Baltimore youth funds redirected to mayor's office, records reveal

Baltimore’s taxpayer-backed youth fund steered millions toward Mayor Brandon Scott’s office, pulling money away from the grants pool that supports community groups and youth providers and driving BCYF’s fiscal 2026 awards down to $9.23 million, about 40 percent below the previous year.

Internal records show months of coordination between the mayor’s office and the Baltimore Children and Youth Fund, a nonprofit that gets more than 99 percent of its money from city taxpayers and is guaranteed about $16 million in fiscal year 2026 through the city charter. The proposal was first framed at about $7 million, then cut to about $6 million, but it still shifted funds that had been intended for youth initiatives, including YouthWorks, into the mayor’s office instead of the broader grant program.

That tradeoff mattered because BCYF was created in November 2016 under Question E to pay for new and expanded services for children and youth, not to replace existing city funding except in limited circumstances. The Baltimore City Inspector General says complaints about BCYF and city oversight began in December 2024, and its public synopsis lists adopted BCYF budgets of $14.225 million in fiscal 2024, $15.152 million in fiscal 2025 and $16.15 million in fiscal 2026. The fund’s grant allocation for fiscal 2026 dropped to $9.23 million, leaving less money for local charities and other grantees.

The coordination has also raised conflict-of-interest concerns because Noell West, an assistant deputy mayor who sits on BCYF’s board, was part of the process. City Council members have responded with a push for tougher oversight. In October 2025, six council members introduced legislation to require new transparency rules and a performance audit by the Baltimore City Comptroller next fiscal year and every three years after that. Councilman Mark Conway called the issue “basic accountability.”

Former Mayor Bernard “Jack” Young, who helped launch BCYF, has also said he was unhappy with how the nonprofit was operating and wanted yearly audits. Baltimore Brew reported that BCYF had spent about $75 million since 2020 and that 36 percent of its latest IRS filing went to administration and staffing, while the city Department of Audits had not audited the fund since 2019. Another report said BCYF had no documentation for the $7 million it was budgeted to send to the mayor’s office, sharpening the question now hanging over City Hall: how much of Baltimore’s youth money reached programs for kids, and how much was absorbed into the mayor’s political machinery instead.