Waste of the Day: Rental Car “Mistake” Costs Baltimore Taxpayers Millions

Topline: A behind-the-scenes mess has stopped the City of Baltimore from finding a new rental car dealer, forcing it to extend its current contract five times — most recently because an employee “mistakenly canceled” the city’s advertisement for new dealers.

Baltimore leases cars for city employees

Key facts: Baltimore signed a contract in 2016 with Enterprise, Nextcar and Acme Auto Leasing to provide cars for police officers, city council employees and more.

The contract expired in July 2022 without a new agreement in place. The procurement department asked officials to extend the contract while it looked for a new supplier.

That didn’t work. In April 2023, the procurement department asked officials to reject all applicants for the new rental car contract and extend the current one while it tried again. The same three companies had applied for the job, but none of their offers were “in the best interest of the city,” the department said.

The city extended the contract again and again while the procurement department tried, unsuccessfully, to find a new car dealer.

Each time, the cost of the cars rose — from a starting point of $2 million per year in 2016 to the current price of $4.4 million per year.

On Aug. 7, the city’s Board of Estimates unanimously approved another one-year extension. Someone at the city had accidentally deleted the procurement notice, and Baltimore car dealers could not apply to replace the current contract.

“Last year it looked like the requisition was canceled unintentionally and nobody picked up on it,” Chief Procurement Officer Adam Manne said. “We are comfortable that by the end of this contract extension, if not before, we will have a new contract in place.”

Costs the city millions

The contract has cost the city $34.3 million since it was first awarded in 2016 — including $12.8 million since officials started looking for a new supplier in 2022.

Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com.

Background: The error is potentially embarrassing for the city, and no one seems willing to fess up to the mistake.

City documents say only that “the agency” made the mistake, but it’s unclear whether that’s the police or the procurement department. The Comptroller’s Office told OpenTheBooks they “believe” the police were responsible. The police department did not return a request for comment.

Manne did not offer an explanation while speaking to the Board of Estimates this August.

The city has also not disclosed which employees are driving its cars.

OpenTheBooks filed an open records request in January for information on Baltimore’s take-home vehicles. It was ignored until OpenTheBooks asked again in February; the city said they “didn’t recall” seeing the request and would produce the information.

Asked for the info a third time in June, within hours, the city produced a spreadsheet listing only 12 take-home cars, even though the city’s own website says it operates over 5,600 vehicles.

OpenTheBooks asked why thousands of cars were missing from the data, but the city did not answer.

Summary

Summary: Baltimore supposedly has one of the top-performing fleets in the country, but there’s mismanagement and a lack of transparency surrounding its spending.

This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.