Baltimore City Council President Brandon Scott called for an investigation into missing financial disclosures after being informed by a city auditor that appointed members of the city’s Board of Finance had not consistently filed financial disclosures during their time on the board.
City Auditor Josh Pasch presented the finding, part of an audit of the Finance Department’s Bureau of Treasury and Debt Management during the years 2014 through 2018, at Wednesday’s Board of Estimates meeting.
“I was disappointed to learn this morning that there are members of the Board of Finance who were not complying with the law on financial disclosures," Scott said in a statement. “I am calling on the Board of Ethics to investigate the situation with the Board of Finance. They are the appropriate body to conduct such an investigation and to provide a public accounting of the current status of these disclosures.”
The board members who did not properly file their disclosures were appointed and served during the previous mayoral administrations of Catherine Pugh and Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, said Lester Davis, a spokesman for Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young.
One did not file the forms for four years, one did not file for three years, and a third did not file for two years between the 2014 and 2018 fiscal years, Davis said. All of the board members submitted disclosures as required in 2018, he said.
The mayor and the comptroller sit on the board with three mayoral appointees. In addition to Young and Comptroller Joan M. Pratt, the board’s current members are Larry I. Silverstein, Frederick W. Meier Jr. and Dana C. Moulden.
The board is responsible for authorizing and issuing certificates of indebtedness of the city, selecting depositories for city funds, and for reviewing the city’s six-year capital improvement program and first-year capital budget.