Romney parking lot ban irks North End parents

By Glen Johnson

July 12, 2011

2 minutes to read

Mitt Romney’s penchant for security is causing campaign troubles again.

The former Massachusetts governor is basing his 2012 Republican presidential campaign in rented space at 585 Commercial St., the former Roche Bobois showroom that also served as his 2008 campaign headquarters.

Yet between the two campaigns, its parking lot has become a favorite drop-off spot for the parents of North End children participating in a summer tennis and literacy program held on a tennis court on the other side of the lot.

The Romney campaign has responded by placing security guards and a barricade across the parking lot entrance, forcing the parents to use a turning lane on a public street for their drop-off. They are not happy about the change.

“It’s a very unsafe situation for the children and a very unneighborly, unkind thing for the Romney campaign to be doing,’’ one wrote today on the website “Universal Hub,’’ which first reported about the controversy.

Its post on the subject included a photo showing two beefy, sunglass-wearing men in suits manning the barricade.

One guard explained to a parent that a campaign worker’s car had been hit by someone who didn’t stop and accept responsibility for the damage.

The Romney camp initially told the Globe that it wasn’t enforcing the ban, and that a resolution was the responsibility of building management.

It also explained that the lot was used by “other tenants,’’ and it occupied only about half of the parking lot spaces. The others were reserved for the Zipcar auto rental service, the campaign explained.

“We are aware of the issue and are hopeful that the building management company can reach an accommodation with the organizers of the tennis program at the adjacent court,’’ said spokeswoman Andrea Saul.

The Globe subsequently requested comment from Newmark Knight Frank, the building manager.

Yet little more than an hour later, the Romney campaign changed its story.

It acknowledged that the two guards are employees of a private security firm hired by the Romney staff to secure the building.

In effect, the campaign acknowledged, it was banning the parents from using the lot as a drop-off point, as the parents complained, not the building management, as it first explained.

Nonetheless, a campaign spokeswoman said the guards were not routinely outside the building.

Romney, a former business executive, is known to favor tight security.

While governor from 2003 to 2007, he came and went from his State House office via a public elevator that was locked for his personal use. Aides also erected velvet rope barriers outside the office, and at his news conferences and public appearances.

Several of his former aides were known to sport Secret Service-style earpieces, lapel pins, and identification that resembled a law enforcement badge.

One resigned from Romney’s first campaign in June 2007 after he was accused of impersonating an officer in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

The New Hampshire attorney general later closed her case after finding no evidence the worker, Jay Garrity, had used a law enforcement database to check a license plate, as he allegedly told a New York Times reporter who he felt had been trailing Romney’s caravan too closely.

The Massachusetts charges ultimately were dropped, too, after authorities found no evidence to link Garrity to a phone call placed to a Wilmington plumber by someone identifying himself as “Trooper Garrity.’’