A few times a week, Lenwood M. Ivey leaves his small office on the ninth floor of the Equitable Building and strolls the two blocks to the city Finance Department to sign checks drawn up by a city clerk. As president of the Baltimore City Foundation, he puts his name behind several million dollars each year for programs that the city identifies as worthy.
The foundation - a private nonprofit formed in 1981 to raise money, primarily to benefit city programs for the underprivileged - helps pay for projects such as a summer jobs program for youths, funeral expenses for homicide victims and home smoke alarms for the needy. But city officials also have turned to it to pay for expenses such as an ice sculpture and skating rink for Mayor Sheila Dixon's inauguration and to skirt competitive bidding for design of a visitors center at Cylburn Arboretum.
A Baltimore Sun investigation, including a review of thousands of foundation documents issued since 2002, reveals the little-known organization as a source of money on demand with almost no oversight. City officials wield broad discretion over how the money is spent, and the foundation asks few questions.
The foundation's nine-member board chooses to handle only a tiny fraction of the spending each year, leaving the bulk of the decision-making to city employees. Though the foundation's treasury has grown from $3 million in 2001 to more than $7 million in 2008, even veteran City Council members say they were unaware of the organization's existence until contacted by The Sun.
Some of the funds go to projects having little or nothing to do with the foundation's tax-exempt purposes, a potential violation of Internal Revenue Service rules, legal and nonprofit experts say. Foundation accounts also serve as a repository through which money for city projects can accumulate and be spent without typical public scrutiny. It also appears that some donations credited as nonprofit contributions were spent for political purposes.
Among questionable transactions involving the foundation:
* The area's largest builder, Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., contributed $20,000 to the foundation in 2007, with the foundation earmarking the money for city recreation programs. But city officials spent the bulk of the money on Dixon's inaugural celebration, including expenditures for entertainment and the security services of a detective agency.
