After Governor’s Residence Attack, Security Upgrades Prompt New Oversight Push In Harrisburg

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By Angela Couloumbis | Spotlight PA

Security-related upgrades to address emergencies at the state-owned governor’s mansion, as well as at private property owned by Pennsylvania’s sitting governor, would be subject to new oversight and public accountability under a measure being pushed in the legislature.

The proposal from state Sen. Jarrett Coleman (R., Lehigh) follows last year’s attack at the governor’s mansion in Harrisburg and last week’s decision by the state treasurer to block the use of taxpayer money to pay for nearly $1.1 million in security upgrades at Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s privately-owned home in Montgomery County.

In announcing the decision, Treasurer Stacy Garrity said state rules do not give her office the necessary legal authority to authorize payments of public money for improvements to private property. Shapiro’s office called the move “shameful” and accused Garrity, a Republican seeking to challenge Shapiro for governor, of playing politics — a criticism Garrity flatly rejected.

The billing dispute has rekindled questions over how best to protect Pennsylvania’s top public official — and to what extent residents should be on the hook for paying for it.

In a rare joint statement, Pennsylvania’s five living former governors on Monday urged state leaders to prioritize the “safety and security of the Governor and his family,” stopping short of endorsing a specific path to achieving that goal. They cited both last year’s attack at the mansion and this past weekend’s alleged attempted assassination of President Donald Trump at the White House correspondents’ dinner in Washington D.C.

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The dispute has also highlighted lingering concerns among some lawmakers that Shapiro could have been more transparent about the millions of dollars in publicly-funded safety upgrades at both the state-owned mansion and his private property in Abington. Those were recommended by Pennsylvania State Police officials after last year’s brazen attack during which a man broke into the mansion while Shapiro and his family were asleep inside, set fire to several rooms, and attempted to find and harm the governor.

Coleman has noted in interviews with Spotlight PA that lawmakers were not made aware of the upgrades to Shapiro’s Abington home until late last year, after the majority of the work had already been completed. A Senate committee he chairs took the dramatic step late last year of subpoenaing the administration for a wide range of records detailing that work.

In a Monday memo seeking support for the planned legislation, Coleman said the “governor deserves reasonable and appropriate security protection,” and that the April 2025 attack “exposed unacceptable weaknesses in existing security measures.”

But he also criticized the Shapiro administration, saying that its “needless secrecy and failure to collaborate fully with the General Assembly” have led to “ongoing issues about statutory authority, procurement methods and cost, compliance with the State Ethics Act, and use of official resources to enforce private matters.”

Publicly-funded upgrades to an elected official’s private home or other assets are rare, due to strict ethics rules that broadly prohibit public officials from personally benefiting from their positions.

Coleman’s proposed bill would create a panel with seven voting members, to be known as the Executive Protection Oversight Board, who would review and approve contracts, purchases and related expenditures (including for legal and consulting services) for “executive protection activities conducted on an emergency basis” at the governor’s official residence. It would also oversee any emergency expenditures on private property should the mansion become temporarily uninhabitable (as it did after last year’s arson) and the governor has to move elsewhere.

The board would also have to provide legislative leaders with written notice prior to the expenditure of taxpayer dollars; issue confidential reports to the legislature; and prepare annual summary reports that would be made publicly available, with redactions if needed, outlining executive protection activities and costs.

The state’s three row officers and four members appointed by the four caucuses within the legislature would be included in the board. The governor would have one nonvoting member.

Coleman said he believes his bill, which has not yet been introduced, will provide the “necessary transparency, accountability and statutory compliance structure so that we can protect both the governor and Pennsylvania taxpayers, and prevent a repeat of the situation that occurred after the arson at the Governor’s Official Residence.”

State Police spokesperson Logan Brouse said in an email that the agency “is strongly opposed to any legislation that would limit law enforcement’s ability to act quickly to ensure the safety of Governor Shapiro and future governors.”

Brouse added: “In this time of rising political violence, it is critical that the State Police are able to act efficiently and law enforcement recommendations remain in the hands of law enforcement, not elected officials.”

In their statement, the five living former governors — Tom Ridge, Mark Schweiker, Ed Rendell, Tom Corbett, and Tom Wolf — said that combatting political violence “should always be nonpartisan and a priority.” The statement did not mention Garrity’s decision, and did not advocate for the best way to handle paying for executive security.

Garrity last week noted that Shapiro has options to resolve the unpaid bills for security upgrades. His administration can seek an out-of-court settlement for payment of the outstanding bills through the Office of Attorney General. Additionally, state lawmakers could authorize the spending as part of their annual budget approval process — although legislative leaders have not definitively said whether they will pursue that route.

Both options would provide the state Treasury with the legal authorization it needs to cut a check for the work, agency officials said.

In a statement Monday, Garrity said she agreed with the five former governors “on one fundamental point: violence and threats against public officials have no place in our country.”

“At the same time … the Treasury does not currently have the legal authority to pay for security improvements to a personal residence,” Garrity wrote. “In fact, doing so would conflict with responsibilities defined in the state constitution. That is not a political judgment, it is a legal constraint that applies regardless of who holds office.”

Spotlight PA has reported that the nearly $1.1 million in security upgrades at Shapiro’s Abington home include a new security system, electrical work, tree trimming and extensive landscaping and other maintenance work on the grounds on his property.

A Shapiro spokesperson had told the news organization that the governor had consulted with the state Ethics Commission to ensure that the publicly funded work on his house adhered with provisions in the ethics code. The commission issued an opinion last October saying those upgrades did not constitute a personal benefit, given the governor’s position in state government and the circumstances that necessitated the work.

Yet much of the security upgrade work, Spotlight PA has revealed, was authorized to start last summer — at least two months before Shapiro sought the commission’s guidance.

Asked Monday to explain the timeline, Shapiro spokesperson Rosie Lapowsky said the State Police and the governor’s Office of General Counsel “agreed these security measures were entirely in the bounds of the law and an ethics opinion was not necessary for the project to begin.”

Still, she added, “we thought it best to proactively seek an ethics opinion prior to its completion.”

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