Bill Henry has a deep understanding of how City Hall functions—and dysfunctions. The lifelong Baltimorean worked under Mayor Kurt Schmoke, and later served as legislative director to Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke and chief of staff to former Council President Lawrence Bell. Running for Comptroller, the 4th District Councilman’s message was clear: If voters knew how the city spent their money, officials would spend it better.

What made you believe you could upset well-funded, six-term incumbent Joan Pratt?
If you make an argument that directly responds to the people’s concerns, it doesn’t matter how powerful your opponent is. My team and I knew that we had a message that was compelling enough to win. The question was whether we’d have the resources to get that message in front of every voter.

The Comptroller’s Office has been beset by controversy and accusations of favoritism for decades. How will you restore confidence in City Hall?
Transparency. In government, sunshine is often the best disinfectant. The public must have greater access to the proceedings of the Board of Estimates, where the business of government is transacted. We also must continue to reform ethics policies and financial disclosures.

What’s the most important function that the Comptroller performs? Is it voting on Board of Estimates contracts?
Thorough auditing can result in immediate and lasting change within city agencies. Unless we change the Board’s composition, the Comptroller’s single vote will rarely make a difference. Just being on the Board, however, provides a bully pulpit for communicating to the public, both what is happening at the BOE and what the Comptroller’s auditors are finding.

You’ve got an extraordinary range of government experience. What elected official did you learn from the most?
That’s an easy one—Mary Pat Clarke. I worked on her re-election campaign for Council President in 1991, in her office as legislative director and assistant to her chief of staff, on her mayoral campaign in 1995, and as her colleague for the last 12 years. I’ve never met anyone more committed to her constituents or to the concept of community empowerment. She’s been a great example of how elected office should be about the people and not the official.

On a personal note, you’re on the board of the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company. Where does your love for and interest
in theater come from?
I was on stage for 30 years—school plays from grade school through college and then community theater—until I was elected. Being on the
CSC board gives me a chance to help other people do theater and enjoy theater, which is enough now.

If you could wave a magic wand to make one policy change in Baltimore, what would it be?
A universal basic income, which would directly alleviate poverty in Baltimore City and transform our economy.

Baltimore City Council President Brandon Scott passed former mayor Sheila Dixon by ever-so-slightly a margin Sunday night as mail-in votes continued to be counted over the weekend in the city’s Democratic mayoral primary.

Scott, who had been trailing Dixon since polls closed last Tuesday, now leads by 388 votes, according to the latest results posted by the State’s Board of Elections late Sunday. In a crowded field with 23 candidates garnering votes, Scott’s tally has moved up to 28.7 percent of the votes with Dixon’s slipping support now at 28.4 percent.

Stefanie Mavronis, director of communication in the city council president’s office, told Baltimore Sunday evening that an estimated 15,000-20,000 votes still remain uncounted. She said the hope is that mail-in vote counting will be completed by end of day Tuesday.

The 36-year-old Scott, a Park Heights native, received the endorsement of the Baltimore Sun’s editorial board. A presence at protests and marches throughout the city since the death of unarmed George Floyd during an arrest in Minneapolis, Scott continues to benefit from an upsurge in support among those casting later ballots.

Dixon, who pled guilty to embezzlement and was forced to resign from the mayor’s office amid a cloud of corruption dating back to her term as city council president, led by a slim margin in several polls leading up to the election.

A significantly smaller number of in-person polling places were open last Tuesday as a precaution against COVID-19.

City mail ballots were required to be postmarked by June 2 or placed in local ballot drop boxes by 8 p.m. on that date. The state had already postponed its April 28 primary to June 2 as part of a series of actions to protect residents from the coronavirus pandemic. State Board of Elections staff have also been putting the paper mail-in ballots in “quarantine” for 24 hours as a precaution against the virus.

U.S. Treasury Department official Mary Miller, who has never held elected office, currently sits in third place, with 15.5 percent of the vote. Former state Deputy Attorney General Thiru Vignarajah is in fourth at 11.4 percent. Incumbent Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young has pulled just 6.4 percent of the tally, and former police spokesman T.J. Smith has 5.9 percent of the vote.

In the closely watched Democratic primary race for city comptroller, widely respected City Councilman Bill Henry continues to grow his lead over two-decade-plus incumbent Joan Pratt. He now leads 53.9 percent to 46.1 percent, and by nearly 10,000 votes. Pratt has been under fire for her longstanding personal, political, and business relationship with former Mayor Catherine Pugh.

The election of Scott and Henry over Dixon and Pratt would mark a generational change in the city’s leadership, just as the overhaul of the city council did in 2016 after the first election since the death of Freddie Gray while in Baltimore police custody.

