Waste of the Day: Taxpayers Fund Mayor’s Wife’s Charity; Baltimore Youth Fund Silent on How It Sent Taxpayer Money to the Mayor’s Office

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Waste of the Day: Taxpayers Fund Mayor’s Wife’s Charity:

Topline: The City of Baltimore gave $62,500 to a nonprofit that employs the mayor’s wife, according to tax filings reviewed by the Baltimore Sun. Six members of City Council have introduced a bill that would make similar payments illegal — which the mayor opposes.

Key facts: The grant was paid in 2023 from the Baltimore Children and Youth Fund to the nonprofit Bmore Empowered, where Hana Scott is the director of operations. She is also Mayor Brandon Scott’s wife. The mayor’s office has a representative on the Youth Fund board who votes on which nonprofits receive grants.

It’s unknown whether Bmore Empowered received city funding in 2024 or 2025 because it did not file a Form 990 tax form. Britt Mittendorf, accounting school chair at Ohio State University, told the Baltimore Sun, “Regular filing of a 990 is essentially the bare minimum in terms of compliance.”

The Baltimore Sun asked the charity if they received more recent public funding, but there was no response. Hana Scott blocked reporters on LinkedIn after they messaged her with questions.

A bill currently in the City Council would place new oversight and transparency rules on the Youth Fund and has support from seven of the 15 council members. Mayor Scott opposes it because he believes it would limit funding to programs managed by his office, according to the Baltimore Sun. A spokesman from the Youth Fund claimed the increased transparency would “jeopardize” its work. --->READ MORE HERE

Baltimore youth fund silent on how it sent taxpayer money to the mayor’s office:

The Baltimore Children and Youth Fund (BCYF) nonprofit has repeatedly ignored Spotlight on Maryland’s questions about how it sent $7 million taxpayer funds back to the Baltimore City government.

The current Baltimore City budget sent $16 million to the BCYF nonprofit, which then sent $7 million to the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development (MOED) to back a series of youth initiatives. BCYF said it has no documentation of this money transfer and refused to answer a series of questions about how its board decided to send the money.

The lack of documentation and unanswered questions strike at the heart of Baltimore’s ongoing accountability challenge: who is tracking how taxpayer dollars are used once they leave City Hall – and, in this case, why they returned.

A BCYF board minutes document from April states that J.D. Merrill, as a representative of Mayor Brandon Scott’s office, “joined the board to answer questions about a potential partnership.” BCYF’s board unanimously approved its 2025 grants one week later. Merrill last week was named the mayor’s chief of staff.

Spotlight on Maryland sent a series of questions to Mayor Scott’s office, BCYF President Alysia Lee and BCYF Board Chair Larry Simmons Jr., including: --->READ MORE HERE

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