Washington Post today (via Oliver):
As Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett works to raise taxes and eliminate 225 jobs, a construction crew is installing a bathroom in his locked suite of offices, complete with a small sitting room and shower. The cost to taxpayers: $65,225.
Leggett’s aides said yesterday that his security detail did not want him using the public restroom because walking to and from the facility could expose him to harm. The shower was included, an aide said, because Leggett lives about 40 minutes away from the Rockville office and regularly attends evening events without having time to freshen up at home.
“I don’t see this as a big expenditure,” Leggett (D) said. Describing himself as “the guy who flies coach and spends sparingly,” he said, “It’s not something I asked for.”
I’m not voting for a guy who allows a $65,225 bathroom to be constructed for his personal usage. Primary challenger anyone?
What do other D.C. area politician’s do for their bathroom situations?
For almost all of his 12-year tenure, Leggett’s immediate predecessor, Douglas M. Duncan (D), used a public restroom. He had a private bathroom when he was first elected but scrapped it to create a kitchenette for employees. A major renovation of the executive’s floor in Duncan’s first year cost more than $1 million.
“We had perfectly good bathrooms right at the elevators,” he said yesterday. When asked whether he ever felt unsafe using the public restroom, Duncan chuckled, “Heck no.”
In the District, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) uses the public bathroom on the Bullpen floor at city hall but also has access to a private bathroom in the mayor’s suite upstairs. Prince George’s County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D) has a private bathroom that predates his election.
Good to know.