Legal counsel for the Baltimore Children and Youth Fund wrote a letter to Sinclair Inc., the parent company of Spotlight on Maryland, complaining of “incessant media coverage” about how the nonprofit spends millions of taxpayer dollars.
BCYF is guaranteed annual funding through the Baltimore charter to support grassroots organizations that provide programs for kids. However, a series of Spotlight on Maryland investigations on BCYF’s handling of tax money sparked concerns from some local leaders and transparency experts in recent months. This included reports about how BCYF paid for several out-of-state trips for its adult staff and partners, with specific expenses for activities such as yoga. Another report detailed how BCYF awarded a nearly $1 million grant to an organization that folded months later.
Tiffany Releford of Ice Miller LLP wrote a letter this month on behalf of BCYF to Sinclair about what she described as “unrelenting media coverage” from Spotlight on Maryland, which they claimed “included inaccurate or misleading information.”
“This targeted coverage has not only caused significant reputational and financial harm to BCYF and its various grantees but has also materially impeded BCYF’s ability to carry out its critical mission of serving children in Baltimore,” Releford wrote. “[T]he repeated and slanted reporting-often lacking full context and omitting key facts-has fostered public mistrust and emboldened harassment of both BCYF and some of the grantees it serves. This harassment has escalated to such an extent that grantees have faced threats, and as a result, it has caused significant operational challenges.”
An attorney for Sinclair sent a response noting that BCYF’s legal counsel “identified no statement that is inaccurate or otherwise misleading” in Spotlight on Maryland reports.
“In making these arguments, however, you offer no examples of erroneous information, indications of bias, or specifics on how our accurate reporting has caused financial or reputational harm to BCYF,” Sinclair’s attorney wrote in a responding letter. “Absent concrete details concerning the allegedly false statements or impact on your client, we are left speculating as to what specific issue your client takes with our reporting. The generalized assertions in your letter do not justify the extraordinary action you demand.”
David Williams, the president of the Taxpayer Protection Alliance, said the letter from BCYF’s legal counsel shows the organization lacks focus on its intended mission.
“They need to spend resources not on lawyers but on being transparent and providing information to the public,” he told Spotlight on Maryland.
The letter from BCYF’s legal counsel includes a complaint about the number of public information requests filed by Spotlight on Maryland. BCYF is required by law to comply with these requests because it is funded almost entirely by taxpayer dollars.
“BCYF has had to devote substantial resources to addressing the misinformation in these relentless reports, as well as responding to an overwhelming and excessive number of Public Information Act (PIA) requests by Baltimore Sun and WBFF staff, and particularly reporter Patrick Hauf,” Releford wrote. “When calculated, these resources total over 230 hours. This is not only draining taxpayer-funded resources but is also diverting BCYF’s focus away from its core mission of supporting the youth-development ecosystem of Baltimore.”
Williams described the complaint from BCYF as a “copout.”
“The Maryland Public Information Act is practically the only way to get information out of these entities,” he told Spotlight on Maryland. “For a nonprofit to send a letter and to say that they are spending too much time to respond to these — it’s a copout.”
Several Spotlight on Maryland investigations in recent months were made possible through public information requests that resulted in documentation of BCYF’s spending.
Documents showed BCYF spent roughly $130,000 on a trip this year to New Orleans for its staff, board of directors and select grant partners. Another public information request revealed BCYF paid for a trip last year for its staff and partners to Alabama, which included a $3,600 expense for three yoga sessions and one “short breathing exercise.” The organization spent roughly another $55,000 to attend a racial equity conference in Missouri last year, according to additional obtained documents.
BCYF President Alysia Lee did not respond to repeated requests from Spotlight on Maryland for an interview.
BCYF emphasized in previous statements that its trips to New Orleans and Alabama intended to boost “capacity building” efforts for Baltimore youth organizations.
Spotlight on Maryland obtained documents in a public information request that revealed BCYF awarded a $900,000 grant to a nonprofit that folded roughly six months later. BCYF said only $33,750 of the funds were spent, with the remaining funds returned.
Several Baltimore area leaders criticized BCYF in the wake of the Spotlight on Maryland reports.
Former Mayor Bernard “Jack” Young, who led efforts to establish BCYF nearly a decade ago, took issue with the organization’s trip to Alabama.
“Right now, [BCYF] is not anything that I envisioned,” Young told Spotlight on Maryland in December. “That fund was created so that community-based organizations could get funding for the programs they had for the youth. Not a junket for grownups.”
The newly passed Baltimore City budget sends about $16 million in taxpayer money to BCYF, which then sends roughly $7 million of those funds to the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development — a development that was contested but ultimately passed by city council.
“This idea that the city government, particularly the mayor’s office, could then come whenever there’s a shortfall and utilize the funds, I think felt deeply inappropriate to several members of this council,” Baltimore City Council President Zeke Cohen said in June.
Baltimore City Councilman Mark Conway said he voted against the budget because of the shifted money from BCYF to Mayor Brandon Scott’s office. Conway said he will continue to push for answers from BCYF regarding its spending and hopes to see the organization welcome questions from the news media moving forward.
“Attempts to thwart investigations of the media are counterproductive,” he told Spotlight on Maryland. “When the Youth Fund is sending money wherever, including the mayor’s office, and not being accountable or transparent about that spending — it really, really has me worried.”
Spotlight on Maryland is a joint venture by FOX45 News, The Baltimore Sun and WJLA in Washington, D.C. Have a news tip? Contact Patrick Hauf at pjhauf@sbgtv.com.
