Favoring Friends and Family Catches Up to Baltimore's Mayor
Two years after allegations made by the Baltimore <span>Sun</span>, two years after state
prosecutors began an investigation, a year and a half after being
appointed mayor (after being city council president), and six months
after being elected mayor, Baltimore's Sheila Dixon's alleged favoring of friends and family has been brought
before a grand jury, according to <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-te.ci.dixon25…; target="”_blank”">an
article in today's <span>Sun</span></a>. <br>
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All sorts of information is coming out, much of it originating from the
disclosure that Ms. Dixon had a two-year personal relationship with a
major Baltimore developer, who did a great deal of business with the
city, some of which Ms. Dixon voted on while president of the Board of
Estimates. Also, 57 limited liability companies with supposed ties to
the developer, Ronald Lipscomb (this list came out of the state
investigation), gave tens of thousands of dollars in campaign
contributions to Ms. Dixon, and he spent a lot personally on her, which
was not reported.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/463">Click here to read the rest of this blog entry.</a>
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There are also allegations that gift cards solicited for needy families
were given to city employees.<br>
<br>
Dixon has admitted to the relationship and to receipt of gifts from
Lipscomb. But, according to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/25/us/25baltimore.html" target="”_blank”">an
article in the New York Times</a>, Lipscomb's attorney is already
defending Lipscomb's actions: "if you're exchanging gifts with someone
you're dating, that's quite a different thing from saying you're
bribing someone." Yes, but at this point, this is about disclosure, not
bribery, and Dixon did not follow the requirements of the ethics law,
which doesn't distinguish between the two different kinds of
relationship. <br>
<br>
The attorney also gave the standard statement, that his client "never
in his entire career asked a public official to do anything for him or
any of his businesses." Even the developer of the Garden of Eden
asked a favor of the number one guy.<br>
<br>
One thing that might come out of this scandal is some changes to
Maryland's campaign finance laws. Lipscomb is supposed to have given
hundreds of thousands of dollars to Maryland politicians, making great
use of the corporate loophole to contribution limit laws. This might
bring an end to allowing contributions from corporations at all.<br>
<br>
The Sun has a great <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-councilprobe,…; target="”_blank”">history
of Dixon's ethical problems</a> over the last few years. Here's a
summary:<br>
<br>
<div>In 2003, she hired her sister in the
city council's office. The Board of Ethics forced Dixon to fire her
sister.<br>
<br>
In 2006, she allegedly used an investigative hearing to press a city
contractor on why it was not awarding more work to a company that
employed her sister, and voted on a contract to this company. She also
did not disclose her sister's involvement with the company until the <span>Sun</span> wrote about it. A year later,
the Board of Ethics found no cause, partly due to "the sensitive nature
of the matter" and, coincidentally, the decision came down days before
she became mayor. Once she became mayor, she would be able to appoint
several Board of Ethics members, yet another good argument for
independently selected ethics board members. I wrote <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/212" target="”_blank”">a blog entry</a> about this
in early 2007.<br>
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Also in 2006, accusations were made of steering hundreds of thousands
of dollars of computer work to a former campaign manager, who often
worked without a contract (this is what led to the state investigation).<br>
</div>
<br>
You can see clearly how things proceeded from nepotism, to voting for a
lover's city work, to contracting shenanigans for friends and family. Dixon
appears to be ready to fight and not ready to admit to anything. So now
another big city's government will be more about ethical scandal than
about getting things done.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
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