In another key race for city council president, Nick Mosby, a former city council member and current state delegate, is assured of winning. Mosby—whose wife, Marilyn Mosby, is the state’s attorney for Baltimore City—has 40.7 percent of the vote so far. Current city council member Shannon Sneed has 28.6 percent of the vote. Former city council member Carl Stokes has 21.6 percent of the tally.

Meanwhile, with Young, Scott, and Henry leaving the city council in pursuit of higher office, as well as the retirements of Mary Pat Clarke and Ed Reisinger, the city council will again undergo another transformation.

Among the new members expected to take office pending the primary certification this week and November’s general election are Danielle McCray, who initially filled Young’s seat when he rose to mayor after Catherine Pugh’s resignation, in the 2nd District; James Torrence in the 7th District; Phylicia Porter in the 10th District; Antonio Glover in the 13th District; and Odette Ramos in the 14th District.

Among current city council members leading by comfortable margins are Zeke Cohen in the 1st District; Ryan Dorsey in the 3rd District; Isaac Schleifer in the 5th District; Sharon Green Middleton in the 6th District; Kristerfer Burnett in the 8th District; John Bullock in the 9th District; Eric Costello in the 11th District; and Robert Stokes Jr. in the 12th District.

With handmade signs, carnations, and candy in tow, a group of Southeast Baltimore small business owners are taking to the medians of President Street this week to wave and give out goodies to morning commuters coming into the city.

Among them Tuesday morning was a smiling Nick Johnson, owner of furniture store Su Casa in Fells Point, who stood alongside Sergio Vitale of Aldo’s, Patrick Russell of Kooper’s Tavern, Beth Hawks of Zelda Zen, Max’s Taphouse owners Ron and Gail Furman—who gave away wooden tokens redeemable for free beer at their bar—and others proudly holding signs with slogans such as “You are Our Valentine” and “Small Businesses Welcome You.”

“For me the fun part is I’ve met a bunch of my customers in traffic,” Johnson says. “It’s nice to put a smile on their faces. That was the whole intent. Some people are like, ‘Isn’t there a larger message? Is this a political thing?’ And the answer is no, this is about smiles and waves, and that’s it.”

The mission behind the gathering at one of the city’s most prominent entryways at the bottom of I-83—a location often frequented by squeegee kids, people who are experiencing homelessness, and organizations collecting donations—is part of a larger small business initiative called “Love Local Bmore” spearheaded by councilmembers Zeke Cohen and Bill Henry.

“We’ve heard from far too many people in surrounding counties that they don’t come to Baltimore anymore,” says Vitale of Aldo’s, mentioning negative perceptions of the city based on media coverage of the crime rate. “All of those stories deserve a lot of attention, but at the same time a lot of us here in the city are doing great things, and we have employees who depend on people visiting. So we wanted to counter that narrative with love, positivity, and a little generosity.”

Gathering on President Street is seen by many as the first action plan in moving the Love Local Bmore project forward. Johnson, a Fells Point Main Street board member, says that the idea was a result of him and his neighbors collectively “feeling the impact of fewer people downtown.”

“One of the things we noticed is how conditioned we’ve become to trying to ignore people in the street,” Vitale adds. “It seems like everyone has blinders on, but once we broke through that and people realized we weren’t asking for anything, just giving things away, most of them were super positive. It was sort of a pep rally for small businesses in a lot of ways.”

The owners plan to continue their presence during the morning commute throughout the rest of the week leading up to Valentine’s Day. Vitale even hints that there could be additional free sweets, including cookies made by bakers in Little Italy.

Johnson says that the hope is for this to inspire other business owners in different areas of the city to start similar projects, or even join in on President Street. (Anna Leventis, owner of SoBo Cafe in Federal Hill, was among those waving on Tuesday morning.)

As Vitale puts it: “When you lead with love, all other things fall into place.”

“I had such a blast, all of us did,” he adds. “Gail Furman told me, ‘You’re going to be reinvigorated by this. You’re going to go back to your business and feel super pumped and charged to be in Baltimore.’ She was 100 percent right.”

Former Baltimore Mayor Thomas D’Alesandro III, brother of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, died at his home in North Baltimore Sunday. He was 90. The cause of death was complications from a stroke.

D’Alesandro III, affectionately known as “Young Tommy,” led City Hall from 1967-1971 and then surprised many by choosing not to run for reelection. His tenure coincided with a tumultuous period in the country that included the 1968 riots in Baltimore—which was already facing the effects of de-industrialization and suburban flight following the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Considered a progressive on the civil rights issues of the day, he was the son of Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., the longtime mayor and congressman known as “Big Tommy” or “Tommy the Elder.” When he was president of the City Council, D’Alesandro III met with King in Baltimore, where the pair discussed civil rights legislation before the council at the time.

