Inside City Hall

It takes real effort to penetrate the mysteries of Baltimore City government, where millions of dollars in public spending are approved in the blink of an eye and dollars disappear into the maw of departments that haven't been audited for decades. For citizens, there's plenty at stake, and we take you behind the headlines.

At long last, Baltimore has cyber insurance

A timeline of the city’s efforts to obtain insurance against cyberattacks – and its ongoing payments to consultants to ward off future “events.”

Why the “gag order” vote was delayed last night in the City Council

The measure is now under threat amid the political calculations of several of the bill’s sponsors as Baltimore’s 2020 Democratic Primary heats up.

A transportation department without a traffic chief? Yup, for five years running

“It is kind of ridiculous,” says Steve Sharkey, DOT’s new director. And here is why the job will remain vacant for the foreseeable future.

Young seeks private-sector volunteers in city government

Not yet disclosed by mayor’s office: Will there be safeguards against potential conflicts and insider information?

DPW creates a $100,000 position for outspoken critic

Leader of opposition to Hanlon Park water tanks joins the agency she scorned.

Young warms to the role of running Baltimore

Baltimore’s acting mayor is making the most of his sudden stint as a stand-in for a sidelined, scandal-plagued Pugh.

Council calls for Pugh to resign as Young settles in for the long haul

Alternately distraught and defiant, sources say, Pugh has been sending out smoke signals as she remains in seclusion.

Housing advocates blast City Council for gutting anti-discrimination bill

Six co-sponsors of the original bill approve an amendment that will limit the number of people protected from bias in Baltimore’s rental housing market.

With incinerator crackdown bill passed, spotlight swings to the mayor

After Pugh tried, unsuccessfully, to delay yesterday’s vote, will the measure intended to reduce emissions from Baltimore’s biggest industrial polluter get her signature?

$10,000 requested to send Young and aides to Las Vegas convention

Spokesman says Baltimore will benefit from latest out-of-town travel by City Council president.

Baltimore guessing game: Who attended private meeting with Harrison?

The guest list for a controversial gathering at City Hall to meet Mayor Pugh’s police commissioner-designate has still not been released.

Helpful information? Or campaign literature at taxpayer expense?

Mayor Pugh’s newsletter, included in Baltimore water customers’ bills, irritates one resident who inquired about its cost.

Baltimore cuts 30-foot spruce in Druid Hill Park for City Hall Christmas tree

Critics bemoan assault on urban tree canopy. Mayor Pugh’s spokesman says the city didn’t receive a tree donation from a private individual in time for Monday’s ceremony.

Resurrected: City Council poised to approve $21 million bill for Baltimore Police overtime tonight

The same spending bill was rejected by the Council’s Budget Committee last July.

Upper management at retirement system comes under scrutiny

The agency that administers the retirement accounts of 18,000 current and former Baltimore employees has jettisoned its top employees. What’s going on?

Faulted for questionable expenditures, Pugh’s chief of staff gets a new job

Longtime political fixer Kim Morton, after a stinging audit, moves laterally to a top job at the Department of Public Works.

Costello introduces lobbying bill amendment sought by lobbyists

Critics said the amendment, later pulled by the councilman, would stifle citizen interactions with government and trigger 1st Amendment issues.

Bike Share’s demise a disappointment for bikers and a black eye for DOT

A look back at a decade of failed bike share efforts as Baltimore scoots off to the next big thing.

Pugh’s chief of staff was gone, and now she’s back

After a brief exit, Kimberly Morton has resumed her role as the mayor’s right hand. She’s now been assigned to supervise the troubled Human Resources department.

Baltimore’s chief human capital officer abruptly resigns

Mary Talley, who enjoyed a pricey hotel stay in Chicago, confirms she has left the Pugh administration.

Pugh’s chief of staff is leaving city government, sources say

A veteran City Hall operative is set to depart, while a Male Engagement consultant is ready to arrive.

A politician of few words will be feted at Pugh fundraiser

“Year of the Woman” is the theme of mayor’s latest fundraising event.

Pugh’s billion-dollar neighborhood fund off to a modest start

The mayor says she wants to rebuild neighborhoods and create green amenities. What’s missing is something else colored green.

Looking for signs of change at the Police Department as De Sousa era begins

City Council confirms new Baltimore police commissioner, as spending board considers the extra costs of his salary and others’.

No-bid contracts for Fleming and Tucker raised eyebrows

The story behind the $105,000 total expenditure that Mayor Pugh sought and the spending board approved.

Pugh’s youth singing consultant had driver’s license suspended on Jan. 2

How the $65,000 contract for “Voice” contestant Davon Fleming was awarded. Hint: Without competitive bidding or prequalification.

Pugh to celebrate first-year anniversary as mayor at Baltimore County fundraiser

The invitation-only event is 16.6 miles – and worlds apart – from the mayor’s daily drill at City Hall.

Farewell to the mayor’s press spokesman

Anthony Wayne McCarthy, a veteran of many careers, walks away with the “first-ever key to the city.”

Sources: Mayor Pugh’s spokesman and close advisor to leave

Anthony McCarthy has enjoyed a storied career as a political insider since arriving in Baltimore in 1995.

Spiniello does it again – gets $5.4 million after threatening to take city to court

Mayor and BOE approve settlement demanded by the city’s “go-to” sewer contractor. UPDATED.

Baltimore’s budget director to leave in middle of budget season

The money man has helped the city. Now the city is helping him reach his 10-year employment milestone. UPDATED.

