Security Payments Were Punctual on His Watch, Kelly Says

If the police department was late in processing payments for Mayor Giuliani's security detail, the tardiness marked a shift from the previous administration, according to statements made today by Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

Mr. Kelly, who served as the top police officer directly before Mr. Giuliani took office in 1993, said he couldn't recall the department ever being late on payments for mayoral security during his 14-month tenure under Mayor Dinkins.

The statement came after Mayor Giuliani contended yesterday that hundreds of thousand of dollars of payments were billed to obscure city agencies for his security detail because the police department was sometimes slow in making payments.

Mr. Giuliani has been forced this week to try and explain why the agencies were billed for the cost of his security as he sought an extramarital affair with Judith Nathan in the Hamptons, news first reported Wednesday by the Politico Web site.

Mr. Kelly, who served as commissioner directly before and after Mr. Giuliani's administration, said billing city agencies for the mayor's security detail has not been a practice under his watch during the Bloomberg administration.

"All expenses are processed through the department. Detectives assigned to the mayor's security detail process all of their expenses through the department and are reimbursed through the department," Mr. Kelly said of the current administration.

Mr. Kelly said that to the best of his knowledge the payment process was the same under the Dinkins administration.

Mr. Giuliani's campaign has argued that the police department reimbursed all of the expenses incurred by city agencies for his trips outside of the city.

"Such costs were allocated throughout the various divisions within Mayor's office, a spokesman for Mr. Giuliani, Joseph Lhota, said in a statement. "Sometime thereafter, but before the end of each fiscal year, the NYPD would reimburse the Office of the Mayor for such expenditures and therefore these divisions were never deprived of any monies."