August 21, 2008
Dixon plays meet the press
A mayor walks into a bar. It's full of reporters who've been on her case. And the joke is on them.
Sheila Dixon knew a couple of dozen reporters from local newspapers and TV, who call themselves Media Mavens and gather monthly for happy hour, would be at Ixia on Charles Street Thursday night.
Instead of steering clear of someplace crawling with chroniclers of her love life and shopping sprees, the mayor crashed the party.
The Sun's Nicole Fuller broke the story, filing to me via BlackBerry before Her Honor downed her last drop of Riesling. Fuller's real-time dispatch:
"She is standing here right now and she is here! I think she's drinking white wine! She is wearing a white pantsuit and mixing it up with all the journos! I said 'mayor, I have to ask, what brings you here.' She said, 'well, all the media is here.'"
Spokesman Sterling Clifford told Fuller, "You guys are her constituents, too."
The Examiner's Luke Broadwater tried to buy Dixon a drink, "which she very theatrically refused with a big smile and a $20 bill," WBAL-TV's Kate Amara reported via e-mail. "I proposed a toast: 'To the most awkward moment in Baltimore media history,' and SD, Luke Broadwater and I clinked glasses."
Awkward, yes, but seemingly only for the reporters. I'm told Dixon was all breezy and upbeat, as if having prosecutors comb through her closet was akin to a visit from Merry Maids.
Dixon didn't talk about the investigation and none of the reporters asked, at least as far as Clifford knew. The mayoral charm offensive worked some magic, as some reporters shamelessly posed for pictures with Dixon, I'm told. None of the posers actually covers the mayor, but still!
How'd Dixon even know about the gathering? "We kinda heard about it," was all Clifford would say. I guess the Dixon camp is entitled to a leak in its direction.
Before the furs, there was the leather jacket
Sheila Dixon isn't the only Baltimore mayor with a weakness for free animal pelts.For Dixon, it's fur. For Martin O'Malley, leather.
In 2002, then-Mayor O'Malley received a $150 leather jacket from Harley-Davidson, a supplier to the city Police Department.
Dixon's Partner in Progress knew better than to just take it. But O'Malley reeeally, reeeally wanted it. So he asked the city's ethics board if he could keep the jacket, The Sun's Doug Donovan reported at the time.
"As you may know, the mayor is in an Irish Rock Band, O'Malley's March," then-City Solicitor Thurman Zollicoffer wrote the board. "It is my belief that the gift was given to be worn as advertisement during one of his many public appearances as lead singer."
Zollicoffer asked the board to offer an exemption to the city's gift policy, writing that the jacket would not influence O'Malley and that it was "purely personal and `private' in nature."
The board didn't buy it, ordering O'Malley to return the gift. (He donated it to the police union.)
Time will tell if the personal/private defense flies better with Dixon's prosecutors.
It's on the record: Biceps need work
Former commish Ed Norris, never a big fan of Mayor Dixon, has finally found common cause with her.The mayor did Norris' radio show on WHFS one day last week and it was more love fest than grilling. Lots of talk about the down murder rate. Nary a word about the favors-for-furs allegations that have turned the Board of Estimates into the Sordid Estimates.
Copyright © 2008, The Baltimore Sun
 City toddler's death probedFive people are charged with murder in the death of Javon Thompson, including the boy's mother. The suspects are members of a group police describe as a religious cult. Archived coverage: 2008 MSA results | City Hall, Dixon investigated Md. state police spying | FBI probes Sen. Currie People and places: Police Blotter Crime briefs from Baltimore City and Baltimore County |
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