“Eventually and hopefully,” HR plans to surrender the pen to the digital sword

A key city department is stuck in the age of pen and paper. Meanwhile, the mayor forges ahead with info-tech appointments.

Pugh watched closely as she moves to create LGBT commission and hire liaison

Spokesman: Commission to be formed by year’s end and “conversations ongoing” about liaison job.

The ties that bind and the whispers that divide

“If Jack is 100% behind Living Classrooms, then Stokes is 100% behind Living Classrooms,” says a City Hall observer.

Kim Morton quietly assumes position of Mayor Pugh’s chief of staff

Appointment of holdover from the Rawlings-Blake administration is now listed on city website.

What’s in an acronym? Quite a bit, the mayor learns

If the FBI was startled by the news, the ATF and DEA were happy to fill the void.

Kim Morton offered job as Pugh’s chief of staff

A job offered but not yet accepted, sources tell The Brew.

Exclusive: Mayor’s chief of staff, Tisha Edwards, set to leave

Her departure is reported to be voluntary.

Young: We have to start turning our own relatives in

City Council reacts as Baltimore’s homicides top 100 so far this year.

Asked to ponder police role in Freddie Gray’s death, Pugh passes

“I can’t go back. I can only go forward,” mayor says on two-year anniversary of his arrest.

As $15 minimum wage hike dies: “We had this taken away from us”

In the end, City Council support for overriding Mayor Pugh’s veto was not there.

What lessons for labor in Pugh minimum wage flip?

Unions gave her their hearts and their dollars. One spent generously on a PAC that targeted her rival, Sheila Dixon.

Click here to help run Baltimore

Mayor Pugh solicits candidates for 70 city boards and commissions. Who knew there were so many?

A “call to action” on homicides; a “bake sale for buses”

Staging unusual events, Baltimore’s new mayor and younger council make their presence felt.

Vowing no security detail for out-of-town trips, Pugh parts from her predecessors

Kaiser Permanente and the NBA are paying her expenses to attend a health forum in Los Angeles.

Bus station, 441 days late, gets another extension

New administration gives a politically-plugged-in contractor a break.

Pay boosts coming for Baltimore’s elected officials

Step-up raises of 2.5% are in store for the mayor and Council members in 2017.

Graziano to go, rest to stay in Pugh administration

The new mayor plans to retain the current lineup of agency heads – with one exception.

Mayor-Elect Pugh announces senior appointments

New faces and titles for senior positions.

At her last press conference, Rawlings-Blake describes a happy prospect

Which is: not having to get up on Wednesday mornings to hold any more of them.

11% pay hikes for two Baltimore department heads

City Solicitor and Public Works Director will be paid more than the mayor. UPDATED.

The bureaucrats strike back

PART 2: Too costly, beyond staff scope, leaves city too exposed legally. Reasons cited for backing off oil train explosion study.

As bill dies, specter of an oil train explosion haunts residents

PART 1 – City Council backs off from a study of a rail disaster’s impact on Baltimore.

Mayor says banned WYPR reporter exhibited “threatening behavior”

Reporter and radio station say the charges are baseless. UPDATED with social media reaction.

Mayor bars WYPR reporter from her weekly press conference

Rawlings-Blake takes umbrage at a public radio station reporter.

For work not performed, a contractor wins a settlement

Or how a cost underrun wound up costing taxpayers.

Brew reporting prompts memo from Young, zinger from Kraft

Here’s the memo that’s been circulating around the Council.

Nominees: we knew nothing about Young’s fundraising plans

Questions raised about Council president’s plan to solicit donations for transition activities.

Still alive, minimum wage bill goes back to committee

For a peripatetic mayor, today must be Minneapolis

A lame duck roams to a lot of places.

BOE approves another $1.8 million for uniforms and t-shirts

Cost of clothing for city workers adds up – to more than $7 million over the last few years.

Agency audits: more promises and more money to auditors

Entering a world of delays and self-pity courtesy of the city that never audits.

Rawlings-Blake heads west to hang up her spurs as U.S. Conference of Mayors president

Rubbing shoulders with Hillary Clinton and the Dalai Lama.

A governor, a mayor and a probable mayor gather in Vegas

The annual real estate schmooze-fest kicks off amid palm trees and poolside cabanas.

Property tax rate for homeowners to drop by a penny

The mayor follows through on her modest property tax reduction plan for homeowners. What you’ll see on your 2017 tax bill.

City Council votes to sustain the status quo

The switched votes of four Council members – in the face of mayoral opposition – led to the defeat of a bill that would have given the body some power over the budget.

Coming today: A showdown over the mayor’s power of the purse

At issue: Baltimore’s “strong mayor” system versus a “shared power” plan.

Tripling the cost for window-washing and other city spending

A typical week at the Board of Estimates: Money dispensed and no questions asked.

Facing up to the reality of Baltimore’s vacants

City Council OKs major changes to city governance tonight

Latest cabinet exit: DOT chief Johnson

April 20 hearing scheduled on city water bill problems

Rawlings-Blake is headed to Qatar and Cuba

In Sandtown, groups decry proposed $4.2 million cut in youth programs

Last year, citing the unrest in Baltimore following Freddie Gray’s in-custody death, Mayor Rawlings-Blake found $4.2 million for after-school programs and community schools. This year, she is proposing cutting that $4.2 million. In Sandtown-Winchester today, people said that cut hurts the community.

