City Officials

The breaking point for Steve Herlth came when he saw about 25 dirt bike riders swarm around him on West Baltimore's Hilton Parkway, popping wheelies, creating a racket and showing no regard for surrounding traffic. That surreal scene led Herlth to start a campaign urging residents in his Southwest Baltimore community to turn in the youths and adults who own the illegal cycles. But his yearlong work — and the efforts of authorities — has not stemmed a problem that bedevils Baltimore each summer and threatens to worsen when schools let out soon.

Two city water meter readers turned in phony numbers in at least two neighborhoods in recent months, the Department of Public Works acknowledged Tuesday, leading to more inaccurate billing by an agency that has been troubled by aging infrastructure and high error rates. As the Bureau of Water and Wastewater tries to correct the mistakes, residents who were undercharged are seeing a spike in their water charges - and officials say they must pay. The latest twist in the city's water billing problems, which have affected at least one in 10 local homeowners, did not go over well in the North Baltimore neighborhood of Homeland, where residents were already angry about the unusually high charges.

Baltimore saw fewer killings last year than any other in the past two decades, but data released this week show the city's homicide rate ranked the highest among the nation's cities with a population of more than 500,000. Despite recording its lowest number of killings in 20 years, Baltimore experienced 37 homicides per 100,000 residents last year, ahead of Detroit, which had 34 per 100,000 residents, according to data compiled by the FBI. While the District of Columbia was not included in FBI data, it appears to rank third, with about 31 killings per 100,000 residents.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blakesaid Wednesday that the city would not increase spending on the Baltimore Grand Prix to ensure the Labor Day weekend race comes to fruition. "I'm hopeful that with Indy's involvement that it will happen," Rawlings-Blake said of the three-day racing festival. City officials and Indycar executives have been trying for weeks to hash out a deal to continue the race.  Downforce Racing, the team city leaders picked to organize this year's race, is divided by internal strife and has not sold tickets or marketed the event.  City officials chose Downforce following the financial collapse of the group that put together the inaugural race last year.

Baltimore's homicide rate -- which had slowed earlier in the year after the record-setting pace of 1992 and 1993 -- has soared with 46 murders in the past 41 days, mostly from the drug-blighted neighborhoods of the Eastern District.For the year, city homicides continue to lag about 12 percent behind 1993, the city's most murderous year ever with 353 killings. That year marked Baltimore as the fifth-deadliest city in the country in terms of murders per capita.Police report 270 murders this year as of last night, compared with 301 at this point in 1993.

City officials are looking at the feasibility of establishing a community garden in Laurel, which could be available for planting in spring 2013. The effort, spearheaded by council member Frederick Smalls and supported by Mayor Craig Moe, is in response to Laurel residents who asked that a community garden be established, according to city officials. The Parks and Recreation Citizens Advisory Committee will review various requirements for a community garden, including where it could be located; the size of individual plots; and fees, rules and regulations for participants.

City officials are completing a five-year deal with a new group to manage the Baltimore Grand Prix and plan to announce the terms of the deal Wednesday, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's office said Friday. "We have worked hard to learn from past experiences to ensure that this new agreement is in the best interests of taxpayers and will bring a successful, world-class sporting event that Baltimore can be proud of for years to come," Rawlings-Blake said in a statement. The mayor's office did not say who would receive the contract to operate the three-day racing festival.

City officials are drafting a letter urging the U.S. secretary of commerce to adjust the 1990 census to make up for an estimated 36,000 Baltimoreans missed in the count.Adjustment would boost Baltimore's population to 772,000 and mean millions of dollars in extra federal and state aid to the financially strapped city over this decade, officials said.It would also give Baltimore claim to a little more political power in Annapolis than it might otherwise get when the legislature is redistricted this fall.

Mayor Sheila Dixon's chief of staff and a commissioner on the Baltimore liquor board have accused each other of assault after an argument this month on an Inner Harbor cruise ship. The commissioner, Elizabeth C. Smith, also accused Demaune A. Millard of punching her in April 2008, while they were dating. "I understand that there have been charges of domestic abuse filed," Dixon said in an e-mail statement. "I am deeply concerned about any accusations about domestic violence. Domestic abuse by any city employee will not be tolerated."

A Baltimore Circuit Court judge recently dismissed a lawsuit that had called for more than a dozen high-ranking city government officials to be removed from their jobs because they do not live or vote in the city. Judge Joseph H.H. Kaplan found no merit to a lawsuit brought by Frank M. Conaway, the Baltimore mayoral candidate and Circuit Court clerk. City Solicitor Ralph S. Tyler said Kaplan dismissed the lawsuit Friday and ordered Conaway to pay the city's court costs. "We said from the beginning that there was no merit," Tyler said.

