Pugh: Council Will Get Fitzgerald's Resume, Background Findings Next Week

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh says she intends to give City Council members all the documents they need on police Commissioner-designate Joel Fitzgerald.

She told C4 as much in an interview a day after Councilman Brandon M. Scott, who chairs the council's public safety committee, complained that even Fitzgerald's resume was being kept from legislators.

The delay, Pugh said, is happening because Fitzgerald's name hasn't been officially submitted to the council. When that happens next Monday, Dec. 3, it will come along with his resume and findings of the city's background investigation.

"So we went through a process, and I think the process that we're going through right now is very different from any process that has ever taken place as it relates to the hiring of a police chief," she said, emphasizing that she wants council and community buy-in on his appointment.

She said she believes council members and community leaders will see Fitzgerald as a "change agent" who could lead department reforms and guide the department through historically high violence and compliance with the federal consent decree. Fitzgerald--who has said he doesn't plan to resign from his job as chief of police in Fort Worth, Texas, until his confirmation--was in Baltimore this week to meet with council members.

"When he comes back, he will meet with community groups, organizations, faith-based leaders, groups that are concerned about violence in the city," Pugh said.

She also refuted any notion of a power struggle between her and the council, saying lawmakers are welcome to attend weekly violence reduction meetings and to meet with her at any time, an invitation she said was extended to her as a council member by then-Mayor Martin O'Malley.

Pugh did say, however, that some background information will be withheld from council members. Specifically, she said, Fitzgerald's tax returns won't be released to the council because of the deeply private information they contain, though the council will be advised that he has filed them. Pugh's last choice to lead the department, Darryl De Sousa, resigned after federal prosecutors alleged he had willfully failed to file tax returns for three separate years. De Sousa admitted he failed to file federal and state returns for the years at issue and emphasized he paid taxes through routine withholding.