The chairman of the city council’s budget committee expressed disappointment that Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby didn’t show up for a budget hearing Tuesday night and said he is rescheduling the agency’s budget hearing until next week, in hopes that Mosby attends.
“Where is the head of the agency?" Councilman Eric Costello asked staffers with the state’s attorney’s office three times at the beginning of the hearing.
“The state’s attorney was unavoidably detained,” said Camille Blake Fall, chief of administration for the state’s attorney’s office, adding that previous attempts to reschedule the appearance had been unsuccessful. She said she did not know exactly where Mosby was, but that she would be unavailable for the rest of the evening.
Another staffer said Mosby had a personal engagement in the community to attend to. “She had to be in the community and we could not reschedule that,” said Caron Brace, chief of staff.
“I am extremely disappointed that the head of the agency is unable to join us this evening,” said Costello, citing the large size of the state’s attorney’s office, which employs nearly 400 people and receives around $36.6 million from the city each year. Costello is supporting Mosby’s opponent Ivan Bates in the state’s attorney’s race. “That level of appropriation and that size of an agency does require the agency head to appear before the council,” he said.
Costello said the city council would reconvene for the state’s attorney's office on June 4 at 6:30 p.m.
“We look forward to seeing the head of the agency,” he said.
Reached after the hearing, Costello declined to say whether he would refuse to advance the budget until Mosby shows. “I’ve rescheduled it. I’ll just leave it at that,” he said.
Melba Saunders, spokeswoman for the State’s Attorney’s Office said, “We are thankful the committee was able to grant our postponement request made on May 11th to reschedule the hearing. We look forward to addressing the committee and answering any questions they may have pertaining to our budget.”