Politics

Baltimore’s Board of Estimates is scheduled to consider Richard Worley’s new employment agreement Wednesday, a document that details how much severance he’d be owed if city legislators don’t confirm him as the city’s next police commissioner the next day. An agenda for the spending board’s meeting next week prices the contract at $285,000 — presumably the proposed salary for Mayor Brandon Scott’s pick to lead the Baltimore Police Department.

Lawmakers, public defenders, police, prosecutors and state officials gathered in a marathon meeting over video on Wednesday to confront Maryland’s problems with juvenile crime head-on. For five hours, they defended their own actions to help kids and combat crime, while pointing out other areas that need changes. Despite disagreements, all said they hope to reduce instances where children are perpetrators or victims of violence.

At the first meeting of the Baltimore Water Governance Task Force on Wednesday night, Chairman Bill Henry chose to start off with some assurances. “Our water utility system is not for sale,” Henry said. “We will not be making any recommendations that involve Baltimore City giving up legal ownership of the water, wastewater and stormwater system.”

A day after the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services released a report showing statewide youth crime has decreased over the past decade, some state lawmakers criticized the findings in a legislative hearing Wednesday. State House Judiciary Chair Luke Clippinger, a Baltimore City Democrat and Anne Arundel County prosecutor, held a legislative briefing Wednesday, the first in a series before the 2024 session, to address the state of the juvenile justice system.

The U.S. House and Senate are both back in D.C. on Tuesday following a long summer recess, facing an overwhelming agenda of unfinished work — funding the federal government and reauthorizing major programs set to expire at the end of the month. Congressional leaders and President Joe Biden have only a few weeks to broker a short-term spending deal that can gain votes from deeply divided members of Congress or spark a partial government shutdown before a Sept. 30 deadline. Far-right House Republicans already are insistent on big cuts in spending levels at odds with bipartisan Senate legislation.

Maryland has an abundance of unissued sports wagering licenses that one state delegate says should not be allowed to gather dust. Currently, there are 12 physical sports book locations. The state also has a dozen mobile sports wagering apps in operation. State regulators say instability in the market and ongoing consolidation mean no more are needed yet.

As of June, the Housing Authority of Baltimore City owed more than $7 million in water bills to the city, according to a report released Tuesday by the city’s Office of the Inspector General. The inspector general’s investigation began last October, when the office received an anonymous complaint alleging that the HABC had stopped paying its water bills in 2018, and owed the city’s Department of Public Works millions of dollars.

Property owners, housing advocates and city tenants who receive government subsidies took members of the Baltimore Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services to task Tuesday morning, slamming them for being late to pay the third-party housing providers who are responsible for paying rent and other services on behalf of some of the area’s most vulnerable households.

Autoworkers at Detroit’s biggest vehicle manufacturers are signing up for strike shifts, buying burn barrels and saving money to prepare for a possible work stoppage as contract talks remain tense ahead of Thursday’s deadline. Many say they see a strike as inevitable, even as small signs of progress between the United Auto Workers and the Big Three automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis — appear.