Summer Reading: Baltimore Edition

As August Recess unfolds, pictures abound of lawmakers curled up on beach chairs or exploring new locales. It’s exceedingly rare, though, for members of Congress to pay a visit to “Charm City” (aka Baltimore) during their summer break.  That’s too bad because from the Inner Harbor to Fells Point to Oriole Park, the city has more than its fair share of local food and fun locales. Sadly, though, Baltimore has fallen on hard times and is too often held captive to corrupt and inept leadership. While the American system of federalism wisely prevents federal lawmakers from intervening too closely in city affairs, Baltimore’s sorry situation should serve as a wake-up call on out-of-control subsidies flowing to an unaccountable city government. It’s going to take more than Hairspray to untangle some of Charm City’s thorniest issues.

While cities often grapple with corruption, Baltimore is in a league of its own. Baltimore Magazine senior editor Ron Cassie notes, “According to a new University of Illinois at Chicago study of just federal public corruption convictions by judicial district, Baltimore has become the second most corrupt jurisdiction in the country—with a staggering 352 guilty pleas or verdicts over the past decade. In many of the most notorious jurisdictions, corruption convictions had actually fallen in recent decades. As it is in so many metrics, Baltimore is an outlier.”

Every few years or so brings another high-profile case of a public official abusing their position. In 2019, former city mayor Catherine Pugh had her day of reckoning when officials unearthed an illegal scheme where the mayor would reward purchasers of her Healthy Holly books with political favors. As Cassie points out, “the irony of the Catherine Pugh Healthy Holly saga is that her biggest selling point to many voters was that she was cast as the experienced and honest alternative to Dixon. In fact, it’s plausible her illegal fundraising scheme altered the outcome of an election that Sheila Dixon appeared poised to win.” In the twisted world of Baltimore city politics, it’s like “Groundhog Day” meets “All the President’s Men.”

And if all this hoopla wasn’t enough for Charm City residents, Baltimore is dealing with the trials and tribulations of city State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby. In January 2022, Mosby was indicted on federal charges of perjury and the filing of false loan applications related to the purchase of two Florida vacation properties. Even before her activities (fully) attracted federal attention, Mosby earned the reputation of living lavishly on the taxpayer’s dime. In 2021, Baltimore City Inspector General (IG) Isabel Cumming wrote a report detailing pricey unapproved travel by the prosecutor.

The investigation found that, “between 2018 and 2019, SA Mosby traveled out-of-town in her official capacity to attend 24 events and was physically absent from Baltimore City for 85 days. Those trips took SA Mosby around the United States, and on three different occasions, around the world…The OIG found discrepancies between the travel reported on SA Mosby’s State financial disclosure forms, the travel list she provided to the OIG, and the OIG’s independent verification of costs.” Mosby pushed back on these and other watchdog reports and even tried to get the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to silence her media critics. These efforts were unsuccessful and Mosby now faces an uphill battle to get her federal charges dismissed. Fortunately, though, Mosby will not continue her problematic tenure as city State’s Attorney. On July 22, Mosby lost the Democratic primary for state’s attorney to defense attorney Ivan Bates.

Mosby’s downfall was a culmination of a persistent watchdog and a tenacious federal investigative effort. But, in Baltimore, no good watchdog work (deed) goes unpunished. Despite IG Cumming’s successful crusade for accountability and identification of more than $7 million in wasteful city spending for fiscal year 2021, Baltimore officials have been actively trying to rein her in through the IG Advisory Board.  As Baltimore Brew contributor Fern Shen explains, “[u]nder its current structure, the seven-member IG Advisory Board is dominated by members who either are – or represent – elected officials that may be subject to investigations. The board now consists of one designee of the mayor, two designees of the City Council president, one designee of the comptroller, and the deans of the University of Maryland and University of Baltimore schools of law.” In other words, the prisoners are running the asylum. But, this may all change soon.  Baltimore City Councilwoman Odette Ramos proposed a charter amendment that would drastically change the makeup of the Advisory Board so that citizens, not political cronies, would have seats on the Board. In July, the City Council approved (and Mayor Brandon Scott signed) Ramos’ charter amendment legislation. Baltimore City voters will decide whether to green-light the proposal in November.

As these battles for accountability shape up, federal lawmakers find themselves in a bind. On the one hand, Congress is confined to tackling national issues and not taking sides in city-level policy fights. At the same time, though, Washington, D.C. has sent a significant sum of money to Baltimore (especially over the past couple of years). Baltimore received more than $600 million worth of federal aid from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), but has thus far only spent a small proportion of those dollars. It’s certainly not encouraging that less than 10 percent of committed dollars went toward fighting COVID-19 and addressing healthcare issues.

Baltimore’s lack of priorities, coupled with the city’s consistent corruption, should make Congress think twice before sending the city more dollars without adequate safeguards. Lawmakers can avoid micromanaging dollars while conditioning aid on basic conditions such as having an independent IG and specificizing broad and allowable spending categories. Maybe then, Baltimore voters and policymakers will have a better understanding of the stakes involved in spending large sums of taxpayer dollars.

Ultimately, Baltimore has a lot to offer its residents and the country as a whole. The best way to honor the city’s incredible legacy and achievements is to make sure that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and public officials are held to account. Additionally, outstanding public servants such as IG Cumming should be given their due and adequate resources to keep the city corruption-free. Spraying on a healthy helping of transparency and accountability will finally straighten the city out.