When politicians and "activists" speak of redistributing wealth, this is what they mean

so who doesn’t like free crab cakes?

Mayor of Baltimore spent nearly $1M on lavish perks like crab feasts and tabs at Ravens football games for staffers

The Baltimore mayor’s office spent more than $890,000 on lavish meals and parties — including crab feasts, catered “farewell” bashes and massive tabs at Ravens football games, according to a report Wednesday.

Mayor Brandon Scott’s administration blew taxpayer cash on over-the-top perks for staffers — including $52,589 on grub in the Mayoral Suite at Ravens and Orioles games — in a gross violation of the city’s “public funds” rules, according to baltimorebrew.com.

One of the elaborate meals was served at a $3,636 farewell “office party” for Scott’s former campaign manager Marvin James, which featured a $324 balloon arch, a $217 cake and a $2,600 catered spread with crab balls and grilled salmon in March 2025, according to the outlet.

James, however, didn’t actually leave City Hall and is still on the payroll as the mayor’s $190,000-plus-a-year senior adviser.

In total, the office spent $801,839 on meals and catering, $42,691 on floral arrangements and funeral services, and $45,646 “unreconciled” expenses between July 2022 and November 2025, according to the outlet.

The administration spent lavishly on food such as banana bread pudding, pizza, bottomless freshly popped popcorn and “a fresh fruit tray available to everyone in the mayor’s suite daily,” according to the outlet, which cited a report from Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming, the city’s waste and fraud watchdog.

It also forked over more than $10,000 for flowers, which city regulations state shouldn’t be purchased “for any reason,” the report states.

The investigation found other extravagant so-called “P-Card” — aka procurement card — expenses related to birthday celebrations, baby showers and flowers “for a selected few, including executive leadership,” according to the report.

At least 336 of the “P-card” transactions violated city rules, which require a waiver to use public funds “for any social functions or activities” without the express approval of the Bureau of Purchasing, Cumming notes in the report.

“[The watchdog] found that taxpayer funds were used for floral purchases for events, employee celebrations, recognition, baby arrivals, funerals bereavement and condolence,” the report states. 

When the purchasing bureau denied the mayor’s office’s request to use taxpayer money to host an annual crab feast, the mayor’s office went to finance director Michael Mocksten, who approved the event, according to the report. 

The administration has been trying over the past month to restrict Cumming’s access to city financial and personnel records — which would prevent her from exposing over-the-top spending, she told the outlet.

The mayor’s chief of staff, JD Merrill, defended the food and drink spending as “legitimate expenses that support efficient and necessary operations of city government,” according to the outlet.

“The mayor’s office regularly takes on the responsibility for providing food for both its own employees and employees of other city agencies,” he said.

He brushed off the $167,455 in unapproved “P-card” transactions as the equivalent of “an estimated 0.19% of the mayor’s office budget over the time period reviewed” and said a new position is being created that’s “focused on internal fiscal oversight.”

Scott, who has been described as a progressive, has been praised for his approach to crime by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Totally unrelated, I’m sure, but Baltimore, whose schools which rank among the very lowest of performers in the country, has the 5th highest school administrative costs in the nation. “It’s not a financial problem, it’s a political problem.”