BALTIMORE, MD (WBFF) — An audit presented to the Baltimore Board of Estimates on Wednesday found that the city’s fire department allowed several nonemployees to use take-home vehicles, which are typically reserved for responding to emergencies.
Presented by City Auditor Josh Pasch, the audit identified 38 take-home vehicles that the Baltimore City Fire Department assigned across the 2023, 2024 and 2025 fiscal years. Of these, Pasch said two were assigned to “a deputy mayor and his staff,” whom Mayor Brandon Scott later suggested in an exchange with City Council President Zeke Cohen was his Deputy Mayor of Public Safety, Anthony “Tony” Barksdale. Barksdale died suddenly last month at age 53. Scott, however, did not mention Barksdale by name during the meeting.
“So when we looked for the cause, we were informed that the mayor’s office directed the fire department to assign the take-home vehicles to the deputy mayor and his staff member,” Pasch said, adding that this “can result in a shortage of available take-home vehicles, which can affect the effective operation of the fire department.”
When Cohen asked Baltimore City Fire Department Chief James Wallace how distributing take-home vehicles to non-agency employees aligned with the city’s strategy for using them, Scott interjected: “That’s not something you should be asking.”
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