Something in the Water in the Inner Harbor?

From Eric Dondero:

Flashback! Mayor Sheila Dixon accepts gift cards in exchange for city contracts.

We reported here at LR, "Baltimore Mayor Dixon Convicted on Embezzlement charges: The Fall-out begins -Bribery, Backroom backslapping and shady Business deals" Dec. 5, 2009:

On Wednesday, Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, a Democrat, was convicted on one count of Embezzlement. Dixon accepted gift cards for Target and Best Buy from developers in return for favorable reviews on lucrative city contracts. The cards were intended for use by Baltimore's homeless.

Reports UPI:

Dixon was soliciting gift cards from a developer, then spending the cards instead of giving them to the needy as planned.

New Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake in growing Scandal over special City Contracts for John Hopkins

And now this from the Baltimore Sun "Mayor voting on deals with husband's employer City attorney investigating" March 17:

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has voted to approve more than $900,000 in deals with Johns Hopkins since her husband began working for one of its divisions late last year — a possible violation of the city ethics code.

She has voted on at least $947,000 in deals involving Hopkins since mid-December, including a $226,200 contract last week for Hopkins employees to provide HIV counseling and testing services for patients at a sexually transmitted disease clinic run by the city health department.

Rawlings-Blake voted in December to pay Bayview Medical Center $26,000 to fund a van that provides HIV and sexually transmitted disease testing in Southeast Baltimore. She voted in January to give the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health $94,000 to prevent HIV infections among men who have sex with men.

Fox Baltimore reports that the matter is being increasingly "scrutinized" by the City Solicitor.

Sidenote; And the Mayor who preceded Rawlings-Blake and Sheila Dixon? Current Maryland Governor and Democrat "Rising Star" Martin O'Malley.

No doubt, if O'Malley ever decides to run for US Senate or even higher, his record as Baltimore Mayor will come under intense scrutiny.