Lisa Harris Jones: A portrait of the mayor’s lobbyist friend

“The Honorable Pete Rawlings was my representative in the House of Delegates for 17 plus years. I am dumbfounded that his daughter is tone deaf to how her friendships involving lobbyists that make a great deal of money off city business that she controls as Mayor looks to the taxpayers. Maybe it does not violate any laws or the city’s ethics policy, but Pete Rawlings would not have done it. The Mayor is not like her father; she certainly does not have his political smarts or sense of honor and public trust.”
– Lizzie 58

“Smalltimore doesn’t mean everyone knows everyone. . . Smalltimore means Small minds like the Mayors. I find it fascinating that she used a term that really applies to her.”
– Rhonda Wimbish, via Facebook

“She never should have called the Brew a rag.”
– Nina Therese Kasniunas, via Facebook

“Who is cooking the books down at City Hall? The investigators need to step in now and seize the records instead of giving them time to cover it up.”
– Brian Vaeth, via Facebook

“Market rate, eh?”
– Mike Bonola, via Facebook

“hey, can I have it for the same price next year? hmm probably not.”
– Kathy Flannery, via Facebook
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Citizens question, officials defend propriety of mayor’s stay with lobbyist

“I didn’t think much about it, until I saw the photo of the entrance to the community. Are you telling me that the ‘market rate’ for a summer weekend stay in one of those condos is $400? Seriously? I and my family have been staying in RB for years, when we can afford it, and $400 for a weekend, during peak season, cannot be right.”
– davethesuave

“The fact that Mr. Aisenstark contradicted the timeline Ms. Jones offered as a defense is further evidence of how much this situation stinks. The Mayor and Ms. Harris are desperately backpedaling here. Stephanie Rawlings-Blake may have just blown any chance she has for statewide office in Maryland in the future.”
– Lizzie 58

“I completely disagree with your thought that ‘Stephanie Rawlings-Blake may have just blown any chance she has for statewide office in Maryland in the future.’ Are you kidding yourself? Unless you take food, or gift cards, from the littlest angel, you have NO fear of being turned out of office in the People’s Republic of Maryland. Please.”
– davethesuave

“Dave: Democratic voters in the large suburban counties – Baltimore Co., Howard, Montgomery, etc. – take a very dim view of the shenanigans that they believe goes on in this City without letup. Look at the City school construction bill that passed this spring in Annapolis. The City got it but only after agreeing to put up 2/3’s of the money and allowing the state-run Maryland Stadium Authority to manage the program. Everytime City elected officials pull this cozy crap with lobbyists, developers, or contractors, the value of the City stock in Annapolis takes a hit. It gets easier to tell the City to go away.”
– Lizzie 58

“If Ms. Rawlings-Blake would have been paying attention during her law school ethics class she would know that a person in a position of public trust needs to avoid even the appearance of unethical behavior. Does a lawyer get to go out to dinner with her friend who just happens to be the judge presiding over her case? The point is that the public trust in this instance is lost and there are two solutions that I can see: 1. Ms. Jones may recuse herself from all city matters; or 2. the two parties can limit their personal relationship while Ms. Rawlings-Blake is in Mayor’s chair. The monetization of a personal relationship cannot be allowed to continue.”
– Bmorefree
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Inside City Hall: A top lobbyist and the deferral of a $20M contract

“So like BGF ganglords run BCDC, connected lobbyists run the Baltimore city government.”
– MarkNewgent

“Jones opposes the administration’s award of a contract that is 4 million over the highest bid and this article is written with a slant to make it appear she has undue influence due to her friendship with the Mayor? Does the Brew know what the ‘letter’ said that forced the postponement? Seems to me this is more an example of a good lawyer opposing a good Mayor’s will, despite a friendship.”
– Jack

“Wow Jack, on the payroll I see. No problem with SRB officiating Lisa and Sean’s wedding when regularly making decisions to award business to their clients. Pretty sleazy, but that is Bmore!”
– Joseph Smith

“I think you took this story just a little too far by including the bid amounts and implying (to me at least) that since the city did not go with the lower bid there are shenanigans afoot! (that very well may be the case but not necessarily because of the higher bid being accepted). IT systems and contracts to outsource IT support are more complex than say a contract to pave a street. For an IT contract you want to hire skilled people who can solve the problems and do the work in a cost effective manner. That doesn’t always mean the lowest bidder.”
– p johnson

“First, how could the city conceivably need 73 ‘IT consultants’? Second, what kind of rating system ends up determining that they should pay Telecom $20 million to do a job that another company has promised to do for $12 million?”
– Barnadine_the_Pirate

“‘Rag’? She should be so lucky as to be queried by dead tree media. The story will live forever on the interwebs.”
– James Hunt
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Art aimed to shame: activist and street artist team up on vacants

“Love it – creativity linked to social awareness. Look forward to seeing these murals. Owners of these vacant properties need to be outed and held accountable.”
– lshopes

“Most of the vacants in the city are city owned properties. The slum lord is the city.”
– James Jones

“Beautiful effort, all around. Thanks to Carol and Nether.”
– Rocky Ground

“Awesome project.”
– Ann Finkbeiner
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Sewage overflowing into Stony Run near 39th Street

