Morris answered no to both, Alonso said.
Alonso also said he hired Morris based on personal history and is not certain that what little he knows about his financial history is important.
"This is a person who has been in public service for almost a decade, who has been in many positions of responsibility," Alonso said. "My experience of his work has led to nothing but admiration."
School system officials say they awarded Morris the newly created, unadvertised position this week based on his tenure with the school board, which he chaired the past four years.
Appointed when Gov. Martin O'Malley was Baltimore mayor, Morris also served as director of minority business development for the city. He is founder and CEO of a real estate firm involved in several prominent city developments and intends to retain that position during his employment with the city.
Morris points to two recent developments his company helped build - the Zenith apartment complex on Pratt Street and 414 Water St. - as successes. Court records suggest, though, that his recent enterprises have been hardly more lucrative than his unpaid service to the school board.
Two weeks ago, in sworn testimony related to one of his bad-debt cases, Morris said he is living with a cousin in West Baltimore and that his only assets are a 14-year-old pickup truck and $27 in cash, according to two attorneys who took his testimony.
Yesterday, he said he lives in North Baltimore with his wife, but he did not otherwise dispute his dire straits.
Asked if he currently has any income, Morris said: "I'm not going to respond to that one."
"He painted such a dismal economic picture that I thought, 'I'm going to back off. These are hard times,'" said Joel Richmond, attorney for an insurance broker to whom Morris owes thousands of dollars, who had to see a picture of Morris to believe he was the same person in the news for his school-system job.
"Obviously, his appointment to this new position was newsworthy to us," said attorney Bruce Covahey, who represents a Belvedere Hotel condo owner who won a $3,245 judgment against Morris last year for unpaid rent.
Antonio Powell and Towanda Brown also took note of Morris' new job. In 2008 they rented his house - or what they thought was his house - for $1,350 a month and an agreement that they would pay the water bills.
