Baltimore City's three top elected officials are clashing publicly over a deal that the Mayor Scott Administration negotiated with Baltimore Gas and Electric last month to manage the city’s elaborate underground conduit system, which houses electric and fiber optic cables for BGE and other companies.
The draft agreement was first reported in January by the Baltimore Brew. The City's Comptroller and City Council president are vehemently opposed to the deal.
On Wednesday, March 1, the Board of Estimates was scheduled to vote for the second time on the deal, but that vote has been delayed until April 5th.
The Board of Estimates voted to approve the deal on February 15. Baltimore City Comptroller Bill Henry and City Council President Nick Mosby skipped that meeting, believing their absence would leave the board without a quorum. But the remaining three members of the board, the Mayor and his two appointees, voted without the two opposing members. Henry and Mosby assert that, that vote is not valid because they did not participate. City Solicitor Ebony Thompson, one of the people voting for the measure, declared in a legal opinion that the vote was, in fact, valid.
The Mayor, the Council President and the Comptroller disagree about several aspects of this deal. Tom Hall spoke earlier this hour with the Mayor. Now, in separate conversations, he speaks first with City Comptroller Bill Henry, and then Council President Nick Mosby, both of whom oppose the Mayor's conduit agreement.
Both men join us on Zoom.
