Corruption Watch
An investigation found a vehicle auctioneer owed Baltimore $480k. The city couldn’t revoke the license.
Read moreCorruption Watch
from the Baltimore Sun
A two-year Baltimore City school system investigation has found that administrators at one city high school schemed to inflate enrollment, pressured teachers to change grades and scheduled students into classes that didn’t exist.
The report is a devastating account of how the former principal of Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts, Tracy Hicks, and three other administrators fabricated courses and approved students for graduation when they had failed to legitimately pass classes. While the report does not determine a motive, principals are evaluated on graduation and attendance rates.
Corruption Watch
From the Baltimore Brew
Last week’s meeting of Baltimore’s Inspector General Advisory Board was ominous. It confirmed my worst fears about the ulterior motives of several board members.
Any actions taken by the board over the next few months to weaken the Office of Inspector General (OIG) would have a profoundly negative impact on the future of the city.
Residents and others interested in the well-being of Baltimore must make themselves heard before it is too late.
It is not hyperbole to describe the effort to undercut the OIG’s independence through intrusive “oversight” by a highly political board as a watershed moment.
• Hearing dominated by board’s concern about whether IG investigations could threaten them or their allies (8/26/21)
City agencies are failing under the combined weight of incompetence, waste and corruption – and city services are deteriorating accordingly.
Watching and listening to last Wednesday’s board meeting, however, the casual observer would have concluded that the most serious problem facing Baltimore is the possibility that an investigation by the IG might embarrass a city politician or one of his or her cronies.
Read more
