Two real estate partners who were tapped to run the city’s Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) Business Center were handed hefty pay increases and a new contract by the Board of Estimates this week.

David Mosley and Vernon J. Marrow were given 9% raises and a renewal of their contracts at the request of the Mayor’s Office of Minority and Women-Owned Business Development (MWBD).

The Brew previously reported that the director of MWBD, Sharon Pinder, is David Mosley’s next-door neighbor. The two families have lived side by side at the exclusive Fox Valley Estates in Howard County for 15 years.

The contracts approved Wednesday by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and other board members are consultant agreements outside the purview of civil service rules.

Marrow’s pay was upped by $8,900 (from $93,500 to $102,400) as “special director” of the center, which rents space from Johns Hopkins University on East 33rd Street. Mosley’s salary as “business advisor” to the center was increased from $60,500 to $65,900, or 9%.

City employees received a 2% pay increase this year.

Both men’s salaries were made retroactive to September 1, allowing them to enjoy three months of added pay over their current contract, which expires on December 11.
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Brew’s prior coverage of Minority Business Development Center:

• Top mayoral aide hires her neighbor for minority business post (5/16/14)
• Mayor’s press officer circles the wagons in defense of Sharon Pinder (5/22/14)
• Mayor chalks up her aide’s hiring of neighbor to coincidence (6/19/14)
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The new agreements will be in effect through August 31, 2015 – “with an additional one-year renewal” to August 31, 2016, according to board records. The latter date corresponds to the end of the $900,000 U.S. Commerce Department grant to Baltimore that funds the center.

Pinder has repeatedly declined to be interviewed by The Brew. Last June, Mayor Rawlings-Blake defended the hires, noting, “Did you pick your neighbors? Did you choose a neighbor because you were looking for a job? It seems like a coincidence to me.”

No Website Information

The Baltimore center is one of 50 nationwide that are designed to help minority businesses secure large contracts and private financing from banks and private equity firms, with an eye toward overseas business opportunities.

Marrow and Mosley, whose salary and benefits will consume about two-thirds of the center’s 2015 budget, are responsible for “coordinating and collaborating on client service efforts,” “accessing global markets,” “public speaking,” “serving as an instructor for business training classes” and “representing and promoting the center statewide.”

They are also charged with preparing reports for Pinder’s office and meeting performance metrics goals on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis.

So far, it’s been impossible to determine what goals the center has met. Its website maintained through a U.S. Commerce Department portal provides no information on its performance goals or accomplishments. No seminars, conferences or other educational outreach efforts are listed by the center.

In contrast, the New York MBDA Business Center reports performance data, claiming to have coordinated $181 million in credit and loans to minority businesses.

The Brew’s request for metrics, quarterly reports and other information – sent to the center, to Pinder, and to the mayor’s chief spokesman, Kevin R. Harris – was not answered.

Developers with a Checkered Past

Prior to their appointments, Mosley and Marrow were well-known in developer circles as partners in ESmith Legacy, Inc.

They were involved in several downtown projects, including the 414 Water Street tower and The Zenith apartment building before the collapse of the real estate market in 2008.

Their subsequent attempts to build a grocery store and other property for East Baltimore Development Inc. near the Johns Hopkins Hospital failed.

In 2011, the ESmith group was forced to withdraw its plan to build a $80 million luxury Hyatt Hotel on 125th Street in New York City.

The failed development led to a lawsuit against the company by architectural firm McKissack & McKissack, which was privately settled in August, according to records at the D.C. Courts.

The pair were business partners with Brian D. Morris, who resigned from a $175,000 job with the Baltimore school system when his history of bad debts, garnished wages and unpaid taxes were revealed.

The ESmith group also had connections with developer Ronald H. Lipscomb, whose lavish gifts to former Mayor Sheila Dixon figured in the investigation and trial that led to her conviction on a corruption charge.