City Solicitor

Missed chances on flipping scamsIn his letter, "City not silent partner in real estate `flipping' " (Aug. 21), city Housing Commissioner Daniel P. Henson III misstates the city's record in combating flipping scams and draws conclusions that are plainly wrong.Efforts to alert city and state officials began 18 months before Mr. Henson's recent letter.On Feb. 22, 1998, I sent a letter to City Councilman Bernard C. Young describing the scam, accompanied by a detailed chart of 80 transactions involving a single speculator.

Baltimore Mayor-elect Martin O'Malley announced his first Cabinet picks yesterday, selecting his city solicitor and finance director, but will likely be inaugurated Tuesday without having filled several key posts.O'Malley chose Thurman Zollicoffer, a white-collar criminal defense lawyer, as the city's top attorney. O'Malley selected Peggy J. Watson, a former deputy director in the city Finance Department, as his finance director.Zollicoffer, 37, a lifelong Baltimore resident, worked with O'Malley as a state prosecutor and is a partner in the law firm of Whiteford, Taylor & Preston.

Baltimore's law office is under fire for a proposal to hire the former chief lawyer for the police department, despite criticism that his office unfairly targeted black officers for discipline.City Solicitor Otho Thompson asked the Board of Estimates Wednesday to approve a one-year contract with Gary C. May, whom the law office wants to hire as the chief solicitor who would be assigned to the litigation division."We have a need for experienced lawyers," Thompson told city officials before the estimates board's public meeting.

A Baltimore police sergeant will return to work now that a court has ruled that department officials erred when they accused him of perjury and fired him.The city's mayor and police commissioner said yesterday that the city will not appeal Monday's Circuit Court ruling ordering the reinstatement of Sgt. Louis H. Hopson Jr., who was discharged last year.It was unclear exactly when Hopson will return, or in what capacity. The 48-year-old, who has said he was targeted because he crusaded against racism in the department, is barred from having a weapon because of a domestic violence conviction dating to the 1980s.

Baltimore City Councilman Bernard C. "Jack" Young left a public hearing last night disappointed for two reasons.First, his bill to prohibit the use of city money to buy reference books that contain racial slurs drew opposition from the city solicitor, the school board and the city's Office of Community Relations.Second, only one person showed up to talk about it -- and she opposed it.Young's bill would prohibit using city money to purchase reference books and materials for schools and libraries that contain any words "commonly understood to be racial epithets or racial slurs."

Heeding the city Law Department's request for help in specialized legal matters, Baltimore's top officials voted yesterday to hire three outside firms at a cost of more than $500,000, including a $100,000 retainer to former City Solicitor Neal M. Janey and another attorney.The Board of Estimates -- a five-member panel that includes the mayor, council president and comptroller -- approved the expenditures with little public discussion.The cases include a dispute about overtime for police officers and a legal tussle over water rights at the Susquehanna River.

These days, lots of folks are miffed with City Hall, including City Hall.The source of this consternation is the new budget and the nasty impact it will have on the city.After weeks of hardball politics, Baltimore has a tax rate that results in the collection of more money than is needed to run the government, and the $4.5 million surplus will sit unused while arts and cultural programs and recreation centers will be cut.And now, the city Law Department is investigating whether the whole thing was legal.

Lawyer Alfred Kramer says he never thought moonlighting from his day job as assistant city solicitor in Baltimore would get him in so much hot water with his boss, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke.But after he sued Harford County on behalf of a man who didn't want to pay a development fee, Kramer says County Executive Eileen M. Rehrmann complained to Schmoke that the lawsuit was an embarrassment to her 1994 re-election campaign.In 1995, Kramer lost his $55,000-a-year job, after 15 years with the city.

Heeding the city Law Department's request for help in specialized legal matters, Baltimore's top officials voted yesterday to hire three outside firms at a cost of more than $500,000, including a $100,000 retainer to former City Solicitor Neal M. Janey and another attorney.The Board of Estimates -- a five-member panel that includes the mayor, council president and comptroller -- approved the expenditures with little public discussion.The cases include a dispute about overtime for police officers and a legal tussle over water rights at the Susquehanna River.

Baltimore Comptroller Joan M. Pratt, under fire for hiring her campaign manager and friend to head the city's real estate department, must make public his professional background, the city solicitor ruled yesterday.Despite repeated requests by news organizations over the past three weeks, Ms. Pratt has not provided any details on the professional experience of Julius Henson, whom she appointed last month to oversee Baltimore's $3.2 billion real estate portfolio.The city's top lawyer, Neal M. Janey, advised her yesterday to release Mr. Henson's resume and a summary of his background based on his application for the $79,900 job. Mr. Janey was responding to requests under Maryland public information laws by The Sun, the Afro-American and WJZ-TV.

