Pa. Governor’s Residence underwent extensive security upgrades before last month’s arson attack

• By Jaxon White/LNP | LancasterOnline

Pennsylvania’s Governor’s Residence underwent extensive security upgrades in the three years before an arsonist set fire to a wing of the mansion last month while Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family were asleep inside.

Those upgrades cost taxpayers more than $600,000, according to receipts obtained by LNP | LancasterOnline through a public records request

No one was injured in the April 13 fire, but officials have said it caused millions of dollars in damage to the historic, three-story brick Georgian-style mansion. Located along the Susquehanna River in Harrisburg, the 3.5-acre property is surrounded by a 7-foot iron security fence and covered by movement sensors and video cameras.

No one from Shapiro’s office or other state agencies commented on why the security upgrades made over the past three years failed to stop Cody Balmer, 38, who police said scaled the security fence surrounding the mansion and evaded a trooper before he broke two windows to gain access to the residence. While inside, the criminal complaint filed in the case says Balmer set the room on fire with two beer bottles filled with gasoline.

Records released by the state government provide few details on what security improvements were made at the mansion in recent years. An unspecified “security upgrade” costing more than $179,000 was made to the property last year, the records show. Replacing the residence’s security gates and linked contractor costs in June last year added another $118,000.

The records show other security improvements to the property were made in 2023. Combining the cost of replacing 25 windows and six doors, the tab for that additional work reached more than $46,000

Another upgrade was started under former Gov. Tom Wolf in 2022, before Shapiro won that year’s gubernatorial race. Receipts show it cost more than $261,000, combined with associated “supplemental work” like camera installation fees.

The totals spent on upgrades exclude the monthly $10,455 (annually $125,000) that taxpayers have paid since at least 2022 for “security system maintenance.” It also does not include the salaries paid to members of the special detail of state troopers who guard Shapiro.

Redacted

The Department of General Services said in its response to the public records request that it redacted certain information to maintain the safety of the Governor’s Residence and its staff and inhabitants.

Names of the companies contracted for their security services were redacted from the records, as were the names of the contractors who installed the equipment.

Shapiro’s office deferred comment on Thursday to Pennsylvania State Police.

PSP Communications Director Myles Snyder shared the agency’s April 18 announcement that consultant Jeffrey Miller, a former state police commissioner, was hired to lead an independent review of the residence’s security. Findings from the investigation, which state police said was finished earlier this month, will not be made public due to the “sensitive nature” of the findings, Miller told the Associated Press on May 2.

Snyder also provided a copy of a May 6 letter that state police Commissioner Christopher Paris sent to legislative leaders about the efforts his agency is taking to “prevent any security breach like this attack from ever happening again.”

Those efforts, Paris wrote, include more frequent security assessments, creating a new division within the Executive Services Offices to enhance security and maintain a “visible physical presence” at the residence, and a new “anti-climb fence.”

Ongoing case

Shapiro and his family, including First Lady Lori Shapiro and three of his four children, were evacuated by state troopers in the early morning of April 13. The evening before, they had a Passover Seder in the same room damaged by the arson.

Balmer was charged with attempted homicide, arson, assault and burglary after he turned himself in to police. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 28.

Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo said last month that investigators were determining whether religious or political bias could have motivated Balmer to attack the residence. Shapiro, a practicing Jew, has been widely named as a potential 2028 presidential candidate for the Democratic Party.

Members of Balmer’s family have told multiple news outlets that he has a history of mental illness, but Balmer denied those claims in court.

‘Vested’ taxpayers

Some Republican lawmakers — like House GOP Leader Jesse Topper and Government Oversight Committee member Craig Williams — are pushing for more transparency from the Shapiro administration about the investigation into the arson attack.

Topper and Williams, of Bedford and Delaware counties, respectively, introduced a resolution earlier this month directing the Government Oversight Committee to investigate the incident. Among other powers, the legislation would grant committee members the ability to subpoena witnesses to hear testimony under oath.

Earlier this month, Topper told reporters that Paris’ letter was insufficient and that there is “still accountability and transparency that needs to take place surrounding what happened, how it happened, and that’s what we’re looking for.”

Topper said Thursday that the cost of the recent upgrades to the residence’s security “demonstrates that taxpayers are vested in understanding what happened and why.”

House Majority Leader Matt Bradford, a Montgomery County Democrat, would need to bring the GOP’s proposal for an investigation to the floor for a vote, where it would need support from at least one Democrat.

Bradford’s spokeswoman, Beth Rementer, said Thursday that House Democrats are “confident the State Police and independent investigator conducted a thorough investigation and made the necessary security updates.”

Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman, an Indiana County Republican, on Thursday called the attack “heinous” before saying the “security breach was tremendously concerning and certainly warrants further review.”

Pittman added, “Before more taxpayer dollars are invested there needs to be assurances that strong security measures are in place.”