Irregular Public Bidding and Contracting in Baltimore

A Baltimore, Maryland agency is under criticism for awarding six demolition contracts worth $2.3 million without following normal public bidding and contracting procedures.

The Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC), created in 1991, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation under contract with the City of Baltimore and operates as a quasi-public agency. Their authority to even engage in public works contracting for the city is unclear.

Bids and contracts under criticism include the following:

• Awarding to the third low bidder on a project to demolish of 12 rowhouses. The BDC stated that the two low bidders did not understand the full scope of work, but has been unable to document such an assertion.
  
  
• Awarding a $1.5 million City Center demolition project to the third low bidder after claiming that the two low bidders were late in submitting their bids. The contract used was adapted from a private contract and inapplicable provisions were crossed out by hand and new provisions hand-written in.
  
  
• On two projects, there was no public advertisement and the BDC simply asked for bids from two firms. Projects over $25,000 must be advertised by city agencies.
  
  
• A $378,477 demolition contract was awarded without public bidding because the BDC believed the building was an immediate threat to public safety. However, no process was apparently followed to determine whether an emergency actually existed requiring the waiving of public advertisement for the project.
  

Complicating matters is the ambiguity about just what authority the BDC actually has to engage in such public works projects. Even Baltimore's legal experts concede that "There is not an easy way for the law department to look at BDC and simply say 'Here is what you can do. Here is what you can not do."

According to Baltimore's Deputy Mayor Andrew B. Frank, a former BDC employee, BDC rules are "passed on from generation to generation," and are frequently not documented in writing, prompting one critic to label the BDC as a "rogue" agency that "is acting beyond the wildest conceptions of their legitimate role."

The irregular bidding and contracting practices of the BDC were first brought to light by The Baltimore Sun newspaper.

Click here to read the October 5, 2009 article by Sun reporter Annie Linskey.