Giuliani's security costs questioned

NEW YORK — The mayor of New York is protected around the clock, even when he's not working. He's trailed on the golf course, at the theater and while visiting relatives for Thanksgiving dinner, with taxpayers footing the bill.

Questions have arisen about how New York City's mayoral-security detail works and how its expenses are handled, after a report that former Mayor Rudy Giuliani's administration shuffled expenses incurred by his security detail on his trips to a Long Island resort as he was beginning an extramarital affair.

In an interview on CBS on Thursday, the Republican presidential candidate said he had done nothing wrong and dismissed the story as "a typical political hit job with only half the story told."

For as long as anyone can remember, the New York Police Department has always protected the mayor, wherever he has gone.

Although Mayor Michael Bloomberg's spokesman, Stu Loeser, declined to discuss the workings of the security detail, a former police official offered some specifics.

Mayors typically are protected by a five- or six-person team of plainclothes detectives, including one who often goes ahead to secure the destination. Three teams generally rotate for the 24-hour job.

Protection is available for a mayor's family members, but the Police Department makes those decisions based on the individuals and any perceived threat against them.

When Giuliani was in office and having an affair with Judith Nathan — who later became his wife — she and his then-wife, Donna Hanover, were given protection.

When mayors travel, the city pays the costs of the security team.

According to a 2002 letter from the city comptroller and numerous travel receipts and documents released Thursday, Giuliani's administration billed tens of thousands of dollars in security travel expenses to little-known city offices. Those included the Loft Board, which oversees some types of apartments, and an office in charge of helping the disabled.

Giuliani said Thursday on CBS that the billing practice was not to conceal anything but was for convenience to the officers on the detail, who otherwise would have had to wait to be reimbursed by the Police Department.

The story was first reported by the political Web site Politico.com.

Former Mayor Ed Koch, who is supporting Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, said Thursday that rerouting expenditures was highly unusual.

"Hiding the expenses by having agencies other than the Police Department carry them is not warranted; I don't understand why he did that," Koch said.