The Baltimore City Council laid into salaries and staffing at a hearing for the city administrator’s office during the first day of 2024 budget debate.
City Administrator Faith Leach is tasked with being the chief operating officer to Mayor Brandon Scott’s chief executive officer — she oversees most of Baltimore’s resident-facing agencies, from the Department of Public Works to the housing department.
The council spent most of the three-hour hearing asking Leach high-level administration questions reflective of her office’s oversight, from the mayor’s plans for shelters for unhoused Baltimoreans to delays in a planned network of cycling and pedestrian trails.
The office by the numbers
The proposal for the budget year beginning July 1 calls for $17.1 million of taxpayer dollars to fund 103 positions within the mayor’s office, which contains the city administrator’s office. Scott’s 2024 budget proposal totals $4.4 billion.
Councilman Eric Costello, who is leading this week’s budget blitz as the chair of the Ways and Means Committee, compared the proposal to the fiscal year 2021′s budget, which used $11.4 million to fund 76 positions, before Baltimore installed the city administrator’s office.
“We are consistently being asked to support increased salaries,” he said. “What are we, as a city, getting in return for that?”
Leach, who earns just under $200,000 a year, was prepared with an extensive pitch for why Baltimore should have a city administrator’s office, noting that nearly every county in the state and more than 80% of the largest 25 cities in the U.S. have similar positions.
She touted PayStat, a program that has reduced the value of overdue invoices by 72% and the number of late invoices by 53% since September 2022, to a “city services sprint.” Since April, the city has paved 5 miles of road, fixed 12,000 potholes and removed 844 graffiti markings.
She said her office is currently building a performance management system to hold agencies accountable for specific goals and metrics.
“My focus remains on how our government serves our citizens, how we measure our service delivery and how we build and maintain a workforce capable of delivering on our promises,” Leach said.
Other council members pointed to the discrepancy in pay for aides in the mayor’s office and aides in the council.
Councilman Zeke Cohen said in Montgomery County chiefs of staff for council members earn between $100,000 to $140,000. Cohen’s chief of staff Maggie Master makes $71,000, despite 15 years of leadership experience in the private sector, he said. Council members earn about $75,000.
“It’s very frustrating to see salary increases of $50,000 at a time, which have become commonplace during this administration, when we struggle to pay the people that work for us,” Costello said.
Montgomery County has nearly twice the population of Baltimore. Its 11-member council has seven members who represent districts and four at-large members who represent the entire county.
Tame exchanges as the rest of budget week looms
The hearing stood in juxtaposition from the last time Leach made headlines in council chambers, after the council initially voted to reject her as Scott’s nominee for city administrator and eventually confirmed her after fierce lobbying from senior aides to the mayor.
The members who first turned Leach down called her a consummate professional but said they struggled to understand the role of her office, especially after its inaugural officeholder Chris Shorter left the position after less than two years.
Council members sang a different tune on Tuesday. Behind the podium, Costello praised Leach’s office for the “plethora of discussions over the past month leading up to budget hearings.”
“I really appreciate your willingness to sit down,” he told Leach. “I think these conversations have been very productive and have already helped lead to more efficient budget hearings.”
She opened up the hearing with a presentation that featured a thorough organizational chart, which council members peppered her with questions about during her confirmation hearings.
This budget season marks the first time in more than a century that council members have the authority to move money within the mayor’s budget proposal.
Tuesday’s budget hearing for the city administrator, who has otherwise been scapegoated by some members of the council to criticize Scott, was relatively calm — save for criticisms of senior aide salaries and service delivery for things such as curbside recycling and trash pickup, suggesting that spending for these areas may be subject to changes from the council when they officially vote on the budget later this month.
A few headhunting updates
The clock is ticking on public works director Jason Mitchell’s departure. In January, the public servant quit, citing family- and health-related concerns and saying his resignation was effective toward the end of April. He later pushed the date back to the end of June.
Leach said that a listing for his replacement has been publicly posted for more than 60 days and that the city has received a number of solid resumes, “but I’d like to see some stronger candidates.” She said the city will hire a recruitment firm to assist in the search. Responding to a question from Costello, Leach said there is an interim director in place for after Mitchell leaves, but she did not name them.
She also said that the Scott administration plans to make interim Department of Transportation Director Corren Johnson the permanent leader of the agency.
