Street Juice
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Mayor Pugh: I Shouldn't Have To Play by the Rules
Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh shown just before winning the Baltimore marathon by jumping into the race inches from the finish line and tickling front-runner Greg Williams of Ellicot City.
Baltimore City Mayor Catherine Pugh has demanded the city council suspend ethics rules for the remainder of her administration, according to an article in Wednesday's Baltimore Sun.
“It's been awhile since anyone has paid attention to those old ethics rules anyway,” mayoral spokesperson Ben G. Horowitz was quoted as saying at a hastily called press conference Tuesday.
The press conference was called after an excerpt from an email inadvertently made its way onto the Twitter feed of the Office of the State's Attorney. The excerpt seemed to suggest it is city policy to turn a blind eye to blatant looting of the city's treasury, according to the Sun story.
“Suspending the rules formally just unmuddies the water and provides hard-working Baltimore residents with the cleaner, more transparent, government they want and deserve,” Mr Horowitz said, noting some of the rules go back to slavery days.
The particular rule the mayor's office has found most irksome is the one that prohibits public officials from accepting cash from private interests.
Intended originally as a way to make it harder for government officials to enrich themselves at taxpayers' expense by trading lucrative city contracts for cash, gifts, or campaign contributions—also known as “bribery” or “corruption”—the rules established a legal barrier between wealthy private interests (i.e., rich people) and city officials.
The mayor has asked the city council to just go ahead and hit the pause button on all that shit.
“'Bribery' is such an ugly word,” Mr. Horowitz said in response to a reporter's question. “And, besides, Mayor Pugh only ignores ethics rules for good causes, so 'bribery', frankly, seems racist.”
Most recently, the mayor's office ignored ethics rules when it raised the money to pull Baltimore high school students out of class and bus them to Washington, DC where they joined high school students from around the country in opposition to people getting shot.
While it isn't easy to argue that not wanting to get shot isn't good, some residents of Charm City thought a better cause would have been to remain in class and wrestle with double negatives and the like.
“I mean, when all is said and done, what does a kid more good,” asked Barnaby “Bud” Williams of 8 West Madison St, Baltimore? “Spending the day yelling slogans into the air on the National Mall, or understanding the logic behind -1 x -1 = 1?
The mayor's office has also faced criticism for the extremely high cost of the one-day trip to a city 45 minutes away. An independent review of the expenditures for the trip determined the cost for each student who attended the event was nearly $3,200—most of it to pay city contractor Cool Shades, LLC to provide security for the students.
“It's a fucking $8.00 train ride, for crying out loud,” said Mr Williams, who said he was relocating to the Frederick area. “And, by the way, I've seen those kids. If anyone would have needed security, it would have been the other passengers.”
But Mr Horowitz defended the cost. “I don't think we can put a price on the lives of our most precious resource—Baltimore's children,” he said.
“And if you think it's okay for children to be gunned down in their own classrooms, well, then I can't even...frankly, it seems racist,” he concluded.
Mayor Pugh did not attend the press conference as she was on a fact-finding trip to New York City's Fifth Avenue until Monday.
Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh shown just before winning the Baltimore marathon by jumping into the race inches from the finish line and tickling front-runner Greg Williams of Ellicot City.
Baltimore City Mayor Catherine Pugh has demanded the city council suspend ethics rules for the remainder of her administration, according to an article in Wednesday's Baltimore Sun.
“It's been awhile since anyone has paid attention to those old ethics rules anyway,” mayoral spokesperson Ben G. Horowitz was quoted as saying at a hastily called press conference Tuesday.
The press conference was called after an excerpt from an email inadvertently made its way onto the Twitter feed of the Office of the State's Attorney. The excerpt seemed to suggest it is city policy to turn a blind eye to blatant looting of the city's treasury, according to the Sun story.
“Suspending the rules formally just unmuddies the water and provides hard-working Baltimore residents with the cleaner, more transparent, government they want and deserve,” Mr Horowitz said, noting some of the rules go back to slavery days.
The particular rule the mayor's office has found most irksome is the one that prohibits public officials from accepting cash from private interests.
Intended originally as a way to make it harder for government officials to enrich themselves at taxpayers' expense by trading lucrative city contracts for cash, gifts, or campaign contributions—also known as “bribery” or “corruption”—the rules established a legal barrier between wealthy private interests (i.e., rich people) and city officials.
The mayor has asked the city council to just go ahead and hit the pause button on all that shit.
“'Bribery' is such an ugly word,” Mr. Horowitz said in response to a reporter's question. “And, besides, Mayor Pugh only ignores ethics rules for good causes, so 'bribery', frankly, seems racist.”
Most recently, the mayor's office ignored ethics rules when it raised the money to pull Baltimore high school students out of class and bus them to Washington, DC where they joined high school students from around the country in opposition to people getting shot.
While it isn't easy to argue that not wanting to get shot isn't good, some residents of Charm City thought a better cause would have been to remain in class and wrestle with double negatives and the like.
“I mean, when all is said and done, what does a kid more good,” asked Barnaby “Bud” Williams of 8 West Madison St, Baltimore? “Spending the day yelling slogans into the air on the National Mall, or understanding the logic behind -1 x -1 = 1?
The mayor's office has also faced criticism for the extremely high cost of the one-day trip to a city 45 minutes away. An independent review of the expenditures for the trip determined the cost for each student who attended the event was nearly $3,200—most of it to pay city contractor Cool Shades, LLC to provide security for the students.
“It's a fucking $8.00 train ride, for crying out loud,” said Mr Williams, who said he was relocating to the Frederick area. “And, by the way, I've seen those kids. If anyone would have needed security, it would have been the other passengers.”
But Mr Horowitz defended the cost. “I don't think we can put a price on the lives of our most precious resource—Baltimore's children,” he said.
“And if you think it's okay for children to be gunned down in their own classrooms, well, then I can't even...frankly, it seems racist,” he concluded.
Mayor Pugh did not attend the press conference as she was on a fact-finding trip to New York City's Fifth Avenue until Monday.
