Three days after state regulators ruled that a confidential memo shedding light on a deal between Mayor Brandon Scott and Baltimore’s dominant utility provider should be public, the company released an unredacted version of the document.
Baltimore Gas and Electric has clashed in recent weeks with a state watchdog, the Maryland Office of People’s Counsel, over the public’s access to this internal accounting memo. In filings before the Maryland Public Service Commission and in statements to the media, BGE maintained that the memo — which details plans to finance the conduit deal it struck with the Scott administration in February — should remain classified, accessible only to parties in its ongoing rate case. People’s Counsel David S. Lapp, who represents BGE customers in the rate case, objected, arguing in October and November filings that the document should be released to the public.
The watchdog office got its wish with the Public Service Commission’s ruling Monday that gave BGE 10 days to suggest redactions before the public could access the document.
BGE said Thursday that, “in the name of transparency and good faith,” it was expediting the release of the document, choosing not to ask for redactions. The only blacked-out lines of the memo protect the names of its author and recipient.
The story continues at The Baltimore Banner: A once-confidential memo helps explain BGE’s conduit deal. Here’s what it says.
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