Baltimore's powerful spending panel voted Wednesday to reject all bids for two huge public works contracts, overruling objections from a roomful of lawyers and CEOs, some of whom argued that the decision favored a local firm and sullied the city's reputation. Baltimore-based Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. bid $39 million on one water facilities contract and $115 million on another. But problems arose with both bids: The firm included Doracon Contracting as a minority subcontractor on both projects, even though Doracon owes $787,156 in back state taxes.

The embattled head of Baltimore's inspector general's office resigned Monday, days after city officials publicly criticized his department and the City Council slashed its funding. Hilton L. Green, 62, submitted his retirement papers and informed his staff of his departure, according to the city solicitor's office. Mayor Sheila Dixon appointed Green, a city housing inspector, to the $127,300-a-year post in February 2007. City officials said they will conduct a national search for a new inspector general, a watchdog position intended to root out fraud, waste and abuse in city government.

The Baltimore mayor's chief of staff and two other government officials sued an Ocean City Domino's pizza and related businesses for $30 million after employees at the beachfront pizzeria refused to serve them and allegedly imprisoned them in the restaurant for five to 10 minutes about 1:30 a.m. Aug. 15. The owner of the Ocean City restaurant, John S. Basil, said service was refused because the three were "uncooperative," "belligerent" and "intoxicated," and...

State Prosecutor Robert A. Rohrbaugh defended Thursday the indictment he brought against Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon and asserted in court papers that a jury needs to decide if Dixon falsified ethics forms and stole gift cards intended for needy Baltimore families. In a 37-page filing that responds to the mayor's request to dismiss the charges, Rohrbaugh takes issue with what he called a "self-serving" affidavit filed by the Dixon-appointed city solicitor in support of her defense. He also argues that Dixon's interpretation of the city ethics code would render that law useless, and says it is proper to charge her with both stealing gift cards and receiving them as gifts - noting that a person can be accused of both robbing a bank and receiving the proceeds of the robbery.

Ambrose Thomas "Andy" Hartman, former longtime deputy city solicitor for Baltimore City and a decorated World War II veteran, died Tuesday of pulmonary fibrosis at National Health Care, a Mauldin, S.C., assisted-living facility. The former Homeland resident was 83. Born and raised in Middle River, the son of a carpenter and bus driver, Mr. Hartman was a 1943 graduate of Towson Catholic High School. He served in the Army for 2 1/2 years during World War II with the 29th Division's 175th Infantry and landed at Normandy on June 7, 1944.

Timing is everything. And now is not the time for Baltimore officials to enact a law that would allow for the payment of legal fees for city employees cleared of criminal charges. The reason is this: Mayor Sheila Dixon and Councilwoman Helen L. Holt have been indicted on criminal charges as a result of a political corruption investigation. Such new legislation or any change in the city's practice would be self-serving and not in the public's interest. After ducking reporters for two days, Mayor Sheila Dixon had something to say about research city Solicitor George A. Nilson was conducting on this very issue: "I have not seen the extent of Mr. Nilson's findings nor do I believe that a new policy is necessary."

Indicted Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon told her law department yesterday to halt work on a policy that could have set terms for taxpayers to reimburse for her legal fees. "The mayor has asked that the establishment of the new policy not go forward," said City Solicitor George Nilson. "So it won't." After declining to comment on the matter for two days, Dixon's office released a statement yesterday afternoon quoting the mayor as saying: "The City Solicitor conducted research on compensation for legal defense expenses.

Mayor Sheila Dixon shoved a television reporter's microphone yesterday while declining questions about whether taxpayers should foot her legal bills, and several City Council members expressed surprise that her administration would draft a new reimbursement policy while the mayor is under indictment. "I think this is the wrong issue at the wrong time for Baltimore City," said Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke, who represents North Baltimore. "We have been 200 years without a policy. We are in the middle of indictments.

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon's legal defense received a boost yesterday from the city Law Department, less than a week after her indictment on public corruption charges. A two-page letter from the department, headed by a Dixon appointee, said a list of companies doing business with the city fails to meet technical requirements laid out in city ethics laws. That conclusion is consistent with arguments last week by Dixon's attorney, who said charges that she accepted gifts from a city developer and failed to report them wouldn't stick, in part because the city did not keep a list of eligible companies as required.

Former Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin P. Clark and two of his deputies have filed a $20 million federal lawsuit against Gov. Martin O'Malley, former City Solicitor Ralph Tyler and four police officers, alleging that their firings nearly three years ago by then-Mayor O'Malley were racially driven. Clark was hired in 2003 from New York and fired 21 months into the job amid allegations that he had been involved in a domestic dispute with his fiancee in North Baltimore. O'Malley called the allegations - which were unsubstantiated - a distraction to the city's effort to fight crime.