"Why would I go to a city agency and sit down with the commissioner and say, ... 'I want you to explain in detail why you are doing this?' That's ridiculous," he said.
That view is inconsistent not only with how city-linked nonprofit groups nationwide function, but with their legal responsibilities, Borochoff said.
The board members "are abdicating their responsibility" if they neglect to hold the spending reins, he said. If money is being misspent, he added, "it would be the responsibility of the directors of the foundation."
Harry D. Shapiro, a partner at the Saul Ewing law firm in Baltimore and the attorney who established the foundation at the request of Mayor William Donald Schaefer in 1981, agreed.
"How those funds are spent becomes a responsibility of the foundation and its board to make sure that those funds were spent for tax-exempt purposes, rather than for something else," he said.
Martin P. Welch, a city Circuit Court judge who has been a member of the Baltimore City Foundation board of directors for two decades, said any potential problems with the foundation cited by The Sun are outweighed by "innumerable examples where it has allowed government and nonprofits to do some important things."
"Whether it's $1,000 for a Pee Wee football team to travel to some championship or lacrosse helmets for inner-city kids - and there have been a lot of bigger projects, too - people have benefited from the existence of the foundation," Welch said.
Inaugural 'Wonderland'
On Dec. 4, 2007, the day Sheila Dixon was sworn in as mayor, a $20,000 contribution from Whiting-Turner was deposited in a Baltimore City Foundation account for recreation programs citywide.
Before the check arrived, the account balance totaled $1,774, and nothing had been spent for at least 17 months, according to foundation records.
That quickly changed.
Within hours of Whiting-Turner's contribution, city officials began drawing from the account to pay bills for the Dixon inauguration's "Winter Wonderland" festivities at War Memorial Plaza: $6,170 to lease a temporary ice rink, $2,444 to build a base for the rink, $2,800 for entertainment and $425 for an ice sculpture of a reindeer. Another $2,600 from the fund went to the Baltimore-based King Detective Agency for security and $1,000 more to a band that performed for a separate City Employees Day inaugural event.
