Shapiro administration for a bevy of records related to the upgrades to the governor’s personal home. Legislative subpoenas are rare, and have become mired in litigation when issued in the past.
Coleman’s office said it has received records from the administration and intends to hold a hearing on the matter when the state Senate returns to session in mid-March.
Asked whether he believes the state’s procurement code extends to work on private property, Coleman said: “The state emergency procurement policy is black and white. It limits construction to public property, as it should. The governor’s private residence is not public property.”
He added: “It appears that these bills can’t be paid and maybe never had a legal basis for the procurement in the first place.”