The exodus begins: Rec and Parks director says he’s leaving

Exiting city government as the Rawlings-Blake administration winds down.

Two more hours of shut-door sessions on the Port Covington TIF

A news nugget that leaked out of today’s meeting – Baltimore taxpayers would not see significant “positive tax returns” until 2040.

BOE makes big award for body cameras, rollout will take two years

Body cameras will be coming (slowly) to the Baltimore Police Department under a contract awarded today to an Arizona company. But the effectiveness of the cameras in exposing police misconduct is under question.

Outside lawyers in federal police probe will cost city $1.2 million this year

Bills are coming due to a D.C. law firm hired to represent Baltimore Police in a civil rights investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. Also $6.4 million in settlement money to be allocated to the family of Freddie Gray.

City snow dumping at Camden Yards left foot-deep craters in parking lot

The Stadium Authority helped Baltimore by taking snow from January’s record-setting storm but now, with Orioles Opening Day looming, they’re faced with gashes and potholes that render two parking lots unsafe. Crews are making urgent repairs that may cost the city up to $500,000.

$28 million contract to fix aging sewers in Cherry Hill and Brooklyn

Some 20 miles of deteriorated sewer mains that leak human waste into the harbor will be relined under today’s big contract. The work is required under the 2002 consent decree with the EPA and Maryland Department of the Environment.

Snubbing Stephanie to make a grand promise

It’s election time, folks. Which means time for a noble gesture by a legislative body that’s done little in the last five years except support the mayor’s agenda. But last night, the lawmakers staged a mini-rebellion to establish a “Children and Youth Fund” with a big-money mandate.

A fistful of dollars to a slew of consultants

A look behind the veil of consulting contracts that come before the Board of Estimates. Yesterday there were 5 million dollars’ worth. Where did they go? And why is Jack Young the only board member who questions such expenditures?

Change is on the agenda for 2016 election

The cast of characters for Baltimore’s 2016 election has been locked into place, setting the stage for something the city hasn’t seen in years – fresh faces. Here’s a rundown of some of the potentially most interesting non-Mayoral races.

More police accountability spending

How to deal with tardy agency audits? Don’t talk about it!

Fearing press reports about continued missed deadlines, the official in charge of managing the city’s departmental audits says he just won’t set any more deadlines. Or talk about a program that’s deeply mired in delays.

Mayor to hike pay for friend who runs African American Festival

A promoter with political clout and a contract without competitive bidding – Shelonda Stokes and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake find common ground in spending city money to organize this year’s African American Festival. UPDATED with Board of Estimates vote.

Inside City Hall: Were the audits due yesterday actually done?

EXCLUSIVE: The Brew has learned that two of the three agency audits due yesterday have been delayed for two weeks. Again, a public promise for transparency has not been met. Response so far from the Rawlings-Blake administration: silence.

A close look at $130M in proposed capital spending

The trend that began in 2011 will continue with the next election.

Declaring victory in the face of meager success

The core problem with rehabbing Baltimore’s vacants is this: How does one obtain value from a house that costs many times more to restore than its market price? City Hall has scarcely addressed this problem – as demonstrated by a recent report from The Abell Foundation.

Audits update: three to be released soon, finance director says

Jack Young denies that his votes are influenced by campaign donations

The City Council President denounces a report issued by the Abell Foundation that suggests that contractors who pay campaign contributions get favorable treatment from the Board of Estimates.

Fire chief up for surprise long-term contract

Tucked into tomorrow’s BOE agenda is a six-year employment contract extension for Baltimore Fire Chief Niles Ford. That’s many years beyond when Rawlings-Blake leaves office. Can’t the mayor tell citizens why such a long-term contract improves public safety, asks a union president.

Board of Estimates assigns outside auditors over Pratt’s objections

The saga of finding out how City Hall spends the public’s money continues as the Board of Estimates outvotes Comptroller Pratt and awards nearly $600,000 in contracts for a second round of audits of city agencies even as the first round of audits remains undone.

Audits will be done, says finance chief, while explaining why none so far has been

Please note that, according to Baltimore’s director of finance, audits promised last June have not been “delayed.” Rather they are part of a “backlog” of data. Hear more about the challenges faced by The City That Never Audits.

Did you say audits? Sure, they’re coming someday

Audit reports promised months ago have yet to appear.

Inside City Hall: The streets may be paved in asphalt, but they’re worth their weight in gold

Across town from the too-short-curbing redo on Roland Avenue is a case study of a roadway project approaching its third year of reconstruction. Yesterday, the mayor and Board of Estimates shoveled another $3.1 million into Dundalk Avenue’s ill-fated Streetscape.

Inside City Hall: Reading between the lines of the Inspector General’s report

They root out costly crimes like pension and disability fraud but still have a modest budget. A significant portion of their funding comes from transfers from the very departments they investigate.

Inside City Hall: After no-show by former city solicitor, BOE approves $9 million contract

Filling the Board of Estimates hearing room last week with protests about a $9 million contract recommended for approval, Thurman Zollicoffer was noticeably absent today. Left to fend for themselves, two reps get the cold shoulder.

Inside City Hall: Spending board defers $9 million award after former city solicitor objects

The right hand of former Mayor Martin O’Malley returns to the Board of Estimates hearing room to argue a case for a Tennessee supplier of office equipment, calls for transparency and wins a delay to a $9 million contract. A peephole into the way City Hall works.

