Can you smell it?
Take a deep breath and give it a whiff. The stench emanates from the vicinity of City Hall, wafting outward until it reaches every nook and cranny of Baltimore. Can you smell it?
It’s the odor of entitlement, the entitlement public officials in this city feel they have to John Q. Taxpayer’s money. Apparently, some folks on the public dole who hold positions of responsibility in city government have never made the acquaintance of Mr. Taxpayer.
Officials, meet Mr. Taxpayer. You can call him J.Q. That’s better than the other name you feel he should go by. You know the one I’m talking about.
That would be “Chump.”
Last week, yet another city official thought of another way to chump J.Q. for his hard-earned money. The official is Baltimore Solicitor George A. Nilson, who wants to “research” the possibility of J.Q. footing the bill for legal fees some city officials incurred as a result of an investigation into corruption by the state prosecutor.
One of those officials is Mayor Sheila Dixon, who was indicted on 12 counts of theft, perjury and misconduct earlier this month. City Councilwoman Helen Holton faces bribery, perjury and misconduct charges stemming from the same investigation State Prosecutor Robert Rohrbaugh conducted.
Nilson’s thinking goes like this: If Dixon and Holton are acquitted when they go to trial, then they incurred legal expenses through no fault of their own. So who should get the bill for their legal fees? Why, J.Q., of course, the ever-handy chump-du-jour.
J.Q., meanwhile, is probably thinking something like this: Why should city officials be entitled to something I’m not getting? If Baltimore police pick me up on some bogus charges, I have to pay the bail bondsman. Depending on the charge, that fee could be pretty steep.
Then I have to schlep out and find myself a lawyer. If I have little to no money, I have to head straight to the public defender’s office. If I have a little cheddar to spread around, I might hire an A. Dwight Pettit or a Margaret Mead or a Warren Brown or a Kenneth Ravenell, some of the more prominent and capable Baltimore defense lawyers.
The bottom line is that after I, John Q. Taxpayer, have my day in court and get acquitted, nobody reimburses me for my legal expenses. I just have to eat that. Ditto for the bail money. I don’t have a George Nilson advocating for me, running around talking about “researching” the possibility that some public money can be used to pay me back.
But some people apparently do feel public officials are entitled to something that J.Q. does not, hasn’t got and will not get any time in the foreseeable future: Public dollars to pay legal fees to private lawyers. And here’s the really galling part: During Gov. Martin O’Malley’s regime as Baltimore mayor, when he had his cops prowling the streets arresting people on all kinds of bogus, jive humble charges, there was no city solicitor suggesting that maybe those arrested should have their legal fees reimbursed.
Oddly enough, Dixon and Holton were both on the City Council when this was going on, and raised little or no protest about those arrest policies or offered a word of comfort to those who were unjustly jailed. But now that they’re the targets of a man whom they claim — and who just might be — an overzealous state prosecutor, then there’s all this talk about reimbursing their lawyers.
Dixon chose Arnold Weiner and Dale Kelberman as her attorneys, which is her right and her choice. It is not her right to have the public foot the bill for her choice. If she’s strapped for cash and can’t pay for high-priced lawyers, then she should do what J.Q. does when he’s similarly situated.
That would be to head straight to the public defender’s office. That is why the public defender’s office exists, isn’t it? To defend those who don’t have the money to hire, say, a Weiner or a Kelberman?
Of course it does. Public officials should either pay their own legal fees or use the public defender. Whatever they choose, they need to leave John Q. Taxpayer the hell alone.
Gregory Kane is a columnist who has been writing about Baltimore and Maryland for more than 15 years. Look for his columns in the editorial section every Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at [email protected].
