What's happening on Captial Hill today?

There's a fight for financial control at Baltimore City Hall as the mayor and comptroller debate a charter amendment.

Baltimore City Comptroller Bill Henry said his office should oversee the city's Department of Finance, not the mayor. So, the comptroller introduced a charter amendment to make that change at Monday night's City Council meeting to would put the department under the comptroller's control for the first time since 1964.

Henry said he knows how Mayor Brandon Scott might perceive the move as a power grab, but Henry said his pitch is that his office already has financial expertise, so let them take on the Department of Finance. Henry said that would then allow the mayor and future mayors to devote more attention to other issues facing the city.

"This is not an attack on a particular mayor. This is not as an indictment of a particular mayor," Henry said. "We have let the job of mayor become too big for one radar screen to encompass everything that it needs to."

The comptroller said he is already responsible for most city payments and disbursements, but with the Department of Finance added, Henry's office would also take over things like revenue collection, operating budget management and procurementIn a statement, the mayor's office opposed the charter amendment, saying, in part: "The comptroller's role should remain fiscal oversight, not administration. Making the drastic changes suggested by this charter amendment would not be good governance, potentially risking the city's financial stability and credit worthiness at a critical time for our city's history."

In response to the mayor's statement, Henry told 11 News: "I think that's a very well-reasoned statement on behalf of somebody who doesn't want to give up power and is looking at this as giving up power."

Both Henry and the mayor's statement note that the two have worked together to modernize city government. But Henry pointed to procurement as one example of lingering issues that stem from the mayor having too much on his plate.

"We have been talking about reforming and improving and transforming procurement now for years, literally for years, and for the last year, we didn't do anything," Henry said.

The City Council will next hold a hearing on the charter amendment at which the mayor, the comptroller and others will have an opportunity to speak.

If the City Council ends up passing the charter amendment, Scott would have a chance to sign it, veto it or let it move forward unsigned. If it passes the necessary hurdles by July, it could be put on the ballot for voters to decide in November. By Tolly Taylorhttps://www.wbaltv.com/article/charter-amendment-baltimore-city-finance…

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