Baltimore Comptroller Joan Pratt Failed To Recuse Herself From 30 Votes Involving Conflicts Of Interest, Report Finds
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Baltimore Comptroller Joan Pratt failed to recuse herself from 30 different votes involving 10 organizations with which she had self-disclosed conflicts of interests, a report from the city's inspector general's office found.
The report released Thursday found Pratt didn't recuse herself from votes involving companies and non-profits Pratt herself listed as conflicts of interest at various points.
In total, the votes Pratt didn't recuse herself from between December 2016 and October 2019 involved more than $48 million worth of grants, contracts and pre-qualifications.
READ: Inspector General Report Of Comptroller Joan Pratt Conflicts Of Interest
The report also found "inconsistencies" in which Pratt would abstain from voting on some matters involving specific companies and organizations but not others.
"Pratt's decisions to abstain from (Board of Estimates) items that involved organizations on her (list of abstentions) were variable in that one week she abstained, then a few weeks or months later, she did not abstain," the report said.
Earlier this year, the inspector general's office found Pratt failed to recuse herself from a 2017 vote to sell 15 vacant lots for $1 each to her church, Bethel African Methodist Episcopal. The lots were valued at $1,000 each.
The report said Pratt told the inspector general's office during their investigation into the Bethel AME deal that she goes through the Board of Estimates' agenda and notes which items she will abstain from voting on.
"Pratt also told the OIG that her vote to approve the Bethel AME sale was a mistake and that her staff should have caught the mistake," the report reads. "However, the OIG has since found 30 additional instances of her failure to abstain in a time span of less than three years."
According to the report, Pratt told the inspector general's office she abstains from cases involving "anybody she has personally performed work for, past or present; anybody who has received tax work from her business, Joan M. Pratt, CPA & Associates; and any trustee position held within an organization, such as her position in Bethel AME."