Nick Mosby’s assistant’s overseas trip broke the Board of Trustees rules – but was approved anyway

Nick Mosby’s chief of staff, who traveled 3,700 miles to Oxford, England earlier this month to attend a $1,359-a-day “Chief Executive Officer” course, was today awarded nearly board full travel reimbursement.

Adjutant Lawrence Rusd Anderson went abroad for a week (September 3 to September 9) without board permission, but the reward came back in excess of $9,000.

Baltimore Administrative Manual “Board of Estimates must be. Approving travel requests Before the day The Planned Journey” (AM-240-3)

A similar rule would require board approval for any trip that “requires travel outside the lower 48 states of the United States” and any trip that “includes one or more weekends” (Anderson missed two weekends).

The city employee “is expected to submit the expense report at least 20 calendar days or more before the date of the trip,” the rules state. Air travel and conference registration expenses” See the full text of “BOE Approval of Employee Travel” below.

Mosby, the BOE president and city council president, was not asked by fellow board members why the assistant’s travel permit was delayed.

Anderson and Mosby did not respond to requests for comment. The brew.

• Nick Mosby’s assistant on the trip to England until the approval of the Board of Estimate (9/20/22)

At the start of today’s meeting, it was announced that Mosby would abstain from voting on an item related to his assistant’s $9,144.70 travel request.

Comptroller Bill Henry also abstained, leaving it up to City Manager Christopher Shorter, DPW Director Jason Mitchell and City Solicitor James Shea to approve the spending authorization.

Mayor Scott is absent

Although listed on the public calendar this morning, Mayor Scott did not attend the BOE, with Shorter representing him.

Spokeswoman Monica Lewis released this statement when asked why the mayor was not at the meeting. The brew:

“As the mayor of a big city, it’s not unusual to change a planned event. Mayor Scott is fine and there are no emergencies that require his attention. According to the approved charter, if the mayor is unable to attend, the city manager will take his place, which happened this morning.

Following his attendance at the meeting, he was cleared from Scott’s calendar.

Mosby’s budget for the current fiscal year is 8.5% higher than last year, and a full 66% higher than when he was elected City Council President in November 2020.

Comptroller Henry released a statement about his abstention, saying he would not vote on how another elected official decides to use his office’s money.

“What I have left out of this item is the expenditure from the elected authority’s budget which is approved as part of the annual assessment process. As I explained publicly in 2021 when amendments to the travel provisions of the executive order were issued, elected officials are directly accountable to voters for the use of taxpayer funds.

The House President’s budget for fiscal year 2010 is $4,093,025. That’s 8.5 percent of last year’s $3.77 million budget and 66 percent more than the entire office’s budget when Mosby is elected in November 2020.

Most of the increase came from creating new positions in Mosby’s office to “provide fiscal analysis and administrative support,” according to the budget office.

The budget allocated to the members of the council has increased by about 16 percent during the fiscal year.

Anderson was paid $142,500 per year by Mosby in 2020. His salary is now $148,198, according to the budget office.

There is no official disclosure of authorized travel expenses for elected officials and their staff.