Being a Baltimore City Council member is technically a part-time job, so many members have chosen to supplement their City Hall salaries with other work.
Like most of the city’s public servants, they must file an annual financial disclosure form to the ethics board listing any additional sources of income they may earn, any properties they have a stake in, gifts they may have received and how their spouses earn money.
In the latest financial disclosure forms, which were filed in January of this year and reflect the calendar year 2022, several council members reported side gigs, including Zeke Cohen, who reported consulting other cities on his trademark policy of trauma-informed care, and Antonio Glover, who reported working for Keys Development and doing “crafts shows and flea markets.” Others have taught adjunct college classes or have stakes in rental properties.
Most council members made $76,660 in fiscal year 2022, while the City Council president and mayor made $131,798 and $199,044, respectively.
Elected officials must file their financial disclosure forms for 2023 before January 30 of next year. Nonelected city workers must file by the spring.
Here’s what The Banner found when we dug through the most recent reports.
Nick Mosby
The Council president, who is a full-time City Hall employee, co-owns a rowhome at 1639 N. Fulton Ave. with Ronald Rock. The property is registered as a rental property with the city’s housing department.
Earlier this year, he filed an amendment to his financial disclosure forms, following a legal dispute with city Board of Ethics. The five-member panel wrote a report saying that Mosby had violated an ethics code for elected officials by not disclosing the Mosby 2021 Trust, which was created by a third party to solicit legal assistance donations for Mosby and his wife, former city State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby. They filed for divorce earlier this year; it is not finalized.
The council president appealed the report, which went before a City Circuit Court judge who threw out the panel’s most serious allegation — that Mosby knowingly took money from controlled donors — calling the evidence extremely weak.
Mosby also noted his marriage to the city’s former top prosecutor on his 2022 disclosure.
Zeke Cohen
Cohen began consulting for Open Society Foundations, which is based out of New York, in August of 2022. His financial disclosure said he advises cities outside of Baltimore that are seeking to develop trauma-informed practices.
“I help leaders in government and in the private sector develop skills and capacity to prevent and address trauma through healing centered modalities like mindfulness and restorative practices,” he wrote.
The councilman asked the city ethics board to provide guidance on whether there was a conflict of interest before he began consulting. In a formal opinion, the ethics board said the consulting would not pose a conflict and that Cohen should disclose the contract with Open Society Foundations to all city agencies with a relationship with Open Society Institute of Baltimore, a field office of OSF. Cohen subsequently sent letters to the Mayor’s Office of Children and Family Success, the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, and the health department.
Cohen’s 2022 financial disclosure shows he has consulted for Savannah, Georgia, and Santa Clara and San Jose, California. He told The Baltimore Banner that he worked with Philadelphia and Cincinnati in 2023; disclosure of that information is due next January.
He also reported a gift of a mug from Johns Hopkins University, which does business with the city, valued at $25. His wife is a doctor at Medstar Harbor Hospital.
Danielle McCray
McCray did not report holding any jobs outside of City Hall or earning any additional income in 2022.
She reported that the Open Society Institute of Baltimore paid $248 towards a $302.72 round-trip on Amtrak to attend an educational site visit in New York City. McCray reported personally paying the rest of the balance.
Ryan Dorsey
Dorsey did not report holding any jobs or earning any additional income in 2022. He reported that his wife, artist Erin Fostel, is self-employed.
Mark Conway
Conway serves as vice president of programs at the Chesapeake Conservancy, an environmental nonprofit. According to his LinkedIn page, he took the job in July 2020, a month after winning the Democratic primary.
He reported holding a 10% interest in 403 Development Group LLC, which according to state records is based in Upper Marlboro. The company does not do business with the city.
He reported that his wife earns income as an executive at the Johns Hopkins Clinical Alliance, which does business with the city.
Conway reported serving on the boards of the Forever Maryland Foundation, the Smart Surfaces Coalition and the Friends of the Jones Falls.
He also reported receiving two unpriced gifts: A tote bag and notebook from Walter P. Carter Elementary/Middle School.
Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer
Schleifer did not report holding any jobs outside of City Hall or earning any additional income in 2022.
He reported serving on the boards of the Baltimore Municipal Golf Corporation and Hebrew Free Loan.
He reported that his wife earns income through Jewish Teen Advancement and Ohr Chadash Academy, and that she is the sole or partial owner of Bamboo LLC.
Schleifer also noted that he attended the Associated Jewish Charities mission to Israel in May 2022, with sign-off from the city’s spending board.
Sharon Green Middleton
The council’s vice president and longest serving member earned $84,729 in fiscal year 2022, making her the highest-paid council member besides Mosby. She reported several family members who work in, or adjacent to, city government.
