Although out of office and still repaying her debt to society for misappropriating gift cards intended for the poor, former City Council President and Mayor Sheila Dixon is full of surprises. (VoB File Photo/Stephen Janis)

COULD IT HAPPEN?  YES IT COULD
Ex-mayor will be eligible in 4 years

I get a sense that I am not going to run for City Council. — Sheila Dixon

UPDATE JULY 10: As Sheila Dixon nears the end of her 500 hours’ required community service in partial fulfillment of her plea bargain, the former mayor told Voice of Baltimore Sunday evening “it’s sad” that Baltimore voters don’t look deeply enough at the issues and at candidates’ records when voting for mayor.

“This [election, which will take place September 13] is so important,” she said in a telephone interview. People should “look fairly, look deep” before they vote. “They [the candidates] all have track records.

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“I might run for mayor.”

She won the last mayoral election by a landslide but was forced to resign after being found guilty of misappropriating gift cards donated by developers intended for poor children.

Since then former Mayor Sheila Dixon has kept a low profile, occasionally commenting on the state of the city to the media but giving few hints about her future plans.

But now the veteran of city politics says her interactions around Baltimore in the wake of the thus far quiet mayor’s race have prompted her to begin thinking about her political future in 2015, when she will be free to run again for elective office.

“Talking to people around the city I get a sense that I am not going to run for City Council, “ she said in an interview with Voice of Baltimore.

“I might run for mayor.”

Characterizing the current campaign as lacking intensity, the former city councilwoman and council president said even frontrunner Stephanie Rawlings-Blake needs to campaign harder.

“You can’t take anything for granted,” Dixon said of Rawlings-Blake’s sizable fundraising advantage, which has made Blake the de facto frontrunner.

Dixon said she was concerned that Baltimore had recently been named as one of the top ten dirtiest cities by Travel and Leisure magazine, a distinction that cuts at one of the most memorable themes of her administration, making Baltimore a cleaner, greener city.

“They thought it was a campaign prop, but it obviously wasn’t,” said Dixon.

Dixon’s tenure as mayor, though marred by scandal and corruption charges, also had success.

In 2007 she abandoned the zero tolerance strategy of mass arrests for targeted enforcement, a switch that was ridiculed at the time but is now credited with reducing the city’s intractable homicide rate. She also anointed current Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld 3rd, who is credited with successfully implementing the policy shift.

— Stephen Janis and Alan Z. Forman

sjanis@investigativevoice.com
alforman@voiceofbaltimore.org