The head of the Baltimore panel that oversees city officials' financial disclosure requirements has failed to submit her own mandated statements since 2006.
Dana P. Moore, a Baltimore lawyer who was appointed to a volunteer position on the city's Board of Ethics in 2004 and became its chairwoman four years later, filed financial disclosure statements in 2005 and 2006, but not before or since, according to a review of City Hall records by The Baltimore Sun.
She will be subject to a $250 fine for each of three missing forms.
"I made a mistake," Moore said.
Moore said she realized the oversight this week and contacted the director of legislative reference, Avery Aisenstark, who manages the filings. She said she faxed the forms to the office, though Aisenstark said he had not received them as of Thursday afternoon. Aisenstark confirmed that he had talked with Moore, a senior attorney at the Baltimore office of Venable LLP.
"It really is extremely ironic," Moore said of forgetting to file. "It's really a case of the cobbler's kids having no shoes. I took care of everybody else and forgot about me. It is a teachable moment."
Sources close to City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake, the incoming mayor, have said Moore is on a short list of candidates to become city solicitor in the new administration. Spokesman Ryan O'Doherty declined to comment on whether Moore was in the running.
The Board of Ethics was created by a 1963 charter amendment to enforce prohibitions against conflicts of interest. Financial disclosure requirements were added to its charge in 1974. The disclosure forms ask basic questions about property and financial interests, business with the city, gifts and income sources. Moore, who also faxed her filings to The Baltimore Sun, disclosed that a daughter works for the city's Department of Transportation, for example.
This month, Rawlings-Blake proposed changes for the ethics panel and the way the city handles ethics matters in general, an issue during the corruption investigation of Mayor Sheila Dixon. Dixon's subsequent convictions on theft and perjury charges led to her resignation, and Rawlings-Blake will take over as mayor Feb. 4.
Rawlings-Blake's proposals would, among other things, reduce the connection between the ethics panel and the mayor's office. Four of the five members of the panel are now appointed by the mayor, and the fifth is designated by the city solicitor, a mayoral appointee.
The ethics board is chronically understaffed, said City Solicitor George Nilson, and most financial disclosure statements are never reviewed.
"The point is, when something comes up, if there's an issue and concern, then it's available to be reviewed," Nilson said, likening the disclosure statements to tax forms filed with the Internal Revenue Service.
"If you think there's some little minion down there at the IRS who reviews your return and my return, you're mistaken," he said.
Moore said she is ahead of schedule in filing for 2009, due in April, and plans to have her 2010 disclosure statement in place first thing next year.
Baltimore Sun reporters Julie Scharper and Annie Linskey contributed to this article.