Mayor Francis Slay has reiterated his support for a plan to assign bodyguards to Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed and Comptroller Darlene Green.

As we reported on Monday, Slay was initially surprised at a budget insert that calls for the hiring of two new sheriff’s deputies to guard, and possibly drive, Reed and Green, at least on a part-time basis. (Both say that when the guards are not with them, they will be used to beef-up courthouse security.)

Slay said last week he was under the impression that, in the wake of the Feb. 7 shootings in Kirkwood — where six people, including two council members, were killed — the deputies would be used to better secure the Board of Aldermen.

But the next day, a Slay aide said the mayor supports extra security for his two City Hall colleagues, a stance that was repeated on his blog Tuesday.

“Both Comptroller Green and President Reed have said that they have received threats in the past and would welcome the security, especially when they were not in their City Hall offices,” Slay wrote. “In the post-Kirkwood era of municipal government, it is probably better to be prudent.”

The stance makes political sense for Slay. Not only will the support of Green and Reed help his own goals — the comptroller and board president make up the other two votes on the city’s influential Estimate Board — but, because the mayor has his own security detail, it would be difficult for him to deny protection for somebody else.

That doesn’t mean, however, that Green and Reed will get their request. Some aldermen, still smarting from having to sell a half-cent sales tax to their constituents to hire more police officers, may be reluctant to approve spending extra money on personal protection for elected officials.

Slay