Inside City Hall: Mayor Rawlings-Blake heads to OC and MACo

The sessions are wonky but the bars and the beach are a perfect setting for Maryland’s politicians to get on their summer groove and indulge in what they love to do. Joining them this evening is Mayor Rawlings-Blake, who got a mighty skimpy meal allowance for her OC trip.

Board scuttles plan to pay part-time hearing officers $150,000 a year

An administrative error gave the impression of “a very large bump-up in salary,” mayor says.

Inside City Hall: $42 million in “overruns” approved by Council

The April 27 riot put a crimp on the city’s budget. But there are other costs that have flown under the public radar – and were quickly and quietly disposed of by the City Council last night – including pricey snow plowing contracts.

Inside City Hall: A cop’s cop gets a rise out of Batts, Rawlings-Blake

Accusations by the president of the police union that the police commissioner and mayor are withholding tapes and stalling an investigation into what happened during the April 27 riot ignites a bonfire of words. Did “legal advisors” overrule on-field commanders?

Inside City Hall: Mayor picks two novices as her strategists, fundraisers

Do Binetti-Kosak have the skill set to steer a proud and sometimes malaprop-prone mayor through the mine fields of an angry and divided city in the coming election, especially if a streetfighter like Sheila Dixon enters the ring?

Inside City Hall: Where are all the contractors?

The lack of appetite by private contractors to do city work has become pronounced. Yesterday, the Board of Estimates was confronted by nearly a dozen contracts that attracted three or fewer bidders. The cost of repaving neighborhood streets is coming in far above what the city engineer anticipated.

Inside City Hall: While her staff parses a remark, the mayor stays mum on a sad and violent day

Where’s the mayor? That seems a pretty relevant question on a day when Baltimore seemed to be cracking as a civil society. Only one official statement came out of her office today, involving a correction of a prior statement. UPDATED.

Inside City Hall: Anger by minority contractors bubbles to the surface

An outburst by Baltimore’s “demolition king,” Pless Jones, may have been about a low bid denied to a fellow minority contractor. But it also has political implications for next year’s election. Is former mayor Sheila Dixon waiting in the wings?

Inside City Hall: A do-nothing Council decides to do nothing

Last night’s defeat of an innocuous restaurant grading bill demonstrates how expediency can trump transparency. Bill advocate Brandon Scott faced not only the opposition of restauranteers but the treachery of his colleagues.

Inside City Hall: The Hampden parking bill fiasco

Last month’s lightning-rod issue has apparently dissolved into history, as the mayor puts the brakes on a plan by a veteran councilwoman to help some Hampden residents with parking problems. A look back at an odd dispute.

Inside City Hall: The mayor and her lobbyists

The lobby contracts handed out by Mayor Rawlings-Blake are all “professional services agreements.” Which means they are exempt from public advertising, free from minority hiring and excused from competitive bidding. Here’s a rundown of the players.

Inside City Hall: Are ads on city buildings a sign of the future?

Think of the possibilities of adorning city properties with advertisements – billboards in parks and playgrounds, marketing campaigns in libraries and rec centers. The city does some of this on a small-scale basis. It is quietly weighing whether to do more.

Inside City Hall: Honey, I shrunk the Council!

Going on 38 years in the City Council, representing a district where she no longer lives, Rochelle “Rikki” Spector wants to return the body to its former multi-member configuration. It’s an idea that doesn’t exactly excite her fellow incumbents.

Weak inclusionary housing law could get fixes this year

Eight years after the City Council passed a law to help low-income residents live in new private housing, only 25 “inclusionary” units have been created. The program is literally broke. How might it get fixed?

Inside City Hall: Elected officials getting pay increases

The Board of Estimates is set to “note” tomorrow, at its final session of 2014, pay hikes for its three elected members. Increases for the mayor, city council president and comptroller are part of an automatic salary adjustment for 17 elected officials.

Inside City Hall: What’s behind those accusations against the mayor’s ex-aide?

The narrative of the Inspector General’s report on the botched speed camera program, which places blame on the mayor’s ex-chief of staff Alex Sanchez, is not at all clear. In fact, it seems downright threadbare when you parse through the data.

Advertise with the Brew

Inside City Hall: Moving on after the mayor vetoes Council’s cherished bills

And that was that last night – no public announcement about the police camera and plastic bag vetoes by the mayor, no override vote taken, and no councilmanic protests that the public wasn’t getting the democracy it deserved.

Inside City Hall: Making sausage with the Council

Lobbyists were ready to carve up a City Council bill to better inform consumers of sanitary code violations in restaurants and other food establishments. Letter grades are out, said one lobbyist. Grocery stories should be exempted from the law, said another.

Timetable for Baltimore agency audits disclosed by finance director

It’s been two years since voters passed a charter amendment calling for audits of 13 agencies. This week the Rawlings-Blake administration disclosed a timetable for audits to be performed next year, with the rest to begin in 2016.

Inside City Hall: Lobbyist for the city, contributor to the mayor

You’ve probably never heard of Kevin F. Kelly. He’s been the city’s “federal advocate” (a.k.a. lobbyist) since 2000, and his Washington lobby shop is up for a fat contract renewal at today’s Board of Estimates meeting.

Inside City Hall: Mayor says Brown defeat “was not Baltimore City’s fault”

Mayor Rawlings-Blake acknowledges that voter turnout at yesterday’s election was low, but says it was not the cause of Anthony Brown’s defeat. Regarding her relations with the Republican gubernatorial victor, the mayor says she knows very little about Larry Hogan.

