A VOICE OF BALTIMORE EXCLUSIVE
First reprint from our innovative predecessor
 
Four years ago last month Investigative Voice burst on the Baltimore news scene, bringing innovative award-winning journalism to Maryland’s largest city and beyond.  The groundbreaking news website was universally lauded and acclaimed until being usurped in mid-2011 by a disgruntled former editor who immediately caused the site to go fallow.  I.V. is now offline, presumably for good.

Founded by former Baltimore Examiner reporter Stephen Janis, who served as lead investigative journalist and content director and who is now investigative producer for Baltimore’s WBFF Fox45-TV, the first-of-its-kind website was edited by ex-Baltimore Sun reporter/copy editor and political speechwriter Alan Z. Forman, who brought innovative style and story layout to I.V. and is attempting to continue its groundbreaking work with Voice of Baltimore, which picked up in September 2011 where Investigative Voice left off.

In its heyday the innovative website was named “Best of Baltimore” by both Baltimore City Paper and Baltimore Magazine and was commended by such prestigious journalistic organizations as Harvard University’s Nieman Fellowships Foundation, among others.

As such, Voice of Baltimore is proud of its association and heritage in Investigative Voice, and it is our intention to reprint archives from VoB‘s illustrious predecessor from time to time.  At present, Janis and Forman are collaborating on a prospective television series based on their book Why Do We Kill? a survey of recent murder cases in Baltimore investigated by retired City Homicide Detective Kelvin Sewell, which was published in conjunction with Baltimore True Crime in 2011, as well as investigations led by retired homicide Lt. Stephen Tabeling.

This is the first of VoB‘s archival reprints of what we consider to be among the best stories covered by Investigative Voice.
 
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OVERSTAYING? — City pension board members spend retiree money to stay six days in South Beach to attend two-day conference
 
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED by Investigative Voice:  Sunday, May 29th 2011
 

Two members of the Baltimore City ERS Board spent $4500 of retirees' money for six days in Miami Beach recently to attend a 36-hour investment conference.

BOARD SPENDS $4500 FOR NEAR-WEEK IN MIAMI
TO OBTAIN 36 HOURS OF INVESTMENT TRAINING

Transparency vs. freebies from investment advisers
who later obtain millions in retiree funds to invest

TAXPAYERS BILLED FOR ADDITIONAL FOUR DAYS
 
By Stephen Janis
 
As the city prepares to make its heftiest contribution ever to the faltering pension trust that funds the retirement of thousands of Baltimore City employees, two board members recently revealed they spent $4500 of pension money to spend six days at a Miami Beach resort to attend an investment conference that lasted barely 36 hours.

On Wednesday the Employees’ Retirement System Board sought approval from the city’s Board of Estimates to use $4500 of pension money to pay for a six-day trip to South Beach Florida so that two trustees could attend the NCPERS (National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems) 2011 Trustee Educational Seminar at the Fontainebleau Hotel between May 21 and 22. The conference offered attendees seminars on “Managing Risk” and “Media Training,” along with tax advice and briefings on the latest investment trends, according to the gathering’s schedule.

However the agenda item submitted to the BOE disclosed that the two trustees stayed in Miami until May 26, four nights after the conference ended on May 22, an extended stay at an undisclosed South Beach resort.

The extended stay doesn’t jibe with the schedule of events listed in an agenda for the conference, which began early Saturday morning May 21 and ended shortly after noon Sunday May 22, long before the trustees departed from the swank beach resort known for its poolside bars and pristine beaches.

Emails to the members of the Baltimore Employees’ Retirement System (ERS) Board seeking comment on the extended Florida stay were not returned.

TRIPS PREVIOUSLY HIDDEN FROM PUBLIC SCRUTINY

Public vetting of trustee travel by the ERS board marks a stark turnaround for a city entity that had previously kept its sojourns hidden from public scrutiny.

The sudden shift to transparency apparently resulted from criticism of the board’s penchant for enjoying luxury accommodations, including such additional amenities as free golf, paid for by investment advisers who later often obtained lucrative contracts to manage millions in employee retirement funds.

Well-known for taking controversial jaunts to international locales like Monte Carlo and Brazil, the board’s wanderlust caught the attention of the city’s Ethics Board earlier this year when it was revealed that board members were receiving free tickets to investment conferences that were sponsored by private investment firms, fueling speculation that the freebies ran afoul of Baltimore’s Ethics Code, which forbids accepting gifts from firms seeking to do business with the city.

The city Ethics Board concluded the probe of the board’s travel without public comment; however, according to the Ethics Board’s public agenda, the trustees were given ethics training last month.

Still, the ERS Board’s latest disclosure of travel spending — which lacks details normally divulged by other city agencies, such as itemized costs and the names of who traveled — adds even more ambiguity to the often contradictory public statements made by board members on how travel to investment conferences is funded.

Last year Investigative Voice and Fox45-TV obtained a series of emails between sponsors of the so-called investment conferences and board members which detailed offers of free admission to the investment conferences held at four-star hotels and luxury resorts.

TOOK NEARLY A DOZEN TRIPS BETWEEN 2008-2009

The emails were requested through a Public Information Act request after an analysis of the pension board’s financial statement showed that board members had taken nearly a dozen trips, including excursions to international locales like Dubai and the Virgins Islands, between 2008 and 2009 while spending roughly $6,000 on travel in the same time period.

The emails included offers of free admission to investment conferences that cost financial advisers seeking to do business with the pension board thousands of dollars to attend, suggesting that the travel was in part subsidized by the same advisers seeking to do business with the city.

The latest chapter in the board’s continuing travel saga comes as the city prepares to make its largest contribution ever to the pension fund that was hammered by the 2008 stock market implosion.

In fiscal year 2012 the city will pay $67 million into the ERS fund, its largest contribution by far and roughly six times the amount of the contribution made in 2000. Payments into the fund are expected to increase dramatically in the coming decade as the city has been forced to make up poor investment performance, in part attributable to the 2008 stock market crash.

Also contributing to the fund’s shortfall are rising payments to investment advisers, which have nearly doubled in the past decade. Since 2000 the ERS Board has spent roughly $50 million on fees for an array of investment advisers.

The city has budgeted nearly $326 million to fund pensions of all city employees, including fire and police. The costs include $110 million for retiree healthcare benefits in 2012, and a $107 million payment into the Fire and Police Pension Fund.

The total funding for city pensions now equals the budget of the city Police Department and far exceeds annual school spending.
 
I.V. Public Policy Reporter Alan Z. Forman contributed to this report.
 
ssjanis@sbgtv.com
alforman@voiceofbaltimore.org