“Horrible!”
– Sherri Cook

“Yuck!”
– Polly Kalich

“‘We try to let people know that our streams are not considered safe, regardless of whether there is a nearby sanitary sewer overflow.’ Not news, but this says it all. It’s sad we live in a city that accepts, as standard, unsafe park and water conditions, especially in such a vital watershed as the Chesapeake. It’s shameful, at best.”
– Matt Quinlan

“A little sewage with your river?”
– bayrust

“And somehow this all is ok. We can forget about the environmental impact as long as we warn the citizens. B’more is a train wreck.”
– Chris

“Thank you and keep reporting on and cutting through the bs surrounding what really goes on in this town.”
– Barbara Ogden
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Harbor Point won’t start paying property taxes until 2025

“For shame.”
– Jed Weeks

“How much does the city make on the site right now? Plus if all those people move in I would expect that they will be wealthy and their is the piggyback tax on income, not to mention all the spending that will happen as a result of the influx of residents. I am not saying it is the best deal in the world, but I would much rather have something nice there than the current empty lot that currently occupies the space.”
– Wally Pinkard

“The city collected about $244,000 per year in property taxes prior to the commencement of Harbor Point. Of the 6,611 new employees that MuniCap predicts will work at Harbor Point when it is completed, 4,320 are expected to live outside the city. (That means their piggyback income taxes will go to the surrounding counties.)”
– BaltimoreBrew

“With all of this debate, it is interesting that no one is talking about how good this would be for the city. Don’t like TIFs ? – fine. What’s the alternative ? Dumping the full cost of this on the developer will get nowhere – Mr. Beatty already has plenty of risk.”
– George Tyler

“To reiterate the position in my article: TIFs are fine to write-off the basic infrastructure cost needed to support the development, such as to build streets. My problem is with the $80M out of the $107M that does not serve this need, especially in such a highly subsidized isolated high-end development for a corporation that cannot move out of the city anyway.”
– Gerald Neily

“This will be sure to attract 10,000 families. not for another 15 years or so, of course. and where will Her Honor be then, i wonder? probably making a nice living as a highly-compensated consultant showing metropolitan entities all across the fruited plain how she got it done here in B-town. the beat goes on. thanks Brew; the other media don’t pay much or any attention.”
– davethesuave

“I got news for Ms. McKenzie. If the developer defaults on the TIF bonds, that is does not pay the assessed real property taxes or any special tax assessments, the City is required to put the properties into its annual tax sale. The City will not foreclose and take ownership of the properties. The City does not have to pay the TIF bondholders unless it has collected taxes from the properties. The lenders holding the first lien on the properties will pay the taxes to avoid tax sale. The lenders will foreclose on the developer.”
– Lizzie 58
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Harbor Point: Do we really need $80 million in bells and whistles?

“NO. How about underwriting for a developer to go into the bombed out neighborhoods of Northeast Baltimore and rehabilitate THOSE neighborhoods. Last time I checked Fell’s Point/Harbor East is attracting residents just fine and those buildings that are already there are NOWHERE NEAR full occupancy. This kind of ‘progress’ isn’t progress at all. Unless you’re talking about the progress of people moving up the political ladder and wealthy developers getting even wealthier.”
– Scott Altpeter

“Baltimore Brew is so cynical. get over it. have something positive to say about the city’s development.”
– Jose Santos Dory

“Cynical? Do you live here Jose? Baltimore is incredibly corrupt, notorious for poor leadership and the “business community” regularly take advantage of the citizens because of the stupidity, greed and malevolence of our elected officials.”
– Joe Cimino

“How much trash could $80 million get out of the harbor and surrounding area’s? Stay classy B-more.”
– Joshua Drexler

“Baltimore City should tell developers to Bring Your Own Money (BYOM).”
– Rhonda Wimbish
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After scorching Liquor Board audit, a watchdog blog is launched

“Great idea. As traditional media continues to shrink, it’s up to others to keep an eye on government and other power centers. Kudos to Community Law Center for taking this on. (And to the Brew!)”
– Rocky_Ground

“I absolutely love this! As an extremely active member of my community and, in deed the person who is most often assigned to represent our Community Association at liquor board hearings, I will nice to get a full accounting of how the system works, when and if the laws in place are followed, and especially if the licenses applications are being properly vetted and their contents being investigated and confirmed as factual.”
– George L Peters Jr

“There should be an established, escalating series of penalties for [liquor] violations, moving institutions up the ladder until the license is yanked. Licenses should issue to all complying applicants, rather than keeping some arbitrary limit on the number issued. There should be biennial fiscal audits and random outside inspections by the State.”
– Barnadine_the_Pirate
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Fire Chief Clack resigns

“I don’t know enough about fire protection to say whether Chief Clack performed well or not so well in the job. i do know that he took some very difficult positions to right-size the Department and improve working conditions for the men and women of the Fire Department. I also came to know the Chief as one of the most decent and humble public servants I have ever had the privilege to work with.”
– Jamie Kendrick

“‘Improve working conditions for the men and women of the Fire Department.’ Please do tell how he did this. This ought to be a good laugh.”
– Bodymore

“The[y] have the right man in custody, Jeffery Segal, and very smart man who came through the ranks, and know the job.”
– 13thClockStriker
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Ticketmaster may no longer be able to charge unlimited service fees

“Looks like Pearl Jam was right after all.”
– Wild Bill, via Facebook