Her husband, Glen Middleton Sr., is the executive director of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 67, which represents thousands of city workers. Council 67 merged with another council in 2023 and no longer exists.
Their son, Glen Middleton Jr., works as a community liaison in the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhoods. Anika Middleton, who is the council vice president’s stepdaughter, works as a manager at Baltimore’s Department of Housing & Community Development.
Middleton reported serving on the boards of the Maryland Association of Counties, the National Association of Counties, the Large Urban County Caucus, the Transportation Steering Committee, the Healthy County Advisory Board, the Deferred Comp Advisory Board, the National Organization of Black County Officials, and Park Heights Renaissance.
James Torrence
Torrence works as an adjunct professor for the University of Baltimore, where he teaches a constitutional law course for the Policy, Politics and International Affairs department. The university does business with the Baltimore Police Department.
He reported that his wife Orlett Torrence owns two LLCs: Petite Seats Maryland and Nia Wellness & Health. Her other source of income is Pulse Medical Transportation.
Councilman Torrence holds board seats on Higher Achievement Baltimore and the No Boundaries Coalition.
Kristerfer Burnett
Burnett did not report holding any jobs outside of City Hall or earning any additional income in 2022.
The councilman reported holding memberships on the boards of Local Progress, the Baltimore Community Mediation Center, TurnAround Inc. and Live Baltimore.
He reported that his wife is the sole proprietor of VagEsteem, a sexual health education brand that includes workshops and a podcast.
John Bullock
Bullock teaches at Towson University (Torrence was once his student).
The councilman was an assistant professor in the political science department before joining the council in 2016, he said. Now, Bullock is a lecturer who teaches two classes a semester: an urban government and politics course and a metropolitan studies course.
The councilman reported holding memberships on the boards of Coppin Heights Community Development Corporation, Empowerment Academy, the Baltimore Curriculum Project, and Project Pneuma.
Phylicia Porter
Porter worked remotely as a senior program manager for Yale New Haven Health beginning Sept. 2020, a few months after winning the Democratic primary and a few months before entering office, until this July.
Porter also reported serving on the board of the Sustainability Commission.
Eric Costello
Costello reported working for the University of Maryland, Baltimore. He told the Banner that he does IT security work for the university as a part-time employee.
Costello reported holding memberships on the boards of the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore, Downtown Management Authority, Midtown Community Benefits District, Saint Mary’s Spiritual Center and Historic Site, Maryland Science Center, Mount Vernon Place Conservancy, South Baltimore Gateway Partnership, Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore and Waterfront Management Authority.
Robert Stokes
Stokes reported owning 49% of North and Broadway Aequo LLC, which was registered in May 2022. That August, Stokes purchased two rowhomes through Baltimore’s vacant property remediation program. A few months later, he transferred the land disposition agreement with the city for the two properties to the LLC.
Ernst Valery, a prominent local developer, signed for the transfer. He is also the LLC’s registered agent.
Stokes reported holding memberships on the boards of the Parking Authority, Continuum of Care, Community Action Partnership, and the Charles Village Benefits District.
Antonio Glover
Councilman Antonio Glover works for a development company that has purchased city property.
In his 2020 disclosure, the East Baltimore councilman wrote that he works for Keys Development TA LLC, which is connected to KEYS Empowers, a corporation founded in 2016 by Mujahid Muhammad, a licensed social worker and member of the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners. Glover wrote that occasionally “I may do craft shows and flea markets that may possibly generate some income in Baltimore, County MD.” Neither the Keys Development nor the flea markets were mentioned in his 2021 disclosure.
Glover initially filed his 2022 disclosure without mentioning his work for Keys Development or craft fair appearances. In October of this year, he amended his financial disclosure form to include them, writing: “At time i [sic] do crafts shows and flea markets.”
In March 2022, Keys Development purchased the old Lillie M. Jackson Elementary School at 1511 Ashburton St., telling the city they planned to transform the shuttered elementary school into a community health center, Keys Healing Village.
The site had an assessed value of $2.5 million and was sold to Keys Development for $990,000. The former West Baltimore school had been listed in the city’s Vacants to Value program since 2016. Properties in the Vacants to Value program are generally sold for far less than their appraised value.
Glover and Muhammad did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Representatives for the North Point Plaza Flea Market, where Glover said he sold crafts, did not respond to requests for comment.
Odette Ramos
Ramos reported additional income from her husband, the realtor John Spurrier of Cummings & Co. Spurrier owns two properties besides his family’s primary residence: 2643 Lovegrove St. and 2735 N. Charles St. The latter is registered as a rental unit with the city’s housing department.
Ramos serves on the board of directors of the Charles Village Community Benefits District.
emily.sullivan@thebaltimorebanner.com
This article was updated to correct the name of the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners, and the spelling of Anika Middleton’s first name.
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