Watchdog Finds Baltimore Mayor’s Office Spent $900K on Luxury Restaurant Meals

The city inspector general’s audit found that Mayor Brandon Scott’s office charged taxpayers $890,176 between July 2022 and November 2025 on meals, catering, floral arrangements and other perks, including a $52,589 tab for food in the Mayoral Suite at Ravens and Orioles games. The report identifies at least 336 procurement-card transactions that the watchdog says violated city rules governing social spending.

The OIG’s itemized tally lists $801,839 in procurement card and Workday expenditures for meals and catering, $42,691 for floral arrangements and funeral services, and $45,646 labeled as unreconciled, together totaling $890,176. The audit breaks the meal spending into roughly $568,000 in food invoices processed through Workday and $233,000 spent on food and catering with P‑cards.

Investigators flagged a range of line items they describe as perks, from crab feasts and crab balls to custom cakes, catered farewell bashes, birthday parties and baby showers. The report notes daily amenities in the mayor’s suite such as a fresh fruit tray for everyone, bottomless freshly popped popcorn, banana bread pudding and pizza, and characterizes those comforts as cruise ship-like for top staff.

City purchasing rules require a waiver and explicit Bureau of Purchasing approval to use public funds for social functions, yet the OIG concluded at least 336 P‑card transactions violated that policy. The audit recounts that the purchasing bureau denied a request to use city funds for the mayor’s annual crab feast, and that the mayor’s office then sought and obtained approval from Finance Director Michael Mocksten. Investigators reported they were told that when the mayor’s office “receives pushback” from purchasing, it will go over its head and “talk it out” with the finance director.

Chief of staff J.D. Merrill defended the expenditures in a social media post, calling them “legitimate expenses that support efficient and necessary operations of city government.” Merrill added, “The mayor’s office regularly takes on the responsibility for providing food for both its own employees and employees of other city agencies.” He argued the examples in the OIG report “seem limited to senior executives in the mayor’s office and does not note that similar celebrations are also held for staff at all levels, making it appear as though these expenditures are disproportionately applied to senior executives.” Merrill concluded, “Public servants, should not lose access to basic dignity and necessary logistical support when they opt to work long and sometimes inconvenient hours in service of their neighbors.”

The inspector general, identified in the report as Cumming, told investigators the mayoral administration has, in recent weeks, sought to restrict OIG access to city financial and personnel records, a move Cumming said would hinder scrutiny of what she described as over-the-top spending. The audit’s $45,646 in unreconciled charges remains listed as not yet recorded, underscoring outstanding accounting questions for the July 2022–November 2025 review period.