Comptroller

On July 30, The Sun published an op-ed by Mary Alice Ernish, founder of the grassroots non-profit Audit Baltimore, which contained a series of questions about the city's auditing practices. This week, Comptroller Joan Pratt, who oversees the city's auditors, provided responses. • Why have some city agencies not been audited in over three decades? The city's financial statements, which are prepared by the Department of Finance, include all of the expenses and revenues of all city agencies.

Less than three months after the Maryland General Assembly met in a special session to raise the state income tax on many middle-class families, there is a growing likelihood that lawmakers will soon descend on Annapolis again. This latest special session would pave the way for the construction of a new casino inPrince George's County and, in all likelihood, result in a much lower tax rate for Maryland's private casino operators. With all due respect to Gov.Martin O'Malleyand Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller - the principal architects of this proposal - I believe this represents the wrong approach to our state's fiscal challenges and sends the wrong message to the working people of our state.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blakeand her allies on the city's Board of Estimates today voted down a $7.4 million contract with IBM for switching city offices to voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) phones because she believes there needs to be greater coordination between the Municipal Telephone Exchange, which is part of Comptroller Joan Pratt's office, and the Mayor's Office of Information Technology. And who could argue that isn't needed? Switching the phone system could save the city millions of dollars a year, but doing so without the significant participation of the workers who maintain Baltimore's computer network could lead to costly mistakes.

Comptroller Joan Pratt's concerns about MayorStephanie Rawlings-Blake's handling of the purchase of a new IT phone system for local government highlight the questionable make-up of the Baltimore spending panel known as the Board of Estimates ("Nilson says city phone purchases were legal," June 23). The Baltimore City Charter establishes that the primary fiscal board of the city be composed of all three citywide elected officials, along with the director of public works and the city solicitor.

Baltimore Comptroller Joan M. Pratt and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake continued to spar Monday over the purchase of phone-related equipment by the mayor's technology office, purchases Pratt says violate city procurement regulations. Pratt, who has released records documenting the purchase of hundreds of thousands of dollars of phone equipment, said she disagreed with City Solicitor George Nilson's recent written opinion that the transaction was appropriate. "Mr Nilson can describe this purchase in any way that he wishes, but the fact remains that there was no basis for the Mayor's Office of Information Technology to procure a telephone system outside the charter-mandated process," Pratt said Monday after a meeting of the city's spending board.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake came under fire on two fronts Monday as the City Council sliced $6 million from her proposed budget and the city comptroller renewed allegations that the mayor's staff improperly purchased more than $650,000 in phone equipment. Council members, following a plan devised by Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young, cut $6.1 million from the mayor's $2.3 billion operating budget — and asked Rawlings-Blake to divert the savings to prevent recreation centers from closing and to boost after-school and summer jobs programs.

If a public official accuses the mayor of wrongdoing, does it matter whether the allegations are made in a public meeting? In journalism, the answer is yes. Baltimore Comptroller Joan Pratt made a sensational allegation this week. She claimed the mayor's office illegally spent $659,000 on a private deal that included high-tech video phones for City Hall offices. Repeatedly, she asserted the purchase was illegal and blamed MayorStephanie Rawlings-Blakeand former IT director Rico Singleton.

Baltimore's inspector general said Thursday he has launched a preliminary investigation into high-tech video phones the mayor's office bought for some City Hall offices — a purchase that prompted allegations of contracting irregularities and outcry about such spending in a time of tight budgets. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's office has defended the purchase of several dozen phones at a cost of $20,800, including six desktop phones for the mayor, City Council president and other top officials that boast touch screens and the capability for video conferencing.

NOTE: To read an update to this story with a more complete response from the mayor's office, click here . Baltimore Comptroller Joan M. Pratt on Wednesday accused Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and her former Information Technology Director Rico Singleton of cutting an illegal $659,000 side deal to install high-tech video phones and related equipment in City Hall offices.  "Under the mayor's direction, Mr. Rico Singleton, who...

When it was announced that yet another group would be taking on management of the Baltimore Grand Prix, one of the company's funders stepped into the spotlight. Columbia-based financier J.P. Grant III has stayed out of the public eye since the storm of a no-bid city schools contract blew over in 2000. But all the while, his company Grant Capital Management was accumulating city contracts. In 2003, the city granted his company a "master lease," an agreement that speeds up the contracting process, but also made it more difficult for The Sun to track.