The taxpayer-funded paving of a gravel road leading to Gov. Nathan Deal’s private residence was among several improvements that security officials explored for the Habersham County home, but the head of the state’s public safety division said Thursday that he won’t make new requests for other publicly financed upgrades.
Col. Mark McDonough asked his staff about two years ago to consider a range of other updates to Deal’s home in Demorest, including a beefed-up communications system and a helicopter landing pad. But he said the Department of Public Safety is no longer exploring the new projects.
His comments follow an outcry over the $92,000 project to pave the one-lane, half-mile Habersham County road. The publicly funded expense infuriated watchdog groups who said the freshly paved road would ultimately help Deal enrich himself when he decides to sell the home.
William Perry, a transparency advocate, questioned whether there was a “dire need” to pave a road that Deal’s security detail already regularly traverses in bulky SUVs.
“This isn’t the governor’s residence that will be passed on to the next governor. This is his personal home,” Perry said. “And I have to question why these improvements are being made now and not earlier in his first term. Why go to such great taxpayer expense to work on this property that may not be heavily utilized until after he’s out of office?”
McDonough said he asked county officials in December to approve the project, first reported by WAGA-TV, because it would help ensure access to Deal's property in case of emergency. He also said it was the first time he can recall a paving project for a politician's private home since he joined the department two decades ago.
“I can’t answer why no one else has done this before,” McDonough said in an interview. “But my job is to look further down the road and anticipate what we do if an emergency happens. And this was one of the things that stuck out.”
Deal declined to discuss Thursday what he called an “executive security decision.”
“I don’t comment on them,” he said. “Nor do I participate in executive security decisions.”
‘The River’
Deal typically lives between Monday and Friday in the Governor’s Mansion in Buckhead. But on weekends he often escapes to his Demorest home, code-named “The River” by Deal’s security detail.
That home sits on the banks of the Chattahoochee River at the end of Log Cabin Road, which was a dusty county-maintained roadway until it was repaved in early June. The county funded the project through a state Department of Transportation grant.
The 19-acre property is Deal's primary private residence, and tax records peg the total market value at about $700,000. He also owns a separate 15-acre lot down the road. Deal has sought since 2011 to sell another house he owns that sits on 5 acres near Gainesville.
McDonough, who described himself as a relentless planner, said he would need to ship in fuel trucks, supply vehicles, communications towers and a mobile command center if the governor is forced by a disaster to leave Atlanta and turn the Demorest property into an emergency headquarters.
“And to do that, I need to get all of that stuff out of there, and I have a whole bunch of people coming and going,” he said. “And if I’m doing that on an unimproved roadway, we would tear it up pretty quick.”
The paving project was one of several ideas McDonough asked his staff to explore, but he said Thursday that his deputies determined other upgrades were not necessary. A helicopter, for instance, can safely land in a nearby field, while communications equipment and power generators can be trucked in from nearby command posts.
“We have all of the equipment we need, it’s just the question of hauling it up there,” McDonough said. “If I’ve got to re-establish our headquarters and most likely I would do it there. And it makes it a whole lot easier with an improved roadway.”
A security split
McDonough has served in the Department of Public Safety since 1995, rising through the ranks to become deputy commissioner. Deal nominated him to the department’s top spot shortly after he took office in 2011, and McDonough was in the spotlight in early 2014 when he helped coordinate the state’s response to the icy gridlock that gripped Atlanta.
The department’s budget has mushroomed since McDonough took charge, a sure sign that he is in good standing with Deal and key legislators. The Department of Public Safety’s funding has grown by 44 percent since fiscal 2011, according to an analysis of budget records.
Several security experts seemed confused by the reasoning behind the paving project. Michael Dorn, a former security analyst for the Georgia Department of Homeland Security, said such a project outside a politician’s private home is rare.
"My biggest concern is whether you can get vehicles reliably in and out," said Dorn, who now runs the Safe Havens International nonprofit campus safety advocate group.
“In some cases, we’ve evaluated dirt roads and said, ‘That’s just not going to do it.’ And then there are other occasions where we’ve believed it’s OK,” he said. “It’s not just about getting security teams in and out. It’s also about getting emergency personnel like ambulances and firefighters on the property.”
J.R. Roberts, a former private investigator in Savannah who is now an expert witness on security issues, said he’s unclear what specific security-related concerns would be solved by a smoother road.
“Almost any properly equipped emergency vehicle should be able to traverse a gravel road,” Roberts said, “even in rare snowy conditions.”
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