State: Guarding Harris has cost $50,000

TALLAHASSEE -- Florida's taxpayers have spent almost $50,000 providing security services for Secretary of State Katherine Harris since last year's election.

Agents for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement began guarding Harris on Nov. 15, 2000, during last year's election crisis and continued to provide round-the-clock security for her home and office off and on until Feb. 6.

They accompanied Harris during six days of festivities surrounding George W. Bush's inauguration in Washington in January and again last month on a seven-day trip to South America.

FDLE agents traditionally provide security only for governors and their immediate family, but state law allows them to guard any Cabinet officer upon special request from the governor or the Cabinet member. They also provide security for visiting governors, ambassadors, presidents, heads of state and others when help is requested by the governor or a Cabinet member.

Other members of the state Cabinet say they have not requested similar security for themselves, but agree that Harris' situation was unprecedented.

"If anyone is at risk, I'd assume that FDLE would automatically provide security," Attorney General Bob Butterworth said Tuesday.

Insurance Commissioner Tom Gallagher agreed that Harris was in a special position.

"She's been in the middle of a lot of high profile stuff," Gallagher said Tuesday. "She's a hero to one group and a demon to others. That makes her a target."

Butterworth, a Democrat who was Florida chairman for Vice President Al Gore, said he was not aware of the security being provided for Harris.

"If I had gone to the last inauguration, I probably would have needed protection," Butterworth joked.

Butterworth refused to comment when asked if he thought the state's taxpayers should pay for security provided to Harris at political events surrounding an inaugural.

"I've always found security at inaugural events to be very good," Butterworth said.

Butterworth said he has gone to past inaugurations, when Democrats were sworn in, and found all of the events to be "very political."

Dave Mann, the assistant secretary who serves as Harris' top assistant, says he requested help as a result of all the inflammatory rhetoric and threats that accompanied the presidential recount.

It was an extraordinary time. Television news crews from all over the world were camped on the Capitol lawn and chanting protesters frequently surrounded the building. The 36-day period ended when Bush won a U.S. Supreme Court case that gave him the White House.

In addition to providing security for Harris at home and work, FDLE agents also traveled with Harris to Washington in January and accompanied her on a six-day round of parties and meetings leading up to the Bush inauguration.

Harris also asked agents to accompany her while she testified at a hearing before the U.S. Civil Rights Commission in Tallahassee in mid January.

And on July 15, when Harris took off for Argentina and Uruguay, agents went along to provide protection in Buenos Aires and Montevideo. Harris was leading a small cultural exchange mission to the two countries at the same time Gov. Jeb Bush was leading an economic mission to Argentina and Brazil.

Harris' international travels have already drawn criticism from legislators who have appointed a special review committee to examine her expenses. Since taking office in January 1999, Harris has greatly expanded the emphasis of international relations in her office and traveled to a number of countries at state expense.

Mann said he made the decision to request security for Harris because he felt there "was a clear and present danger to her safety."

Mann said he discussed the situation with the FDLE and they agreed that she could be in danger.

"Regardless of the nature of the event, the performance of her duties created a need for protection," Mann said.

Harris was out of the country on personal leave this week and could not be reached for comment.

As Harris presided over Florida's close presidential race last year, she became the butt of late-night comedians and was repeatedly vilified by Democrats who accused her of helping steal the election for Bush. Thousands of Americans e-mailed her. A few threatened her.

Much of the criticism leveled at Harris came because she served as one of several co-chairs of Bush's presidential campaign in Florida. Her role in certifying Bush as the winner of last year's election drew praise from Republicans who made her the toast of the town during inaugural events.

Two FDLE agents who accompanied her to Washington billed the state $8,350 for inaugural events, an expense that was paid by the secretary of state's office account to FDLE. The tab included the hourly wages of each agent, rooms costing more than $250 a night at the Ritz Carlton in Washington, D.C., food and drink and round-trip air fare.

The FDLE has submitted a bill for $14,131 for the trip to Argentina and Uruguay and expects to be reimbursed by Harris' Department of State.

The largest single expense for security services for Harris was for salaries paid to the agents who provided security at her home and office in the days after the election: $24,671. When other expenses were added, the total for security at her home and office was $25,850.

"This was my call," Mann said. "Her trips received a great deal of publicity and there was an encounter with a stalker in South America."

Officials at the FDLE said the stalker was a man at an airport who continuously watched Harris as she waited for an airplane, but made no attempt to approach her. The man was not confronted by the agents traveling with her.

Last November, the FDLE investigated a threat against Harris made by a man who called her office and demanded to be on the presidential ballot.

The Central Florida man was identified as a person who had made false 911 calls accusing the sheriff of one county of being a pedophile and a state attorney of drug trafficking. The man lived near Orlando, owned no vehicle and has no record of violent offenses but was seen by FDLE investigators as a possible threat to Harris when the situation was evaluated in November 2000.

Although Florida law leaves it to FDLE Director James T. "Tim" Moore to determine when security for a Cabinet member or a visiting dignitary is "in the best interest of the state," it would be all but impossible for the agency to refuse such a request since the governor and Cabinet collectively serve as his bosses.

Moore said the situation surrounding Harris was extremely unusual. He said he takes such requests very seriously and relies on advice from professional officers who assess the potential for danger.

The law limits such service to events where there is a "public purpose" or where the failure to provide security would result "in a clear and present danger to the personal safety" of a person "or could result in public embarrassment to the state."

Was Moore uncomfortable providing agents at what was essentially a political event?

"The law doesn't distinguish between state business and a political event," he said.

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Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk