During Baltimore City Council Budget Hearings, the City’s Inspector General (and the city’s own predilection for outcome budgeting) powered a thorough evaluation of program outcomes by Council Members during their public hearing.

The Inspector General role, created in 2005 but re-addressed my more recent local actions, has helped to re-frame the public deliberations of the Baltimore City Council. From the OIG website:

The Mission of the Office of the Inspector General is to promote accountability, efficiency and integrity in City government. One way that we carry out that mission is by investigating complaints of fraud, waste and abuse. The OIG will consider all complaints of fraud, waste and abuse involving:

• • • Any City employee;
    • Any municipal officer, including heads of City departments, agencies, bureaus, and all persons exercising comparable authority;
    • Any member of a City board or commission;
    • Any individual, organization or business receiving City-granted funds or other benefits, including, but not limited to, loans, grants, tax credits, below market rate property transfers, tax increment financing, payment in lieu of taxes or other City subsidies of any kind;
    • Any individual, organization or business providing goods or services to the City pursuant to a City contract; or

   

• Any individual, organization or business seeking certification of eligibility to provide goods or services to the City pursuant to a contract.

Conduit Street offers our “hat tip” to Baltimore Taxpayers for their social media mention of the hearing, and the embedded video below: