This Guy Has FOUR Taxpayer-Funded Bodyguards

On July 18, Lt. Gov. Glenn McConnell traveled to Sullivan's Island to speak at an event commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Battery Wagner, according to a copy of his work schedule provided by his office.

On Sept. 5, the 65-year-old Charleston Republican attended the Family Fun Festival in Florence. And as recently as last Wednesday, he was at a “striped bass meeting” in Cross, records show.

At those events and some 60 others – mostly speaking engagements – that McConnell attended since the end of the legislative session in June, the part-time lieutenant governor was entitled to be protected by as many as four full-time agents with the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) – South Carolina's top investigative law enforcement agency.

But neither SLED officials nor McConnell’s office will tell The Nerve how often his security detail is used or the total taxpayer cost.

McConnell didn’t return three phone messages this week from The Nerve seeking comment. His annual salary as lieutenant governor is $46,545; he received a pro-rated salary of $35,520 last year, plus $48,515 in a state legislative pension and $3,994 in Senate income, according to his income-disclosure form filed with the State Ethics Commission.

When McConnell, the former longtime Senate president pro tempore and former chairman of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, became the lieutenant governor in March 2012 following the resignation of former Lt. Gov. Ken Ard, he made sure he had a contingent of taxpayer-funded body guards.

SLED Chief Mark Keel told The Nerve last year that McConnell’s office informed his office that a security-detail appropriation “had been requested.”

Contacted last week by The Nerve, SLED spokeswoman Kathryn Richardson confirmed that $180,000 in general funds was appropriated in the agency’s budget for this fiscal year, which started July 1, for the salaries of the four agents designated for McConnell's security detail. But she declined to discuss specifics of how those agents are used.

The Nerve this week asked SLED spokesman Thom Berry for specifics on the total costs of McConnell’s and Gov. Nikki Haley’s security details last fiscal year and so far this fiscal year, but no information was provided by publication of this story.

No online state budget documents for the Governor’s Office, Lieutenant Governor’s Office or SLED list specific expenditure line items for this fiscal year for either the governor’s or lieutenant governor’s security detail. The Nerve last year reported that the Senate version of the 2012-13 state budget had earmarked $441,958 in SLED's budget for a four-member security detail for McConnell.

Read the full story at TheNerve.org.