Inside City Hall: Another delay in completing the Rec and Parks audit

Two years ago, voters approved a charter amendment calling for audits conducted at 13 city departments. So far, there’s been one audit of a single agency – and it still hasn’t been resolved, we learn this week. So much for turning over a new leaf.

Inside City Hall: 11th District loses its place at the power table

Eric Costello’s appointment to the City Council has meant a reshuffling of committee assignments. And that’s what determines your power on the Council. The Brew surveys the winners – and the loser – of the just-released scoreboard of committee assignments.

Inside City Hall: A familiar scent wafting from Council chambers

Four years ago, there was an outcry over nepotism, lack of transparency and back-room dealmaking. So what’s changed in the selection of the latest City Council vacancy (expected to be filled tonight by Eric Costello)? Very little, according to a candidate who lost out to “Pistol Pete” Welch back in 2011.

Inside City Hall: Baby steps at the BDC

Progress but still no full embrace of transparency by Baltimore’s economic development arm that’s been widely faulted for its secretive ways. New president Bill Cole – and the mayor who makes the board’s appointments – say transparency is a good thing. So why not start with open meetings?

The perils of declaring victory in the war on violence

It seemed like a powerful story line – violence and murders in Baltimore were heading to a historic low. Then came two weeks of shooting mayhem and the death of a three-year-old girl.

Lips are sealed as roll call of departing officials grows

The short-lived director of finance fits into a well-worn pattern.

Inside City Hall: Any light at the end of the audit tunnel?

What looks rock-solid on the printed page isn’t necessary so once the rock is lifted by an auditor. But so far, City Hall has done precious little rock lifting, and the resolution of the first of 13 promised departmental audits drags on.

Inside City Hall: Give $550,000 in racetrack funds to parties yet to be identified? No problem!

Today the Board of Estimates authorized the spending of $1.65 million in Pimlico Racetrack Impact Funds, with fully $550,000 going to sub-recipients “to be determined” and another $100,000 for “contingencies.”

Inside City Hall: Mayor wins kudos from Vanity Fair for her sartorial style

“Municipal government doesn’t often go hand in hand with glamour,” notes the celebrity magazine, which goes on to name Stephanie Rawlings-Blake the best-dressed female mayor in the U.S. The evolution of a fashion plate.

Inside City Hall: Facelift for an ugly duckling

Home to about 1,200 employees, the Benton Building has been a poster child of the city’s poorly maintained infrastructure. Built atop a parking garage and beset by rodent infestation, the building now needs major repairs to its leaking limestone walls.

Inside City Hall: Young and Pratt go along with new round of sewer consultant contracts

Two critics of the city’s use of consultants turn around and approve more such contracts at yesterday’s Board of Estimates meeting. Comptroller Pratt explains her vote, while President Young ducks the question.

Inside City Hall: Vegas, here we come

Like the barn swallow migrating each spring from South America to Canada, the annual pilgrimage of city officials to the Las Vegas Convention Center will commence next week. City Hall will become a quieter place as the mayor and three Council members fly west to an international real estate bash.

Inside City Hall: A mayor who literally spends her political capital

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s political committee has picked up $535,000 in campaign cash since her 2011 election, but has spent nearly 2/3s of it. Where’d it go? Find out as The Brew’s series, “Money and Politics in Baltimore,” continues.

Inside City Hall: Council members raised more than $300,000 in 2013

Here is the inside scoop on the groups and individuals that contributed to the Baltimore City Council last year. Two observations from the $304,831 raised – little of the money came from constituents and most of the money flowed to three harborfront districts.

Inside City Hall: What was missing from Taxpayers’ Night?

Taxpayers, it turned out. Just one person showed up last night to testify before the mayor and Board of Estimates at “Taxpayers’ Night,” a yearly ritual that has gone from insignificance to irrelevance.

Inside City Hall: A time to travel

City staffers will be heading off for Colorado, Texas, Minnesota, Alaska and elsewhere as the season of national conferences and multi-day seminars strikes City Hall. The Board of Estimates has been busy approving the travel requests.

Inside City Hall: Cole brings home the bucks

One of the junior members of the City Council (he’s only in his second term), William H. “Bill” Cole IV has amassed a political war chest that outstrips his Council colleagues. Helping him along the fundraising road have been developers and Democratic Party insiders.

Inside City Hall: Another accounting “black hole” revealed in unpublicized study

Every year, Baltimore City gets about 250 federal, state and special grants totaling more than $280 million. But the city consistently spends more than that amount, leading to a “grants deficit” that may require a taxpayer bailout. A special Brew report.

Inside City Hall: The Grand Prix may be over, but the bills keep coming

So you thought the Baltimore Grand Prix was history. It is, but there are still bills for Baltimore taxpayers to pay, such as an item tucked away on page 55 of tomorrow’s agenda before the Board of Estimates. UPDATED.

Inside City Hall: Will a bankruptcy in Canada take the spin out of Baltimore’s bikeshare?

Bixi’s the name and supplying high-tech rental bikes to cities is its game. The company’s bankruptcy this week has cast Baltimore’s efforts to join the bikeshare club with Bixi software and “smart” bikes into uncertainty.

Best of 2013: Inside City Hall

Parting the curtains means applying elbow grease and donning comfortable shoes – reading through budget reports and contract documents, but also taking our eyeballs out to neighborhoods to watch politicians and public policy at work.

