Blame for city government dysfunction rests with Mayor Scott | READER COMMENTARY

I’ll leave it to Armstrong Williams and Dan Rodricks to debate whether Mayor Brandon Scott should be reelected on the basis of his crime reduction record (“Dan Rodricks: Baltimore crime fight trending well, so why change mayors?” April 11). However, I think my recent experience with the city is good reason to say no to Mayor Scott as I think it is encountered repeatedly in dealing with city agencies as Scott must know.

In July 2008, I paid my real estate taxes for Fiscal Year 2009 on a property I own in Mount Vernon, including for two parking spaces where the taxes were approximately $75 apiece.

Three years ago, the city finance department sent me a letter saying that I had not paid the taxes on one of the parking spaces and the $75 has now grown to more than $300. I sent a letter to the department with copies of the ledger showing the payment had been made. Two years ago, I got the same letter from the finance department and, again, I sent a letter showing that the tax had been paid.

This year, the finance department once again demanded payment for the failure to pay the tax on one parking space. This time, I sent a letter to the city solicitor, the mayor and the finance department with proof that the tax had been paid and asked the solicitor to advise the finance department that, even if the tax had not been paid, there is a four-year statute of limitations that bars the collection of any unpaid taxes. The 2009 tax is now 15 years old.

Finally, the city solicitor’s office called me to tell me that it was trying to communicate with the finance department and I would be notified when it was resolved. I have heard nothing since, and that call was received over a month ago.

I realize that this is a very small problem, but it is the type of problem encountered repeatedly by people dealing with the city. This was a very simple problem to fix, and yet it is not been fixed for over three years.

Mayor Scott, as Harry Truman once famously said, the buck stops with you, the fellow on top. Surely, you have heard complaints like this one on a daily basis. Why have you not fixed the well-known problems with the finance department as well as the other city agencies?

— Joseph “Jay” A. Schwartz III, Towson

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