Baltimore City councilmembers look to reduce the power of the Mayor

As outgoing Mayor Sheila Dixon is set to resign her position on February 4, following a 3-year criminal investigation that resulted in an Alford Plea and has displaced the first term Mayor, many council members have made it their duty to refine the Baltimore City rules and laws regarding such mayoral autonomy and power.

During the last full council meeting on January 25, six members of the Baltimore City Council signed on to the Mayor and City Council Resolution introduced by Belinda Conaway (10-044) that would reduce the number of members currently on the city’s Board of Estimates. This Charter Amendment, that if passed would then be sent to the public for their approval, would essentially take away the two members of the Board that are appointed by the Mayor-the City Solicitor and Director of the Department of Public Works-leaving only the (3) elected members of this Board; the Mayor, Council President and City Comptroller.

This process is strongly supported by legislative and community advocates due to the current process being seen as diluted and strongly in favor of a Mayor who walks into each meeting with a three vote majority for anything she chooses. As certain advocates and legislators have expressed to me that as the Maryland State Board of Public Works has three defined leaders-Governor, Comptroller and Treasurer-so should the city’s spending panel.

The Board of Estimates, a financial entity that meets each week (Wednesday) to discuss and approve any and all city expenditures exceeding $5,000.00, has for years been seen as the Mayor’s municipal monopoly. Yet as incoming Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake strongly opposes this bill, many question her sincere attempts to refine City government and make it a transparent process for the People.

Having introduced her own piece of legislation (10-0445) looking to reconstitute and change the composition and tenure of the current Public Ethics Board, Rawlings-Blake stands to walk a fine line as Mayor, defining her adminstration as being open and transparent yet autonomous of council colleagues and state governmental leaders.

However with the revelation in today’s Baltimore Sun that the current chair of the city public ethics board and short list nominee for City Solicitor, Dana Moore, has not filed her own financial disclosure forms since 2006, one must ask how effective and sincere is this attempt to revamp city government?

While we are certainly past the days of the Schaefer “Shadow Government”, in which spending was as shady as sitting under a willow tree on a hot blistering day, we are nowhere close to where we need to be. The primary reasoning behind this reduction of composition bill regarding the Board of Estimates being that of holding those we have elected accountable for spending, gives almost certain transparency and public confidence in how our officials are conducting city business.

The next council meeting, the last with Stephanie Rawlings-Blake presiding as Council President, shall be held this Monday February 1 at 5P. The next council meeting, in which the NEW President shall be elected will be held on Monday February 8 at 5P. The hearing on the Public Ethics legislation before the Judiciary and Legislative Investigations committee shall be held on Wednesday February 24 at 5P. All proceedings located on the fourth floor of City Hall.

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