Inside City Hall: Lessons from the speed camera mess

The speed camera program is a case study of misplaced faith in high-tech solutions for government operations. If the city can’t get 72 speed cameras to work, what’s going to happen when it tries to install 400,000 “smart” water meters?

Inside City Hall: How little errors add up to unanticipated costs

What was billed in 2011 as a technical accounting glitch that could be cleared up in a matter of months has morphed into problems that have hiked the bills of outside accountants – and have so far cost taxpayers $1.9 million.

Inside City Hall: Why police don’t walk the beat and other riddles

Ever wondered what happened to foot patrols in your neighborhood? Or why officers rarely get out of their cars – and often only begrudgingly crack open their side windows to speak to the public? It’s because the public demands too much of them!

Inside City Hall: Are you ready for “smart” garbage cans?

The city wants to test out garbage cans, equipped with radio frequency chips or bar codes, that can be dumped automatically into garbage trucks. The idea is not only to protect the cans from thieves, but to monitor individual garbage usage and eradicate the Baltimore tradition of tossing plastic bags full of trash into the alley.

Inside City Hall: A rare rebuke to MWBOO and a small victory for taxpayers

The Brew has written about the practice of the minority participation office to so strictly interpret “the rules” that low bidders are bypassed for minor paperwork infractions. We called on the Board of Estimates to do something about it. This week they did.

Inside City Hall: The joys of unexpected surplus revenues

First, brace yourself for a fiscal crisis that will take all the furniture out of City Hall. Then relax, knowing there are many cushions that the administration uses to find “unexpected” sources of revenue. Here’s the latest – the roadside billboard.

Inside City Hall: The art of streamlining staff by adding to it

Are some departments “growing” a bureaucracy in the name of the mayor’s plan for fiscal austerity? New hires tell a story about the trend toward high-paying administrative jobs.

Inside City Hall: How taxpayers pay higher prices on “competitive” bids

Routinely, low bidders who make minor paperwork errors get knocked out of a contract by an obscure city agency. The result – taxpayers shell out millions in extra costs to the 2nd or 3rd lowest bidder. Will the mayor make a simple fix needed to stop this waste?

Inside City Hall: $269M in sewer contracts approved over protests

A Detroit sewer company linked to corrupt schemes involving former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was awarded a contract by the Board of Estimates this week. And there were missing initials on another contract awarded by the panel.

Inside City Hall: First slug of Exelon merger money coming to city

It’s a name you’re likely to hate – Coordinating Resources to Effectively Align and Transform Energy Services, or CREATES – but it’s about to fill the city’s coffers with $53 million in energy-assistance funds from Exelon for low-income residents.

Inside City Hall: Politicians’ night out

Tonight’s the night politicians visit communities they otherwise never go to and vow solidarity in the fight against crime, which Baltimore has been suffering quite a lot from in recent months. Here’s some of the places you might see them.

Inside City Hall: The Grand What?

Sidelined in the pits while the promoter of Harbor Point gets all the love (and big-time city subsidies)? Consider the case of J.P. Grant, the man who rescued the Baltimore Grand Prix last year, and the politics of a race that’s no longer the apple of City Hall’s eye.

Inside City Hall: Totally confused about why your water bill keeps rising?

Inside City Hall: Did Lisa Harris Jones stall the polystyrene cup ban?

Until today, it seemed the City Council might actually give preliminary approval to a ban on polystyrene cups and containers. A majority on the Council liked it. When it was suddenly sent back to committee, the spotlight turned to a famously plugged-in lobbyist who represents the chemical industry.

Inside City Hall: A top lobbyist and the deferral of a $20M contract

A Hanover-based telecommunications company was on the fast track to a juicy staffing contract with Baltimore City today when top lobbyist Lisa Harris Jones, back from her Las Vegas wedding, slowed its roll before the Board of Estimates. The inside scoop.

Inside City Hall: Heading for Vegas in the name of economic development

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas? Baltimore’s mayor, city council president and 9 other officials are in the city of bright lights this week, rubbing shoulders with developers, some of whom have much at stake back in Baltimore.

Inside City Hall: Bikeshare program inches forward

With the appearance of $880,000 in state money, Baltimore City is ready to jump on the bikeshare bandwagon. This is a program that’s been long talked about – and delayed – so it might be wise not to hold your breath just yet.

$27 million sought for consultants – and maybe more

Problem: The city’s Water Bureau wants the flexibility to pay more to consultants than permitted under three contracts. Solution: Request a waiver to remove the maximum money allowable (aka, the “upset limit”) under the contracts.

Speed cameras, not supposed to cost a dime, will now require $2.2 million

Last November, the city said all infrastructure costs of its speed camera system would be borne by its new operator, Brekford. Today all that changed.

Inside City Hall: About paper clips, traffic cones and escalating costs

The City Hall practice of extending existing contracts for years, without new competitive bids, came under criticism this week at the Board of Estimates. Here is how it works, and the arguments pro and con.

Inside City Hall: Mayor’s new budget is big, but will be painful to some

We drill through the 2014 Baltimore budget to find out what’s most newsworthy – it’s a big spender. The mayor wants to funnel more for police, sewers and schools by saving on employee pension and health care costs. All and all, it’s a budget that modernizes (but doesn’t change) City Hall’s practices and priorities.

Inside City Hall: How unhealthy are city workers? Plus, where’s the mayor?

The Brew looks into the figures that undergird the assertion that the municipal workforce has many sick members and wonders why the mayor’s office was so secretive about her trip this week to a New Orleans seminar.