Baltimore city fire officials are investigating the cause of a fire that started on the roof of a rowhouse in Pigtown Sunday afternoon. Fire officials responded to a call about a fire at 1169 Sargeant Street at 4:21 p.m., said Fire Captain Roman Clark. When officers arrived smoke was billowing from the roof and the occupants had evacuated. The fire had spread to the two neighboring homes as well, Clark said. The fire was extinguished quickly but extra time was needed for cleanup because more water than typical was used to extinguish the fire, Clark said.

Downforce Racing, the new operator of the Baltimore Grand Prix, missed three of the five benchmarks that it agreed to have complete by March 15 under its contract with the city, a spokesman for the mayor said. The race organizer and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's administration are still working out the terms of three agreements that were scheduled to be complete by Thursday, according to Ryan O'Doherty, a spokesman for the mayor. Technical information in the ticket escrow agreement, which will govern how the city collects its share of ticket proceeds, is being checked for accuracy, he said.

City officials are looking at the feasibility of establishing a community garden in Laurel, which could be available for planting in spring 2013. The effort, spearheaded by council member Frederick Smalls and supported by Mayor Craig Moe, is in response to Laurel residents who asked that a community garden be established, according to city officials. The Parks and Recreation Citizens Advisory Committee will review various requirements for a community garden, including where it could be located; the size of individual plots; and fees, rules and regulations for participants.

Disclosure of possible conflicts of interest is crucial to maintaining public trust in government and in ensuring that elected officials maintain the highest standards of conduct. But Baltimore has managed to render something so important a near total waste of time. Sun reporters Luke Broadwater and Julie Scharper found plenty of questionable actions by elected officials when they investigated how often Baltimore politicians avail themselves of free tickets to cultural and sporting events.

Luxury boxes at major sporting events. Sold-out concerts. Galas. Vegas shows. Baltimore's lawmakers often receive tickets for shows and other popular events from developers, business people, corporations and nonprofits as one of the perks of office. Over three years, elected officials in City Hall reported getting more than 170 tickets worth more than $15,000, according to the most recent filings available. City Hall has strengthened ethics laws after Mayor Sheila Dixon pleaded guilty to perjury charges two years ago and agreed to resign after failing to disclose gifts from a developer boyfriend.

City officials are completing a five-year deal with a new group to manage the Baltimore Grand Prix and plan to announce the terms of the deal Wednesday, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's office said Friday. "We have worked hard to learn from past experiences to ensure that this new agreement is in the best interests of taxpayers and will bring a successful, world-class sporting event that Baltimore can be proud of for years to come," Rawlings-Blake said in a statement. The mayor's office did not say who would receive the contract to operate the three-day racing festival.

The top Baltimore public works official says that the state should share the blame for the mix-up that led the city to start building a $7.7 million parking garage in a flood plain without the necessary permit.But a Maryland Department of Natural Resources official sharply rejected yesterday the allegation by city public works director George G. Balog that sloppy procedures by the state led city officials to believe that they had state approval to go ahead with construction of the parking garage, which is being built just north of the War Memorial building in a flood plain of the Jones Falls.

After months of contention between county and Annapolis leaders, the County Council this week offered a solution to Annapolis' landfill crisis that city officials say they can live with.In an Oct. 1 letter to Mayor Alfred Hopkins and the City Council, the seven County Council members proposed a privately financed recycling plant to be built on the landfill expansion site, along Route 450.The county would share the facility with Annapolis, and, in turn, the city's non-recyclable trash could be dumped, free of charge, at the county landfill in Millersville.

Two Baltimore-based contractors -- including a former race car driver-- have proposed taking over the Baltimore Grand Prix and repaying some of the debts accumulated by the race's former promoters. Sharon R. Grinnell, president of sGrinnell Enterprises LLC of Owings Mills, and Gregory K. O'Neill, vice president of BMW Construction Specialists of Curtis Bay, approached city officials early last month about organizing the city's Indycar race. The Baltimore Sun obtained a copy of the proposal that their group, Baltimore Motorsports Group, LLC, submitted to the city.

Baltimore officials have zeroed in on Indianapolis-based building contractor Dale Dillon to take over operations of the city's Grand Prix race; he is the only bidder with whom they are negotiating, according to sources close to the discussions. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's administration has been immersed in talks for weeks with Dillon, who hopes to team with Baltimore investors to organize the race this year. The administration, reeling from the financial collapse of the group that organized the inaugural race last year, has been seeking terms that would cushion the city from losses without imposing overly burdensome fees on the organizers, sources say. A Rawlings-Blake spokesman declined to comment on the negotiations.