“Tommy dedicated his life to our city,” his sister, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, said in a statement. “A champion of civil rights, he worked tirelessly for all who called Baltimore home. Tommy was a leader of dignity, compassion and extraordinary courage, whose presence radiated hope upon our city during times of struggle and conflict.

“My husband Paul and our entire family are devastated by the loss of our patriarch, my beloved brother,” Pelosi continued, describing her oldest brother as “the finest public servant I have ever known.”

Current Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young said D’Alesandro III will be remembered for his commitment to Baltimore and the “important strides” he made while in office, including “creating summer recreation programs for youth, removing racial barriers in employment and education, and laying the groundwork for what would become the world-famous Inner Harbor.”

Current City Council President Brandon Scott said that, as mayor, D’Alesandro III “understood the need to bridge communities and worked to eliminate racial barriers in City Hall.”

“There was absolutely no communication between the races, none whatsoever,” D’Alesandro III told NPR in 2008, describing the time he took office. “It was a segregated city. It was a Southern city.”

After graduating from then Loyola College in Baltimore, D’Alesandro III studied law at the University of Maryland School of Law in the city. He also served in the U.S. Army for four years before running for office. He was elected to the City Council in 1962, and the president of the Baltimore City Council in 1963. When he ran for mayor in 1967, he bested fellow attorney and eventual Orioles owner Peter Angelos in the Democratic primary.

D’Alesandro III appointed George Russell as his city solicitor, and Russell became the first black member of the Board of Estimates. He named Roland Patterson the first black superintendent of the city school system and appointed Baltimore’s first African-American, Rev. Marion Bascomb, to the city’s Board of Fire Commissioners.

“I know he was disappointed by the effect of the riots on what we were trying to do,” Joseph Lee Smith, a black member of D’Alesandro III’s staff, told The Baltimore Sun in 1998. “But I never noticed him being despondent. In the three and a half years that followed, I thought he was very determined and effective in getting the poverty programs in place.”

D’Alesandro III was preceded in office by Republican Theodore McKeldin, considered a liberal, and succeeded in office by William Donald Schaefer.

“We were trying to do it all—improve schools, housing, community development, policing,” Kalman R. “Buzzy” Hettleman, an assistant to D’Alesandro III, told Baltimore magazine last year. “Drugs weren’t a big issue, but policing was. [Donald] Pomerleau was the commissioner, and he was a controversial figure. Gruff. The mayor was under great pressure to appoint an African-American police commissioner [which didn’t happen until 1984 with Bishop Robinson].”

Robert Embry, president of the Abell Foundation, had been appointed by D’Alesandro III to head the then-new Department of Housing when the ’68 riots broke out. “So-called ‘blockbusting’ was in full swing in the Northwood and Edmondson Village neighborhoods, and that was a big issue [at the time],” Embry told Baltimore in a 2018 story on the 50th commemoration of the 1968 events.

D’Alesandro inspired many newcomers to city politics, City Councilman Bill Henry noted in Facebook post, including Henry’s father, a then-26-year-old activist whom the mayor named his youth coordinator and placed on his senior staff. “Looking back on the mayors of my lifetime, ‘Young Tommy’ stands out as having recognized the importance of all young people, especially in terms of their ability to move society forward when properly motivated,” Henry said.

His decision not to seek reelection, D’Alesandro III maintained, was not based on his experience dealing with the riots that broke out four months after his inauguration. Rather, he said it was largely an economic decision—he couldn’t afford to raise his five children while taking home $695 every two weeks.

He also admitted, however, that he did not love the job and public life the way his father did. He spent the rest of his career as a private practice attorney while remaining an informal political advisor to several local officials, including former Mayor Martin O’Malley.

His father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., served in Congress from 1939 to 1947, and then as mayor of Baltimore from 1947 to 1959. His mother, Anunciata “Nancy,” née Lombardi, D’Alesandro was an effective political organizer and helped him become Baltimore’s first Catholic mayor.

Recently, a D’Alesandro family portrait—painted when D’Alesandro III and Pelosi were still children and their father was assuming office in City Hall—has been restored and hung in Germano’s Piattini, the popular Little Italy restaurant across the street from their family’s rowhouse.

Last week, Baltimore also lost Congressman Elijah Cummings, a close colleague of Nancy Pelosi, who passed away at age 68.

When D’Alesandro III married Margaret “Margie” Piracci on June 8, 1952, some 5,000 people turned out to witness the occasion at the Baltimore Basilica. The fire department had to turn even more people way and two women reportedly fainted.

According to reporting from The Sun, the pope sent his blessings, President Harry Truman sent a silver tray as a wedding present, D’Alesandro III’s father, then mayor, served as best man, and his youngest sibling Nancy, later Nancy Pelosi, was a bridesmaid. It’s been said that it was as close to royal wedding as Baltimore has experienced.

