The Sun reported in 1991 that the city agreed to allow developers of the Waterloo Place apartment complex in Mount Vernon to defer paying real estate taxes for 12 years in return for several items, including a $50,000 contribution to the foundation to help pay for improvements to Mount Vernon Place.
Nilson said Shirley Williams, chief of the Minority and Women's Business Opportunity Office in the Law Department, handled negotiations with American Infrastructure.
Williams said she might have picked up the idea of routing the contribution through the foundation for YouthWorks from the Web site of the Mayor's Office of Employment Development. The head of that office, Karen Sitnick, is a member of the City Foundation's board of directors. Mark Compton, American Infrastructure's director of government affairs, said he offered to make the contribution to YouthWorks in discussions with the city's Minority and Women's Business Opportunity Office. "They never asked for a dime in any part of the process," Compton said.
He said he knew of the summer jobs program for youths and that "it made the most sense to do it through a foundation."
"Quite frankly, there were tax advantages to us," said Compton, who said he believes the firm would not receive a charitable deduction by giving the money to the city for YouthWorks. The firm, however, could be eligible for a tax deduction for a business expense, said Stephen J. Kelin, an expert in nonprofit tax law based in Bethesda.
When the city awarded the company a $12.9 million contract in 2007, the company agreed that minority-owned firms would get 28 percent of the work and women-owned companies 8 percent.Compton acknowledged that the firm fell short of the goals because the scope of the landfill construction project grew.
Also on Wednesday, Dixon lashed out at The Baltimore Sun, questioning the timing of the investigative report that raised questions about spending related to the mayor. Dixon is to be tried Nov. 9 on theft charges involving allegations that she spent gift cards intended for needy families.
The paper has "been working on the article for months and months" Dixon said. "So I thought the timing had a lot to do with, as I see, in many ways, particularly the Sunpapers and others, trying to pull out anything to try to discredit my character. Period. I'm not going to comment any more on that."
Sun Editor J. Montgomery Cook said, "The focus of our investigation was the Baltimore City Foundation, not the mayor's office. Our story speaks for itself."
Dana Peterson Moore, an attorney and head of the city ethics board, said she is scheduling a meeting next month to consider Monday's request from Councilman William H. Cole IV for an examination into whether city employees have violated ethics statutes by soliciting money for the City Foundation without receiving approval.
