\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe state Attorney General’s office is clearing the way for Pennsylvania to pay contractors for working on security enhancements at Governor Shapiro’s private home. The more than $1 million upgrades to Shapiro’s home in Montgomery County came after last year’s arson attack at the governor’s residence in Harrisburg. In April, Treasurer Stacy Garrity said her office could not pay for the changes in part because it’s private property, as compared to the official residence. The AG’s office said Garrity had no other legal choice. Now, the AG’s office approved the settlements for payment of the outstanding bills, saying it wants to pay the contractors for work done in good faith and shield the state from lawsuits that would have cost taxpayers. The AG’s office said that this does not set a precedent for similar settlement agreements and said lawmakers must find a solution for future situations involving the protection of Pennsylvania leaders. Garrity responds Garrity released the following statement about the settlement agreement: \u201cThe Attorney General\u2019s letter to the Shapiro administration makes it clear — and I\u2019ve emphasized repeatedly — my sworn duty is to uphold the law, protect taxpayers, and only act with explicit legal authority, today\u2019s settlement agreement confirms I did exactly that,\u201d Treasurer Garrity said. \u201cThis issue was triggered by the administration\u2019s failure to follow proper contracting procedures, causing uncertainty and risking litigation. We have not yet received the request to pay or the settlement agreement. After I receive those documents, I\u2019ll carefully review each one and pay the requisition if it is lawful and correct. Safety and security matter to everyone, but good intentions can never excuse ignoring the law.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The state Attorney General’s office is clearing the way for Pennsylvania to pay contractors for working on security enhancements at Governor Shapiro’s private home. <\/p>\n
The more than $1 million upgrades to Shapiro’s home in Montgomery County came after last year’s arson attack at the governor’s residence in Harrisburg. <\/p>\n
In April, Treasurer Stacy Garrity said her office could not pay for the changes in part because it’s private property, as compared to the official residence. The AG’s office said Garrity had no other legal choice. <\/p>\n
Now, the AG’s office approved the settlements for payment of the outstanding bills, saying it wants to pay the contractors for work done in good faith and shield the state from lawsuits that would have cost taxpayers. <\/p>\n
The AG’s office said that this does not set a precedent for similar settlement agreements and said lawmakers must find a solution for future situations involving the protection of Pennsylvania leaders. <\/p>\n
Garrity responds \t<\/p>\n
Garrity released the following statement about the settlement agreement: <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Attorney General\u2019s letter to the Shapiro administration makes it clear — and I\u2019ve emphasized repeatedly — my sworn duty is to uphold the law, protect taxpayers, and only act with explicit legal authority, today\u2019s settlement agreement confirms I did exactly that,\u201d Treasurer Garrity said. \u201cThis issue was triggered by the administration\u2019s failure to follow proper contracting procedures, causing uncertainty and risking litigation. We have not yet received the request to pay or the settlement agreement. After I receive those documents, I\u2019ll carefully review each one and pay the requisition if it is lawful and correct. Safety and security matter to everyone, but good intentions can never excuse ignoring the law.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The state Attorney General’s office is clearing the way for Pennsylvania to pay contractors for working on security…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[29780,9940,451,28,30,29,3415,95281],"class_list":["post-218066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-1-million","tag-attorney-general","tag-governor-josh-shapiro","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-shapiro","tag-taxpayer-dollars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}