MoCo exec gets $65,000 bathroom

March 20, 2008

Cost of a private bathroom, small sitting room and shower for MoCo executive Ike Leggett = $65,225. Oh, and a critical story in the Washington Post.

Timing is everything; even though the bathroom’s cost was approved last spring, its construction begins as Leggett proposes 225 job cuts and increased property taxes to close the county’s nearly $300M budget shortfall.

Leggett’s security chief says that walking through a crowded lobby to use the public restroom could expose him to harm, even though former County Executive Doug Duncan used it for his 12 years in office.

“We had perfectly good bathrooms right at the elevators,” [Duncan] said yesterday. When asked whether he ever felt unsafe using the public restroom, Duncan chuckled, “Heck no.”

PG Exec Jack Johnson has a private bathroom, built prior to his election; so does DC Mayor Adrian Fenty, although he uses the public bathroom at city hall. But unlike federal office buildings, the MoCo offices don’t have security checkpoints or metal detectors.

“We have had some challenging, disgruntled employees or citizens demanding to see the county executive, and from a security perspective he can walk into that,” Chief Administrative Officer Timothy L. Firestine said. “Quite frankly, Ike didn’t want [the new bathroom], but we more or less suggested from a security perspective that he needs it.”

Call me crazy, but it sounds like what’s needed isn’t a private bathroom; it’s a metal detector.

This one only costs $4,000.

But don’t take my word for it - hear what Leggett has to say in his online town hall meeting today at noon.

JACKIE SAUTER, Web Editor

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Posted by Jackie Sauter | Filed Under business, montgomery county, taxes 

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