Summary: City Comptroller Bill Henry ran on a transparency promise. However, on his watch, in real time, the city of Baltimore has moved backwards.
The transparency organization, OpenTheBooks, filed its annual open records request for the city checkbook. Just days ago, the city comptroller responded and refused to produce proper records.
Instead, the comptroller's office provided a database with $18 billion in disbursements without listing WHO was PAID.
Questions:
- What's the history here? Did the city provide a line-by-line record of its expenditures in previous years?
- What's the use of the city checkbook if you aren't given the name of the vendor that the city paid for city services?
- The comptroller ran on a transparency promise... what's his excuse in not providing the information? What did they say? They are blaming their new software system, WorkDay.
- When is the last time you received the city checkbook from Baltimore?