City Officials

Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. is past due on nearly $5.5 million in payments owed to the city for use of a conduit system that carries power and telecommunications lines, according to city officials. The late payments are causing "cash flow" issues for city government and could delay the start of capital projects, said Jamie Kendrick, deputy director for administration in the city's Transportation Department, which manages the conduit system. Kendrick said the city will either try to negotiate a payment plan with the company or refer the matter to Solicitor George Nilson for possible litigation.

Mayor Craig Moe and members of the City Council will attend a special service Sunday, Oct. 7, at 11 a.m., at Oaklands Presbyterian Church, 14301 Laurel Bowie Road, for World Communion Sunday and to celebrate the church's annexation into the city of Laurel. After the service, there will be a dedication of the Heart Labyrinth behind the church, which will be for congregational and community use and enjoyment.

Baltimore elected officials said Friday they were outraged by an inspector general's report that found the Mayor's Office of Information Technology and a former deputy mayor withheld information from and misled city officials about a controversial project to install nearly $675,000 in phone and computer equipment. "I am extremely concerned if it happens to be the case that the administration is engaged in misleading top city officials," said Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke. "If it proves to be the case, I will say that I am deeply concerned about this approach to government and to life.

More than half of the 1,900 city officials and employees required to complete ethics and financial disclosure forms fill out the forms incorrectly or not at all. Those are the findings of a report written by a mayoral fellow this year who reviewed the forms - the first time in at least eight years the forms have gotten a comprehensive examination. "The form was often submitted incomplete, with errors or missing schedules," wrote Olesya K. Vernyi, a city intern whom the ethics board asked to audit the forms.

Baltimore schools opened the year with 87 teacher vacancies, a trend that is not uncommon in the region but comes during a critical year for the system as it embarks on a new student curriculum and teacher evaluation system. City officials said they are tapping substitutes and other school staff, such as department heads or instructional support teachers, to lead classroom instruction. Electives in student schedules are also being shifted. In rare cases, they said, classes are being combined.

Baltimore residents might never know how much money the city's second Grand Prix race generated or how it affected local hotels, restaurants and other businesses. A spokesman for Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Tuesday that the city would not commission an economic impact study of this year's Labor Day weekend event, as it did last year for the inaugural racing festival. City and racing officials also said they might not publicly reveal the number of spectators; last year 160,000 people attended over the three days.

A federal appeals court has granted a new hearing in a case challenging whether Baltimore can require faith-based pregnancy counseling centers to post signs saying they don't offer abortion or birth control advice and services. The decision filed Wednesday allows a rehearing before the full 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., voiding a decision made in June by a panel of three judges from the same court. The panel had voted 2-1 to uphold a lower court's opinion that the ordinance to require signs was unconstitutional, violating the free-speech rights of the pregnancy centers.

On Sunday, The Sun revealed that a dozen area businesses, nonprofits and federal government organizations owe the city of Baltimore more than $10.5 million on water bills that are past due by at least six months. In some cases, the businesses haven't made any payments on their accounts in years. It was the latest in a series of articles that Sun colleague Julie Scharper and I have written since February about Baltimore's problems issuing and collecting bills associated with its aging water system.  We've reported on the city refunding $4.2 million to customers after an audit found widespread problems with water bills; and uncovered voluminous problems of our own , including a $100,000 overbilling of Cockeysville Middle School and a Randallstown woman who's been receiving her neighbor's bills for seven years -- both of which were fixed after our inquires.

Even after Jean Thomas lost her job and her husband, Sherman, became ill, she said she never missed paying the rent on the West Baltimore house the couple shares with their daughter and four young grandchildren. Yet after seven years in the rent-subsidized, four-bedroom rowhouse on North Fremont Avenue, the family is bracing to be evicted Tuesday morning. "I won't have a choice but to leave," said Jean Thomas, adding that her family has nowhere to go. "It's hard to find a place if you don't have a job. " Thomas blames the situation on the actions of her two adult sons.

A frequent critic of Baltimore's contract bidding process filed a lawsuit Wednesday contending that Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and other members of the Board of Estimates have acted "discriminatorily and outright corruptly" by awarding contracts to large firms without considering minority contractors. The 185-page civil lawsuit brought by Arnold Jolivet, managing director of the Maryland Minority Contractors Association Inc., seeks damages for what it calls "flagrantly unlawful, willful and unconscionable conduct" by city officials.