The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors took the month of July off from work as usual, but some discreet construction has been occurring behind closed doors. As part of a $900,000 project approved in closed session in October 2011, a panic room is being installed in the Board chambers. The price tag for the panic room is not to exceed more than $223,000, according to Jeff Draper, the county’s director of facilities and fleet. That means it should be just about complete by Fly’s estimation, because Draper, who was tight-lipped on design details, told us last week that more than $205,000 has already been spent on this particular installation. Sheriff Laurie Smith called the panic room a good idea, which isn’t a surprise considering she also recommended a $90K a year bodyguard—staffed by a sheriff’s officer—for Board President George Shirakawa. This bodyguard comes in addition to another armed sheriff’s officer who already watches over Board meetings, which has left some county officials to muse that the Board could be a bit paranoid. According to agenda minutes, Shirakawa presented the security agenda item and it met unanimous approval. (It’s unclear if other supervisors considered the claustrophobic consequences of stuffing themselves in a panic room with a man as curvaceous as Shirakawa.) The Board chambers has seen its fair share of arguments between elected officials and disgruntled citizens—usually dealing with public employee compensation—but Smith declined to cite the number of threats the Board has received in recent years. The county hired Sea Pac Engineering, based out of Los Angeles, to complete the security improvements, which includes work on the West Wing, where the office of District Attorney Jeff Rosen is located. Recent projects listed on Sea Pac’s website include buildouts for the State Department, Navy barracks and the U.S. Postal Department—the last of which were not sure whom the work was done to protect.