Inside City Hall: Stokes defends unlimited Ticketmaster fees

Exempting Ticketmaster from Baltimore’s anti-scalping laws – the effect of a bill moving through the City Council – got a Bronx cheer in City Hall yesterday. We listened to a testy exchange in which the idea was blasted and defended.

Inside City Hall: How an EWO grew by 4,285%

Remember the sinkhole that closed two lanes of the JFX last spring for two months? After spending $2 million to fix the problem, the city agreed today to pay $200,000 more through an EWO (extra work order) that greatly exceeds the original cost overrun.

Lack of audits “neither here nor there,” mayor says

Inside City Hall: $100K for new official to direct mayor’s financial plan

Mayor Rawlings-Blake says she will reduce city jobs by at least 10% over the next decade. One job that presumably won’t be cut – a $100,000 post, created today by the Board of Estimates, to direct and protect the mayor’s ambitious financial plan.

Opinion: Without audits, the mayor’s fiscal reforms are mostly window dressing

Mayor Rawlings-Blake’s promise yesterday to implement major fiscal reforms in Baltimore government begs the question that nobody knows what the city’s real finances are. A former director of Recreation and Parks argues that auditing is essential to measure the city’s health and future.

Sharpening the teeth of Baltimore’s watchdog

The departure of David McClintock exposes some of the OIG’s institutional shortcomings – and ways to make the next IG more independent.

More arrivals and departures at Hotel Rawlings-Blake

Wearing Baltimore politics on his back

2013 will mark the 60-year span of Currans on the Council.

Inside City Hall: Rapprochement

Inside City Hall: Trying once again to create a civil rights historic panel

It sounded nice, this idea of establishing a civil rights historic commission, until a member of the public gave a history lesson on a past historic commission created by the City Council. The new panel will be different, a Councilman vows, though how it will be funded is up in the air.

Inside City Hall: Monumental EWOs for Monumental Paving

EWOs (City Hall parlance for “extra work orders”) are alive and well and used regularly by the Bureau of Water to deal with the raft of water main and storm drain breakages around the city. Here’s the story of EWOs that inflated one contract by 850%.

Inside City Hall: What a federal audit tells us about city spending

Baltimore has been faulted in an audit by HUD’s Inspector General for not properly accounting for $9.5 million in federal homeless funds. But is anyone listening? Despite all the recent hoopla about the importance of auditing, City Hall is acting like this report does not exist.

Inside City Hall: BOE extends contracts at troubled agency

The Board of Estimates yesterday awarded $2.66 million in extended management fees to two companies that run the city’s parking garages. Why? Because the Parking Authority failed to put together new agreements. This isn’t the first time that competitive bidding has been thwarted by poor management.

Inside City Hall: Funds for communities used to sweeten casino package

Excluding Caesars Entertainment from the side deals that characterize other upscale developments would appear to be downright un-Baltimore. Not to worry. The operator of Harrah’s will be getting a city sweetener – not through a PILOT or TIF tax break, but through the diversion of $6 million in community impact grants.

Inside City Hall: Squabbling over transparency

Inside City Hall: Auditing the costs of “CAFRgate”

Getting to the bottom of the city’s faulty Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFR) hasn’t been cheap. In fact, restating two year’s worth of the statements has cost enough to reactivate a closed fire company – or keep six rec centers open. A Brew exclusive.

Inside City Hall: Council breaks bread with casino execs

Inside City Hall: More experiments with privatization at Poe House

The plan announced today to transfer the Edgar Allan Poe House from city management to a private group, with an assist by the B&O Railroad Museum, is a replay of the city’s privatization of rec centers. The Rawlings-Blake administration is gung-ho on this business model.

Inside City Hall: Seven lessons to take away from “phonegate”

Confused about the tangled dispute a few months ago between City Comptroller Pratt and Mayor Rawlings-Blake over VOIP or “smart” phones? The Inspector General’s report sheds light on the history and personalities of this failed project, which so far has cost taxpayers at least $674,000.

Inside City Hall: Behind closed doors, BDC hammers out deals

Going to a “public” meeting of the Baltimore Development Corp. is a strange experience. First you are in the meeting room, perhaps nibbling on a donut, then you’re asked to leave, as the board votes to exempt itself from the Maryland Open Meetings Act and work in private. Here’s a rundown of today’s meeting.

Inside City Hall: An inconvenient truth about Superblock

Superblock, the mayor’s cherished Westside development project, doesn’t have private financing lined up and will need a fifth extension come December 31. That means the city will enter a seventh year without breaking ground. There were other fascinating tidbits and personalities at yesterday’s hearing.

Inside City Hall: Water bill errors spill over to cause more auditing woes

Baltimore’s tangled water billing is causing a fresh drain on taxpayer money as the city pays an outside auditor to reconcile the accounts. But disclosing the issue wasn’t something the Board of Estimates wanted to make clear and transparent at its meeting this week.

Inside City Hall: Denial of demolition permit has silver lining for Mechanic owner

Here’s a case where the denial of a permit could be a blessing for an ambitious developer and a deft move by a preservation commission trying to keep out of the mayor’s cross hairs. The politics of replacing the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre with residential towers and scads of retail.

Inside City Hall: What’s behind today’s showdown at preservation panel

CHAP, the city’s historic preservation commission, has scheduled a meeting to determine the fate of the panel’s director, Kathleen Kotarba, who refused to resign or retire at the request of the Rawlings-Blake administration. The inside story of mounting mayoral and developer pressure on the commission.

