The Baltimore Sun barely covered this story last week. It deserves further research.
Jack Young’s sister is a city 311 operator. Young called for a hearing on a plan to combine the city’s 311 and 911 call centers. You can read resolution 10-0186R by clicking here and scrolling down to the resolutions section. Young is the lead sponsor of the resolution (his name is listed first). The city ethics code clearly states:
“Except as otherwise provided in this Part II, a public servant may not participate in and must disqualify himself or herself from any matter if: (2) to the public servant’s knowledge, a disqualifying relative has an interest in the matter”
Young was also the lead sponsor on resolution10-0183R. The resolution states:
“Informational Hearing – Municipal Labor Relations Law – Unrepresented Employees.
FOR the purpose of requesting the Labor Commissioner to explain the process and rationale for excluding certain personnel from representation under the Municipal Labor Relations Law.”
If Jack Young becomes City Council President, then he will also become President of the Board of Estimates. Think about that for a minute. Now think about how former City Council President Sheila Dixon tried to use her position on the Board of Estimates to help out her sister. The more things change the more things stay the same?
Filed in: Uncategorized.
Tags: Baltimore, Jack Young, Sheila Dixon
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Did you hear the one about Jack Young, his sister, and ethics violations? Hilarious!
Regardless of the merger of the 311 and 911 centers, Mr Young should have realized the possible appearance of impropriety. Perhaps little would have changed, perhaps money would be saved. It doesn’t matter. This guy should have put his ego aside and recused himself simply due to the appearance of impropriety. Dude just wanted his name to appear first on a proposal? Man, when will these egotistical politicians learn?
If there is any question concerning Jack Young and his ethics, I would have thought he would have had at least one Member of the City Council to vote against him. Then again these are the same people that stood with Dixon. Just more of the same for the citizens of Baltimore.
How she benefits is easy to figure out. With the merger, you won’t need as many employees. Guess which one won’t be laid off……
Am I missing something? How does Young’s sister stand to benefit at all from merging 311 and 911? If anything, such a merger might result in fewer operators and could actually hurt his sister.
This really seems to be a non-story.
While the 311 issue with Jack Young and his sister may not be a big deal itself, Young has moved along as part of what appears to be a systemically corrupt political system when a city council memeber rises to greater power. That’s what Judge Sweeney was talking about at Mayor Dixon’s sentencing hearing last Thursday.
The judge noted that despite Mayor Dixon’s criminal convictions and the outrage of the city solicitor issuing a shameful opinion that effectively made the law department part of Dixon’s defense team and no Baltimore leader, not aspiring council president Young nor anynone else expressed a single word of condemnation of the Mayor’s actions or a word of protest that the city’s legal department is shilling in defense of criminal actions.
Jack Young and the whole sorry group of them failed to step up and demonstate the moral, pro-active leadership that must emerge in Baltimore City if it is to rise above our embedded culture of corruption.
Adam,
while I admire your…. enthusiasm here, look at the big picture. Combining the 311 and 911 call centers will save a tremendous amount of money for the city, quite frankly I don’t even know why the two centers are exclusive in the first place. While the ethics code might apply and he may be obliged to disqualify himself from the process, it’s still a pretty solid idea.
Furthermore, wow what a glamorous position Young’s sister holds as a 311 operator! I bet he had to pull some major strings for that one! And honestly if the two centers merge and her job remains the same, how does that really benefit her at all?