Baltimore mayoral candidates trade barbs on crime, city services during forum

The top four Democratic candidates for Baltimore mayor pulled no punches Monday night as they sparred over their plans to address crime and improve the delivery of city services during the first forum that drew all the city’s leading candidates.

Appearing before a standing-room-only crowd of hundreds at Roland Park Presbyterian Church in North Baltimore, Mayor Brandon Scott and Former Mayor Sheila Dixon, both seasoned officeholders, touted their experience, arguing they would build upon the work that each has done, though during different eras in City Hall.

Former prosecutor Thiru Vignarajah and businessman Bob Wallace, on the other hand, drew upon their lack of time in office, making the case for themselves as change agents prepared to deliver a new perspective.

“If you combine the time Brandon and Sheila have been in city government, it’s over 40 years,” said Wallace, who is running this year as a Democrat after a bid in 2020 as an independent. “If they were going to solve these problems, they would have solved them over 40 years.”

Karsonya “Kaye” Whitehead, a Loyola University Maryland professor and host of a local radio show who moderated Monday’s forum, drilled down on the candidates’ plans to combat crime but also their thoughts on how to dismantle the perception of crime.

Scott, who is nearing the end of his first term in office, touted the city’s homicide rate, which fell below 300 last year in Baltimore for the first time in nearly a decade. He also lauded his administration’s efforts to introduce the Group Violence Reduction Strategy, which targets likely shooters and victims and attempts to dissuade them from crime. But he was met by loud groans from the crowd when he argued he was the only candidate who was subjected to profiling under past zero-tolerance policing strategies.

“None of them has been sat down on a curb simply for being Black and living in their neighborhood,” he said. “We will never go back to doing that.”

Wallace and Vignarajah argued for more aggressive recruitment of city police officers. Wallace said he wanted to see military veterans offered an accelerated program to become police officers. Vignarajah said recruits need to be local, more diverse and potentially professionals with college degrees.

Dixon, the city’s mayor from 2007 to 2010 before her resignation amid scandal, said she would do a better job balancing the police department’s focus on homicides and quality-of-life crimes. She said police would be encouraged to walk beats, and argued the city needs to make better use of the citation docket for low-level offenses.

“Individuals have to be accountable and the citation is a way to get at quality-of-life crimes in your community,” she said.

The candidates were critical of Scott when they were asked about their plans to improve the delivery of city services. Dixon called Scott’s Baltimore the “dirtiest city in America,” and argued he should have used private contractors to pick up the city’s recycling on a weekly basis during the coronavirus pandemic.

Weekly recycling service was scaled back to biweekly for more than two years under Scott’s leadership amid staffing shortages and increased quantities of recyclables being placed curbside. Scott announced last month that collection would resume in the first week of March and held a news conference Monday morning to tout the return of the service.

“This is not taking a hit against the mayor,” Dixon said of Scott, “but I think being an inexperienced manager and not having the knowledge needed to juggle multiple things at one time and handle things is why the city government is so dysfunctional.”

Scott clapped back, arguing that Dixon’s administration was responsible for “dysfunction and failed leadership.”

“We have to be reminded that started when she had to leave office,” Scott said, spurring a combination of hoots and groans from the audience.

Vignarajah said the unaddressed grime on Baltimore’s streets begets first drug dealing and then violent crime.

“All of these things are connected,” he said. “It is a marker of whether a community is doing well or whether it’s failing.”

Perhaps the most pointed questions of the evening came from the audience, which was encouraged to write queries on notecards to be read by Whitehead. Of Scott, one attendee asked how he can be trusted to be mayor when he “sold” the city’s conduit system to Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. Last year, Scott pushed through a deal that makes BGE responsible for maintaining the 700-mile underground system. The agreement was approved during an unconventional vote of the Board of Estimates in which two members sat out in protest.

Scott said Monday that the deal was not a sale and made the conduit system more “sustainable.”

“Baltimore City still owns the conduit system and we will own the conduit system as long as the residents of Baltimore see fit,” Scott said.

A question asked of Dixon cited a Department of Justice report that found hundreds of Baltimoreans had their civil rights violated during her administration as she achieved the low crime rates that she often touts.

“Are you planning to bring back that style [of policing]?” Whitehead asked.

Dixon argued her administration moved away from the zero-tolerance policing embraced by her predecessor, Martin O’Malley, a Democrat.

“We were focused on the most violent offenders, and we had a wraparound community holistic approach to outcomes,” she said.

Vignarajah was asked how voters can trust his “commitment to Baltimore” given that he is waging his fourth campaign for office in six years, two for Baltimore’s state’s attorney and two for mayor. “You have known issues with anger management, especially your female staff,” the question’s author wrote, prompting a loud response from the crowd in attendance when read by Whitehead.

Vignarajah’s previous campaigns have been dogged by allegations that he was a cruel boss who punished subordinates for perceived disloyalty.

He ignored the allegations Wednesday, arguing he could not address them in the 45 seconds allotted. He said he has run only for Baltimore City office, focusing on positions that most affect city residents.

Wallace was asked to respond to voters who contend he has “flip-flopped” with his party affiliation. Wallace was a registered Republican before he changed his affiliation to run as an independent candidate. He is now a Democrat.

“This idea that party determines solutions is crazy,” Wallace said, paraphrasing from President John F. Kennedy, a Democrat. “Let us not seek out Republican answers. Let us not seek out Democratic answers. Let us seek out the right answer.”

Monday’s forum featured only the best-known candidates of the 13-member Democratic field for mayor. Also running are Wendy Bozel, “Uncle Wayne” Baker, Texas Brown, Kevin P. Harris, Wendell Hill-Freeman, Yolanda Pulley, Joseph E. Scott, Keith B. Scott and Yasaun Young.

Three Republicans, Donald E. Scoggins, Michael Moore and Shannon Wright, have also filed to run. Baltimore Democrats have a more than 8-to-1 registration advantage over Republicans, and the Democratic primary typically decides the outcome of elections in the city. Independent candidate Chukwuemeka Egwu has also filed notice that he intends to run in the general election.

The schedule for upcoming debates remains undecided. Last week, Scott sent an open letter to Dixon, Vignarajah and Wallace in hopes of establishing a “reasonable” number of debates hosted by “established and impartial media partners.” Scott said he favored a threshold to determine eligibility for the forums amid the crowded field of candidates, but was willing to defer to the organizations hosting the events.

Dixon responded with her own open letter saying she was concerned that Scott directed his debate invitation to only three candidates beyond himself. A more inclusive debate process is “imperative,” she said. Dixon also said she favored including as many media outlets as possible.

“Again, it appears you are more inclined to keep certain people out of this process, as opposed to making it more inclusive,” Dixon wrote.