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Costs for Wilder's security mounting
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Candidate
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| Contributor | The Sunset Provision |
| Last Edited | The Sunset Provision May 04, 2008 10:09pm |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Monday, May 5, 2008 04:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Richmond taxpayers have spent $1,272,668 and counting for Mayor L. Douglas Wilder's police guards and drivers.
The bill -- incurred while Wilder received more than $25,000 in car allowances he paid back last month -- translates to about $4 a year of real estate taxes for the owner of a $200,000 house in the city. It includes:
$28,637.86 for the Mercury Grand Marquis in which he rides;
$3,826 in maintenance and repair costs through Dec. 31, 2007;
$6,035.92 in gas for that car;
an average of $50,312 a year in salaries for each of the eight sworn police officers assigned to the unit -- two fewer than the total sworn officers in the sheriff's office for Charles City County, where Wilder has his weekend home;
$17,698 in gas for the security detail's three other cars and $12,628 in maintenance expenses. The detail acquired a 2007 Chevrolet Impala last year to replace an older vehicle.
Wilder's press secretary, Linwood Norman, said the mayor had never asked for the unit. In the past, he has said Police Chief Rodney Monroe decided to set up the detail.
Wilder declined to reply to questions about the cost or reason for setting up the unit.
One or two members of the eight-person detail are often -- but not always -- with the mayor during his working day. They drive him to events outside City Hall but do not always accompany him as he walks around downtown. They are not stationed in the hallway or waiting rooms of his office suite, as is the practice with the governor's state police detail.
Wilder received an $8,400-a-year allowance to cover his driving expenses all through the time the police detail was driving him.
He repaid $25,900 he received in the allowance nine days ago. Wilder has said he was unaware he was receiving the allowance because he didn't check his pay stubs.
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