Inside City Hall: To “learn and teach” at OC

City Council bats aside Pratt’s objections and passes audits bill

A much-debated (and oft-amended) measure to require regular audits of city agencies went to third and final reader tonight – and passed the City Council in a New York minute. With the chamber ignoring amendments sought by Comptroller Joan Pratt, the bill now goes to the mayor for signature.

Inside City Hall: Mayor heads South

Inside City Hall: EWOs lurking in the depths

Inside City Hall: Cutting through the audits bill static

Inside City Hall: Round 2, Pratt vs. SRB

Inside City Hall: Parking garage operators get no-bid extensions

Inside City Hall: The gloves come off

Comptroller Joan Pratt strikes back. In a press conference today, she brandishes documents showing that the city spent $659,000 on a high-tech phone program that she said violated city bidding rules. New charge: Mayor Rawlings-Blake tried to buy her silence by promising two new staff positions.

Once sour, the mayor’s now sweet on more regular audits

Inside City Hall: Priming the pump

Inside City Hall: Not so great expectations

Is 30% a passing grade? A review of the 2013 Baltimore budget shows that the targets of many city agencies are exceedingly low. The Department of Public Works hopes that 30% of citizens will rate the city as clean, while its goal for citizen satisfaction for rat control? A whopping 25%.

Inside City Hall: Viva Las Vegas!

The mayor’s office usually keeps the media apprised of her daily schedule. But we learned that Rawlings-Blake is in Las Vegas this week via a tweet tonight from the Downtown Partnership’s Kirby Fowler. Turns out the mayor’s at the big annual shopping center convention there. Not that there’s anything wrong with the City of Lights!

Inside City Hall: J.P. Grant comes out of the shadows

With the selection of his company, Race On LLP, as the organizer of the Grant Prix, J.P. Grant has become an object of interest for the media. He’s Mayor Rawlings-Blake’s biggest campaign contributor, and now his business relationship with the mayor’s brother is coming under scrutiny.

Inside City Hall: O’Malley appointee replaces O’Malley sibling as chief of staff

Inside City Hall: Yea to dog park, nay to rec center

Inside City Hall: Three weeks

Inside City Hall: Armed guards at city pools nixed for now

Inside City Hall: Fixing up the Benton Building gets pricey

It looks rather bleak on the outside, but inside the Benton Building has gotten a face lift to accommodate more office space for the city Department of Transportation. And the cost for DOT’s improved digs has also headed upward. We have the details.

Hiring one group of consultants to oversee others

How many consultants does it take to change a light bulb? Let’s hire one to answer that question! Besides approving more consultants for the bureau of water, the Board of Estimates divvied up funds to study the Inner Harbor Promenade, oversee road improvements at Harbor East and seed a squishy landfill nicknamed “Mt. Baltimore.”

Inside City Hall: Whoops and hollers for civil servantry

Inside City Hall: Opening round of the long budget season

Inside City Hall: Peter O’Malley bails as chief of staff

More staff turnover in the mayor’s office.

Inside City Hall: A smorgasbord of spending

Inside City Hall: BOE approves quickly a lot of spending

Inside City Hall: An EWO that returns money to the city

Inside City Hall: Knee deep in sewer consulting

Inside City Hall: Gallagher to return as senior advisor

$1.7 million for manhole consultants

Inside City Hall: BDC hit for “lack of transparency”

Inside City Hall: “Queen of Compliance” retires

Inside City Hall: A banner day for new cars and computers

City agencies will be able to stock up on 2012 model cars and small trucks – plus lots of computers – under a maximum of $22.6 million worth of expenditures authorized by the Board of Estimates. Be on the look out for one of those 50K Chevy Silverados with extended cab and hybrid powertrain!

Inside City Hall: Low bidder rejected for minority infraction

You can get lost in the maze of rules about WBEs and MBEs set up by Baltimore’s minority participation office. Sometimes rules are applied scrupulously and other times they are largely ignored. Yesterday they were strictly applied and a politically connected contractor got a $6 million sewer award.

Inside City Hall: $6.3M for consultants, $667K for accounting error

At its final meeting of the year, the Baltimore Board of Estimates yesterday approved, in a collective voice vote, more than 40 contracts. We went through the most salient contracts to provide you details of where the money is going – and compare the cost of an accounting error to the city’s rec center budget.

Inside City Hall: T-shirt purchases roll past the $800,000 mark

Wow, that’s a lot of T-shirts. Baltimore city agencies are so fond of them, in fact, that the Board of Estimates today approved more money to pay for such garments. Ironically, the biggest user of T-shirts is the very agency whose programs are being threatened because of budget shortfalls – the Department of Recreation and Parks.

Inside City Hall: Expanded Beans and Bread backed by BOE

Board approves $5.6 million for consultants

Inside City Hall: $290,000 meted out for police and helicopter cases

Inside City Hall: Baltimore’s fountain cleaners allowed to clean up their act

Oh, that fickle Board of Estimates. The city spending panel recently tossed out two bids based on a very strict reading of minority inclusion rules. Then today they did the opposite, awarding a contract to clean city-owned fountains that was “non-compliant.” Plus one of the subconbtractors is “not in good standing” with the state.

Inside City Hall: Spending before the Board of Estimates

Inside City Hall: Spending before the Board of Estimates

Inside City Hall: Spending before the Board of Estimates

Inside City Hall: Spending before the Board of Estimates

Inside City Hall: Spending before the Board of Estimates