Politics

Mayor Brandon Scott has finalized a proposed agreement with Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. for the company to take over maintenance of Baltimore’s conduit system. The agreement calls for BGE to pay for $134 million for capital improvements to the system over the next four years. The utility also would pay an “occupancy fee” of $1.5 million annually. The deal needs the approval of the Board of Estimates, which the Democratic mayor controls. Currently, Baltimore owns and pays to maintain the 700-mile conduit system that carries utility lines beneath the city through a series of terra cotta pipes. BGE, the system’s biggest user, occupies 76% of the system and pays the city rent for its use.

Police in Maryland would be barred from using facial recognition technology in certain circumstances under a bill lawmakers considered in a state House committee hearing Tuesday. The bill would be the first successful attempt to regulate the use of facial recognition technology for law enforcement at a statewide level in Maryland. Public defenders and prosecutors alike told lawmakers they believe some restrictions should be enacted, though they disagree how far those restrictions should go. “This is a very complicated topic,” said Del. David Moon, a Montgomery County Democrat who sponsored the House version of the bill. He suggested during a House Judiciary Committee hearing that it was better for everyone to get together on some rules, “rather than have nothing whatsoever.”

Two Baltimore City Councilmembers are calling for pay increases for the city’s sanitation workers in hopes of restoring weekly recycling pickup for residents, which has been suspended for more than two years since the outbreak of the pandemic. With the pandemic eased, the city now says the staffing shortages amid a competitive labor market have prevented restoring weekly recycling pickup. Jason Mitchell, the outgoing director for the city’s Department of Public Works, has told the council in the past that starting salaries for sanitation workers have hindered his ability to attract new workers.

Several of Gov. Wes Moore’s high-profile Cabinet appointees passed an initial hurdle to confirmation Monday evening, getting the nod from the Senate Executive Nominations Committee. The appointees — to lead the departments of Agriculture, Health, Labor, Natural Resources and five others — could see final confirmation by the full Senate later this week. A handful of the appointees fielded questions during a packed committee hearing.

House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones introduced a bill that would ask voters if they want to enshrine the right to an abortion in the Maryland constitution. A draft of the bill, which was introduced at a perfunctory House session Monday, states “every person, as a central component of an individual’s rights to liberty and equality, has the fundamental right to reproductive freedom including but not limited to the ability to make and effectuate decisions to prevent, continue, or end one’s own pregnancy.”