Council President Zeke Cohen confirms Brew reporting, says locksmith contract was inflated by $3 million
“There was an error in the calculation,” the Department of General Services tells Cohen, that resulted in a 340% price increase that city agencies and the mayor’s and comptroller’s office did not catch
Above: City Council President Zeke Cohen chairs the Board of Estimates. (Fern Shen)
On December 3, The Brew alerted readers and members of the Board of Estimates to a locksmith services contract that was set to increase by millions of dollars for no discernible reason.
Mayor Brandon Scott defended the increase, his spokesman telling The Brew a day earlier that “the increased contract amount is proportionate to the expansion of work.”
City Council President Zeke Cohen wasn’t so sure.
An hour before the item was set to be approved, he pulled the item from the agenda and said he would seek an explanation from the Department of General Services (which had not responded to our questions about the contract).
Today Cohen disclosed his findings, saying, “DGS explained to me there was an error in the calculation used to produce the item.”
The error amounted to over $3 million, he confirmed.
• A locksmith contract, set to rise by millions of dollars, deferred by Baltimore Board of Estimates (12/4/25)
To be exact, spending authorization of $4,431,148.97 for locksmith services will be shrunk down to $1,416,666.86 when the contract with Easter’s Lock and Access Systems re-appears before the spending board next month.
“I have a commitment from DGS that the issue will be resolved before this item goes before the BOE at the January 7 meeting,” Cohen said.
December 3, 2025 exchange of messages about the locksmith contract.
The reduced cost of $1.4 million – a 118% increase rather than the original 340% – “reflects several agencies combining their locksmith contracts, and the locksmith services they have historically billed under one umbrella contract with DGS as the lead agency responsible,” Cohen said a press statement released by his office.
Translated into more understandable terms, DGS was trying to combine locksmith contracts with multiple city agencies into a master contract. In so doing, it double-counted and added unrelated security items to the contract, totaled that amount, then projected the costs for the next year, coming up a wildly inflated figure.
Where are the Watchdogs?
Still unanswered is why the half dozen city agencies and offices responsible for reviewing contracts and spending authorizations before they appear before the Board of Estimates did not spot the outsized increase or query DGS about the lack of documentation in the contract file.
The 340% price increase was first disclosed in a August 21 memo from Matthew Rappaport, chief fiscal officer for DGS, to Gabriel Nkengfack, senior specialist at the Bureau of Procurement.
It gave no reason for the increase except to say it would come out of the Facilities Building Maintenance Cost Center (CCA000144) in the Maintenance and Repair of Real Property (SC630316) spend category.
There was no breakdown of where the money was going or what agencies required what locksmith services.
Over the next three months the contact went up the bureaucratic ladder, rubber-stamped – almost literally, with autosignatures in some cases – by the Bureau of the Budget, Finance Department, Minority Business Office, Law Department and Procurement Bureau to the Comptroller’s Office, Mayor’s Office and City Council President’s Office.
The Bureau of the Budget, whose mission is “to ensure city services and programs are implemented efficiently and effectively,” approved the expenditure on September 10.
Comptroller Bill Henry, who describes himself as the city’s fiscal watchdog, did not flag the item before it was placed on the BOE agenda the day before Thanksgiving.
Cohen responds to a query about why his office did not initially flag the locksmith contract.
Today The Brew again asked General Services, Budget Bureau, Department of Finance, Procurement and Comptroller’s Office about the locksmith contract.
So far, none of the agencies have responded.
Saying he had received a briefing from DGS, Comptroller Henry said through a spokesman, “After listening to and reviewing DGS’s explanation concerning this board item, we don’t have have concerns.”
The spokesman said the revised contract, with the $1.4 million ask, is scheduled for the January 7 BOE meeting.
Cohen defended his office’s oversight of contracts. “My team is laser-focused on oversight and making sure that city taxpayers get their money’s worth. . . We will continue to fight for fiscal accountability within City Government. Baltimore deserves nothing less.”