Baltimore Mayor’s Office Staffing and Budget Surge Sparks Fiscal Controversy

The Baltimore mayor’s office has swelled to 118 staffers with a $24.7 million budget, a near fivefold dollar increase from 10 years ago when the office had 39 employees and $5.2 million, according to WBFF and FOX Baltimore reporting. That decade-long surge has coincided with a string of high-profile promotions and raises that critics say will shape city finances through 2028.

A narrower snapshot cited by city budget documents and by Cumming shows the “Mayoralty” rising from 77 to 118 positions since 2022, a different baseline that underscores rapid recent hiring. Cumming asked the City Council to fund inspector positions and said she was “happy to receive her first staffing increase since 2022.” Cumming also argued the inspector request made fiscal sense: “It pretty much defies logic because my office pays for itself, in that this year we’re going to be identifying over $10 million in waste or savings,” she said.

Money for executive pay increases came through the Board of Estimates, where the mayor appoints a majority of members. The Board approved raises for seven department leaders that extend through the end of Mayor Brandon M. Scott’s second term in 2028. The approved changes include Calvin Young’s jump from $140,000 as a senior advisor to $250,000 as chief of staff, a 79% increase; Richard Worley’s Baltimore Police Department chief salary rising from $285,000 to $311,427.20; Khalil Zaied at Department of Public Works from $245,000 to $252,350.62; and others including Berke Attila, Faith Leach, Reginald Moore, Ebony Thompson, and James Wallace receiving six-figure adjustments.

Calvin Young’s promotion drew attention because he joined the administrative team last September, had been treasurer on Scott’s 2024 reelection campaign, and was promoted after seven months in the office. City records show the mayor’s staffing and contract moves arriving as the city also confronts sharp operational costs elsewhere.

Overtime and staffing shortages produced sweeping supplemental appropriations that eroded a recent budget surplus. Last October the council authorized a $53.85 million supplementary appropriation to the fiscal 2025 budget; subsequent appropriations exceeded that sum by more than $2.65 million, effectively wiping out the windfall. Budget Director Laura Larsen said the appropriations were largely driven by staffing shortages within agencies. The Baltimore City Fire Department received $33.36 million for overtime and unbudgeted EMS contractual services for fiscal 2024, and other transfers included Recreation and Parks $6.97 million, Department of Public Works $5.98 million, and Health $5.25 million.

The overtime surge produced an extreme payroll anomaly: paramedic David Lunsford, hired in 2003 with a base salary of $113,158, earned $358,586 in fiscal 2024 and became the city’s highest-paid employee that year. Taxpayer advocate David Williams warned of longer-term costs: “This is a long-term liability for taxpayers because this will cost more and more money every year.”

The combination of an expanded mayoral staff, Board-approved raises through 2028, and multi-million-dollar agency appropriations leaves Baltimore facing immediate budget pressure and governance questions about approvals, oversight, and which positions should be funded as permanent investments versus short-term responses to staffing gaps.