BALTIMORE (WBFF) — Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott is proposing to spend millions of taxpayer dollars on a program operated in partnership with a nonprofit led by a Maryland lawmaker whose organization has faced repeated audit concerns.
Scott’s budget would send $3 million in city funds to “sustain the Clean Corps program,” which was previously funded with federal dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act.
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The program runs in part through the Civic Works nonprofit, which is headed by state Del. Dana Stein, a Baltimore County Democrat who makes about $230,000 per year at the organization.
Clean Corps aims to beautify streets, alleys and green spaces in Baltimore City. Civic Works received more than $6 million in federal taxpayer dollars for the program from 2024 to 2025, according to federal single audits.
Over the past decade, federal single audits identified repeated problems involving financial reporting, grant compliance and internal controls at Civic Works. Auditors determined in both 2024 and 2025 that the nonprofit did not qualify as a low-risk auditee under federal standards. The 2024 audit also identified a significant deficiency in the nonprofit’s reporting of federal spending, finding that approximately $1 million in federal expenditures had initially been omitted from audit schedules and later corrected.
Questions surrounding Clean Corps extend beyond Civic Works. A 2024 report by the Baltimore City Inspector General found that another nonprofit participating in the program had its $1.6 million contract terminated and owed approximately $129,000 in repayments. A subsequent FOX45 News investigation this year found that those taxpayer funds have not been recovered.
Baltimore City Councilman Mark Conway (District 4) said he is skeptical about providing additional taxpayer funding to Clean Corps before outstanding concerns are resolved.
“My frustration with the program is in instances where we know there has been fraud or misuse of money, and we haven’t resolved those issues, and we continue to spend more money in that program without resolving those issues,” Conway said. “I think we are yet again asking to send taxpayer dollars to a program with little oversight or accountability.”
A spokeswoman for Civic Works said the federal single audits did not identify specific problems with the Clean Corps program itself. She said Civic Works helped clean more than 20,000 alleys, 18,000 vacant lots and 2,300 tons of trash through the program.
A spokesperson for Mayor Scott emailed a statement to Spotlight on Maryland that similarly emphasized federal single audits had “no findings, questioned costs, or concerns related to Clean Corps.” Additionally, the statement noted that city oversight measures flagged issues with a Clean Corps grantee, then terminated the contract, all prior to the Baltimore City IG findings.
“Mayor Scott will begin using the general fund to sustain Clean Corps because it is a successful program that creates clean and healthy communities across the city, putting resources in Baltimore’s neighborhoods that need them the most,” Scott’s spokesperson wrote.
The mayor’s office also noted that the Baltimore Civic Fund nonprofit handles Clean Corps funding and is responsible for recovering the $129,000 in taxpayer dollars.
The Baltimore Civic Fund, whose board includes five employees in Mayor Scott’s office, did not respond to questions about whether they’re working to recover the $129,000 taxpayer dollars.
David McGarry, a research director at the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, said Baltimore City needs more oversight measures over how it sends taxpayer dollars to nonprofits.
“The Scott administration has not dedicated much time and energy to ensuring fiscal responsibility,” McGarry said. “The incentives that have been set up do not in any way promote fiscal responsibility or good government and good administration. The incentives that have been set up, to the contrary, incentivize sloppy practices on the parts of grantees. And until those incentives are changed by city officials, Baltimore residents can expect very little to change.”
Conway said he would rather see Clean Corps funding directed to the Baltimore City Department of Public Works, which already performs many of the same functions and operates under established government oversight mechanisms.
“We need to make sure that we fully support the Department of Public Works (DPW) and the folks that are there,” Conway said. “As we divert money into a program that is inconsistent and sometimes unproven, it really makes you wonder whether or not the juice is worth the squeeze.”
Baltimore City Councilman Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer (District 5) expressed similar criticism of proposed Clean Corps funding in a Facebook post last month.
“Instead of ending the program now that the money has run out, taxpayers are now stuck with a new $3 MILLION annual General Fund burden,” he wrote. “Even worse, after money from the program went missing, the Baltimore Civic Fund is refusing to take legal action to recover the money or the assets that were purchased with that money. So now Baltimore taxpayers get the worst of both worlds: Broken promises. Missing money. And another permanent bill for our constituents who are already paying the highest property taxes in the state.”
“We need to stop throwing good money after bad. If we have 3 million to spend on cleaning up our streets, it needs to go to the hardworking men and women of DPW,” Schleifer added.
City records reviewed by Spotlight on Maryland show Civic Works has received approximately $13.5 million through Baltimore City government funding streams since August 2022.
The proposed funding to Clean Corps comes as Civic Works continues to receive substantial taxpayer funding. A Spotlight on Maryland analysis of federal audits found Civic Works and affiliated entities received approximately $145 million in government funding between 2016 and 2025.
According to its IRS tax filings, Civic Works increased its staff by 21% from 2020 to 2024. However, its salary spending over the same period increased by 100%, from $5.8 million to $12 million. Salaries accounted for between 58% and 68% of annual spending in those years.
Spotlight on Maryland will continue its investigation into Civic Works in the coming days, focusing on how Stein steers Maryland state taxpayer funding to his organization.
Spotlight on Maryland is a joint venture by The Baltimore Sun, FOX45 News and WJLA in Washington, D.C. Have a news tip? Call 410-467-4670 or emailSpotlightOnMaryland@sbgtv.com. Contact Patrick Hauf atpjhauf@sbgtv.comand @PatrickHauf.
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