“His life and leadership were a tribute to the Catholic values with which we were raised: faith, family, patriotism,” said Pelosi, who grew up with her brother and family in Baltimore’s Little Italy. “He profoundly believed, as did our parents, that public service was a noble calling and that we all had a responsibility to help others.”

Shortly before the ransomware attack that has plagued Baltimore’s city government, Bill Henry, councilman for Baltimore City’s 4th District, was helping shepherd a piece of rezoning legislation. The planning department has protocols in place where it doesn’t print out conditions until it’s time for a commission hearing. When the attack hit, no one in the department was able to access their email, and things grounded to a halt.

“[The attack] has resulted in everybody having to do even more work to try to accomplish the same objective as we’ve always been trying to do,” Henry says. “It’s added time and extra work to the same problem solving.” In this case, Henry had to contact the developer directly to get the information he needed, a workaround that just isn’t possible for every scenario.

As it stands, government officials are unable to send and receive email, and the city’s digital systems—which ordinarily help facilitate real estate transactions, parking tickets, and other municipal functions—are all offline. This has forced the implementation of workarounds, with a manual system for property transactions in place. The city is encouraging people to set aside the money they would normally pay on a bill so that they have it readily available to pay when systems are back online. In total, the city is working to ensure that interactions with local governments are as seamless as is possible given the circumstances.

“The overarching goal is: How do we minimize the inconvenience that they’re going to experience off of this?’” says Lester Davis, a spokesman for Mayor Jack Young. “The departments of finance, law, public works, transportation have all been working diligently to try to minimize disruptions.”

An attack like the one Baltimore has faced is debilitating—it effectively puts the city at somewhat of a standstill. Henry also notes that it comes in a transitional period in top leadership positions, as those in charge are faced with a crisis while adjusting to their new roles.

And, while the mechanisms to try to stop some of the bleeding are in place now, the total damage is still being calculated and won’t be fully realized in the near future. “I think it’s going to be difficult to know exactly how to assess the damage here,” says David Troy, CEO of 410 Labs. “It’s going to turn out to be a bigger deal than we can imagine.”

Troy has decades of experience in technology and design, and understands what an attack like this means to the processes and firmware of the city. He says that, in order for things to return to a semblance of normalcy, it’s going to take an effort from the ground up.

“Regardless of whether we pay the ransom or not, we still have to go through this process of tearing everything down and putting it back online,” Troy says. “In many cases, that’s also going to mean getting new software versions. In situations where we can’t get updated versions, those need to be assessed to see whether or not they pose a substantial risk, and we have to look at how to mitigate those risks.”

The city’s efforts to circumvent the issue have not all gone swimmingly, either. In an attempt to have some form of online communication, some departments created Gmail accounts to establish a new channel. The issue there, though, is that Google charges a fee for what it deems business accounts, so they were briefly shut down. The misunderstanding was resolved, but it was another mark on what has been a difficult several weeks.

Troy has his own suspicions as to what caused the attack, speculating it might have been a situation where phishing was involved, in which someone unwittingly clicks on something they shouldn’t have and hackers can tamper with city functions. But he also cites apathy and human nature as elements at play. If a system is working and humming along, people don’t feel the need to update its infrastructure.

He is also wary of what will become of the records being taken manually while systems are offline; they’ll need to be inputted, too. It’s another example of the complete butterfly effect something like this can cause, which also includes an increased workload for the people trying to keep the city running in the face of adversity.

While it has not yet been determined what exactly did cause the attack, new reports suggest that the software used to carry it out could have originated from the NSA, where it was leaked and co-opted by hackers. If this is in fact the case, the city could seek federal funding to help in system recovery efforts.

“We have folks who come in an hour before their 12-hour shift starts to receive training [on alternative workarounds], meeting regularly to assess throughout the day what’s going on and to learn,” Davis says. “It’s a huge testament to the power of teamwork.”

If anything, things are going back to how they used to be in city government before the advent of the internet. People paying for utilities by writing checks, meter maids filling out parking tickets by hand, and inter-government communication is totally offline for the moment.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about what it was like pre-internet,” says Henry, who was working in City Hall 25 years ago. “We largely communicated by landline phone calls, by memo when it was complex, and we communicated in person more. That’s one of the things we are seeing more of now also. Now, that’s also an alternative.”

It’s a cliche, but life goes on—in the case of the city, it has to, lest the backlog get to a point where things become untenable. As the city works to get its systems updated, more secure, and back online, that’s all they really can do. If there is any silver lining at all that can be taken from all of this, it’s that these disruptions are going to force a massive overhaul of the city’s systems in many different phases.

“The city is still functioning, it’s still moving, babies are being born, buses are running like clockwork,” Davis says. “We really appreciate the patience that folks have shown.”