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Council questions use of Children and Youth Fund to support YouthWorks; administration says board approved request
Summary
City Council members pressed the administration about two recent uses of the Children and Youth Fund to support YouthWorks and summer programs. Deputy Mayor JD Merrill and city officials said the BCYF board approved a multi-part request and the administration will provide legal opinions and board materials to the council.
City Council members asked why the city's Children and Youth Fund was tapped this summer to help cover YouthWorks and related summer-engagement programming, and administration officials told the Budget & Appropriations Committee the request was presented to and approved by the Baltimore Children and Youth Fund (BCYF) board.
"I have enormous respect for the work that you've been doing in our city, but I want to understand why this decision was made to utilize the youth fund in this way," Council President Zeke Cohen said during questioning, referencing two instances members said drew funds into YouthWorks and a summer collaborative.
Interim Deputy Mayor JD Merrill told council members that the city faced a larger budget gap this year and that the administration approached the BCYF board to ask it to invest in YouthWorks seats to avoid reducing opportunities for young people. "Any sort of budget was approved by the BCYF board," Merrill said, adding the board's action followed a need to maintain seats and to account for wage increases. He said ARPA and other sources had helped expand available YouthWorks slots but a shortfall remained.
City Administrator Faith Leach (identified in the hearing) told the committee the city sought a combination of operating-budget and fund-balance requests from the BCYF board: $3,900,000 for YouthWorks, $1,000,000 from fund balance for the mayor's summer youth engagement strategy and $2,100,000 from fund balance for a summer funding collaborative. The administration said funds went directly to wages and grants for young people rather than to administrative overhead.
Council members pushed for more transparency on process and intent. "When we write legislation, that when we, the council and the administration, partner, that it's important to acknowledge that there are also community based organizations ... that had historically been denied funding," Cohen said, urging review of the ordinance's intent and a public conversation about precedent.
Officials said the administration would provide the law department's written legal analysis showing how the ordinance language was applied and would supply BCYF board meeting minutes and related documentation. The administration described the actions as a board-approved partnership to maintain summer employment slots and to fund summer grants; council members said they expect documentation to explain the decision and asked that future uses be handled with more public coordination.
Committee members deferred some technical questions about participant counts and funding details to a separate hearing with the Mayor's Office of Employment Development, scheduled for the next day.
