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In the early months of the Brandon Scott administration, the question of whether Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby should have received Board approval for travel to Europe, Africa and the United Kingdom concerned her top aides and others.
Mosby, who is married to incoming City Council President Nick Mosby, insisted that Inspector Isabelle Mercedes Cummings’ report that she should have disclosed her trip to the spending board was false.
Mosby wrote on Twitter, “I.G. It bothers me that he criticizes me in public. . . and implemented an ambiguous governing law related to travel reimbursement.
After Comptroller Bill Henry asked for clarification, the city’s legal counsel, Jim Shea, concluded that the travel ordinance in the city’s AM (Administrative Manual) was incorrect, not making it clear that Mosby had violated it.
The new travel policy will fix the advanced notification issue once and for all, Scott said in 2021.
So at the mayor’s request, Shea and City Manager Christopher Shorter convened a travel guide task force. After three months of research, the panel came up with new procedures designed to “verify”. [that] “All government officials will receive clear and consistent guidance once and for all regarding travel and notification policy,” Scott announced in a press release on May 19, 2021.
Any trip by city employees costing more than $800 (or $100 if paid by a third party) requires key change that must be pre-specified and approved by the board of estimates.
Overseas travel and travel covering one or more weekends requires advanced approval by the Board.
Shea praised the new rules as “consistent with Mayor Scott’s promise to bring transparency and accountability to city government.”
May 19, 2021 Press release announcing the new travel rules. (https://mayor.baltimorecity.gov)
Boring performance
But the vote to approve the new policy did not go smoothly.
Nick Mosby twice asked the board to delay action on the changes. Then, at a stormy meeting on June 9, 2021, he abstained, pointing out that the rules would only apply to the 17 elected officials at City Hall.
such as The brew Then notice:
“Missing from the lineup is his wife’s position. Was Nick Mosby implying that the state’s attorney is free? Neither the mayor nor his attorney, Shea, disputed Mosby’s statement. Later, Scott said the new policy would cover 18 select positions, including the state’s attorney, and would take effect immediately.
After the vote, Marilyn Mosby acknowledged the new travel policy.
The revised regulations were approved on the day by Scott, Shea and Deputy DPW Director Matthew Garrick. After Henry failed to introduce the measure, he voted no.
After the vote, Marilyn Mosby acknowledged the new travel policy. “As I always disclose my work-related travel, I support the board’s decision to require city elected officials to do the same,” she said in a statement.
• New travel rules are approved as Marilyn Mosby raises the Board of Estimates meeting (6/9/21)
What are the travel rules?
Against this backdrop, consider what happened at the BOE yesterday:
Chief of Staff Nick Mosby’s request for $9,000 in additional travel expenses was presented to the board two weeks after his assistant attended a one-week course at Oxford University in Oxford, England.
Shea and Shorter (the latter on behalf of Mayor Scott) voted with DPW Director Jason Mitchell to approve the travel request.
Comptroller Henry abstained, saying he would not vote for “expenditure from an elected official’s budget.”
Mosby has not released any statements. Instead, it was announced early in the meeting that Mosby would stay away from the agenda page containing the travel request.
Thus, Anderson’s $9,144.77 trip to England was approved yesterday.
And neither Shea, Shorter nor the absent Mayor Scott have explained why they chose to abandon the “clear and consistent” new policy they pushed a year ago.
Traveling to Oxford on the Taxpayer’s Dime: Nick Mosby’s Chief of Staff Lawrence Rashad Anderson. (@Political Innovation)
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