Auditors take court to task
The foundation has also proved useful to the Baltimore City Circuit Court, a division of the state that receives much of its funding from the city budget.
Two years ago, however, state auditors stepped in after learning that $1.9 million in state funds given to the Baltimore City Circuit Court for a computerized audiovisual system had been rerouted to the foundation, where it accrued interest exclusively for the court's use.
When the first installment of the money arrived - $400,000 in 2005 - it was sent to a city budget account for the courts. At the court's direction, that money was returned to the state with a request.
Judge Marcella A. Holland, the Circuit Court's administrative judge, asked the Baltimore City Foundation to write the state and request that a new check be cut - this time made out to the foundation. The money would be deposited into an account the court had set up there three years earlier.
Baltimore City Circuit Court provided no details of its objectives when it sought permission to set up the account with the foundation in 2002. Documents said only that the account would be used to "engage in projects and improvements that would otherwise not be possible." The court has used the account to pay for judicial "retreat" meetings, out-of-state travel by court administrators and the salary of a summer intern to document and preserve the "arts collections housed in our courthouses."
In a letter asking the state to write a new check, the foundation's treasurer characterized the account as "a repository for grants and other monies received from the Circuit Court of Baltimore City outside of their operating budget." The funds "are given to [the court] for whatever project it deems appropriate," Broache wrote.
The state rewrote the check, this time directing it to the foundation. And in 2006, it sent the remaining $1.5 million to the Circuit Court's foundation account.
Had the funds stayed with the city, any interest accumulated would have been available for general city use, according to the state Administrative Office of the Courts.
In a recent interview, Holland said she could not recall why she arranged for the money to go to the foundation.
"I have no idea," she said.
Legislative auditors later discovered that as of December 2006, the court had made no payment for the audiovisual system and the money was still sitting in a foundation account. Meanwhile, the account had earned tens of thousands of dollars in interest.
