Check out the following Bmorenews.com video. The first part is downright scary at times and the final few minutes are filled with racial conspiracy theories. Personally I think it would be great if Joan Pratt leaves office! Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is not going anywhere. She will be the favorite in 2011. She is part of team O’Malley and they will fight hard for her.
Daren Muhammad is not the only person who thinks like this.
Last week Fox 45 reported that Comptroller Joan Pratt has a $33,000 a year driver. Make sure you watch the story here. The Sheriff, Mayor, and State’s Attorney also have drivers! I thought we were trying to be a green city. I thought we were in a budget crunch. This kind of waste is insulting to the tax payer and sheds light on the fact that there is an incredible amount of money wasted in city government. We are told to worry about new taxes when in fact we should be trying to figure out ways to eliminate wastes of money like drivers for public officials. What does it say about Baltimore when the woman who is supposed to be overseeing our finances is involved in such financial wastefulness? Someone needs to run against her in 2011.
The Mayor presented the grim financial news to the general public this week. To show some compassion she announced that she would not be accepting her few thousand dollar raise. The Council President and Comptroller will also decline their raises. This is a great first step by our leaders. I support this move because it also puts pressure on all the members of city council to decline their raises. The next logical step would be to tell every single city worker that they will not be receiving raises this year. If they do not like it then they can find a job in the private sector. I hear jobs are real easy to come by these days. If our leaders really want to save money and balance the city budget then they should make every city worker take a 5% pay cut. The unions would fight this of course. They would rather services be cut or taxes be raised so that they can keep their overpaid do-nothing jobs.
The Mayor and City Council President declined their raises because it is a politically wise move. In reality they are making out like bandits compared to what they were paid only a year ago. It was very easy for them to decline their raises based on what they are used to making in a year. I wrote about the Mayor’s true $51k raise in a previous entry. Please read it to see where I am coming from in regards to my stance on this issue. Council President Young is also making close to $50k more than he did last year at this time. It also appears he still has another job with the state of Maryland! He is still listed as an employee of the Maryland Department of Human Resources.
Joan Pratt is a name to keep an eye on. Although she has done little as Comptroller since 1995, her name is known and she is definitely part of the Bethel AME political machine/establishment that Dixon is part of. Her name has been mentioned as a candidate for Mayor in the past and with fellow Bethel AME’er Dixon out of the way she could run and get the full support of the church.
A lot of people talk about how the four highest elected positions in Baltimore are held by women. Since 1995 Joan Pratt has served in one of those positions as comptroller of Baltimore. The comptroller oversees city audits and real estate transactions. Since she has been elected four times to this position one would assume that the Baltimore bureaucracy has become more financially efficient and accountable since 1995. Of course this is Baltimore and once you become an incumbent you are basically guaranteed victory because people “know your name” so it does not matter if you really do your job or not. Since Pratt has served in a citywide position for many years her name came up as a possible candidate for mayor in 2007. But why? What has she done? She is a member of Bethel AME church and in Baltimore that is just as good as actually doing your job. She used to have a profile on the Bethel AME site.
Pratt does not even have to run against other candidates anymore. In 2007 she ran unopposed. For some reason others are unwilling to even try and run against her. Here is an interesting City Paper article about her from 2007.
The Bethel AME Joan Pratt profile has a tidbit that caught my eye in it:
“Comptroller Pratt’s further responsibilities include serving as chairman of the Employees’ Retirement System, City of Baltimore, Maryland, the Elected Officials’ Retirement System, and Trustee of the Fire and Police Employees’ Retirement System, whose pensions are collectively valued at more than $1.3 billion.”
That quote made me think back to this disturbing article from 2007: City faces $2.9 billion gap in retiree health benefits.
In these times of economic uncertainty we really need Comptroller Joan Pratt to step up and challenge the way things work economically in Baltimore. Her high position gives her the power and the legitimacy to question government spending, taxes, and just about every budgetary aspect of Baltimore. I do not see any type of proactive directives coming from the office of the comptroller, it is rare to hear anything from her.
It is interesting to note that the accounting firm of Joan Pratt & Associates is still very much a legitimately functioning business. One wonders how the comptroller of a major city has time to be associated with a private business while the city is in the state it is in. Although it is not legally wrong to have other business interests while you hold an elected position, I feel it is a slap in the faces of the citizens of Baltimore to not fully commit oneself to such an important job as comptroller.
The video of my walk up Eutaw street has caused quite a stir amongst some people so I decided to to take it to the next level and walk down a more controversial street. Many Fridays ago I walked down Druid Hill Avenue starting at North Avenue on my way to my interview with the Baltimore Rapport. My walk took me through Druid Heights, Marble Hill, and the McCulloh Homes housing project. I also walked by Bethel AME church where Sheila Dixon Joan Pratt belong. I saw many politically related subjects on my walk and I commented on them in my classic way. Most people in the Baltimore area have never even driven on this major street. The amount of empty houses and trash would shock a person not from Baltimore. Enjoy:
Keep sending suggestions of where I should walk and film next.
Adam is the most recognizable face of the recent resurgence in Reservoir Hill. He has appeared on many national and local radio shows, in several news publications, and at numerous events discussing his innovative urban redevelopment ideas and his unique lifestyle. Adam is a successful entrepreneur, community activist, and a local political guru who ran for city council in 2007. He is the founder and director of the TechBalt.com Buy a Block Project and BaltimoreHourly.com. His fearless local political commentary has rocked the local blog scene for most of this decade and he plans to take it to the next level in the next decade here on Charm City Current.
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