Ramos remarks while introducing amendment to cut the Sheriff’s Office budget

On June 23rd, the Baltimore City Council passed the FY2023 budget unanimously. During the 2nd reader, Councilwoman Odette Ramos introduced an amendment to cut the budget of the Sheriff’s Office by $500,000. Below are her remarks upong introducing the amendment.

Mr. President, Mr. Chair and Colleagues,

Thank you for the opportunity to present this amendment. This amendment reduces the general fund allocation from the Sheriff’s Office for service numbers 882 and 884 by $500,000 total, which represents a surplus they had in their budget.

In a hearing on January 25th and during the budget hearing, members of this body including myself, brought up several concerns we have with the way the Sheriff’s office conducts evictions.  It is their job to post failure to pay rent notices, eviction notices and other correspondence, and to carry out the evictions once the court has granted the landlord the eviction.  It is not a fun job, I am sure.  Members of this Council including myself have had concerns that the sheriff’s office does not post the notices on the resident’s door, but on the property or common area - which means renters could potentially miss court dates. Members of this Council including myself have had concerns that the sheriff’s office does not provide eviction dates to renters when they call, even though the list is sent to organizations that help renters and provide it for the landlords. Members of this Council, including myself -  have concerns about the sheriff’s office performing evictions when the property is not properly licensed and should not be rented anyway. 

This cut sends a message to the Sheriff’s office that we expect to see improvements in these three areas over this fiscal year. This entire Council has taken action to reduce evictions in the time that I have been on the Council. This action is consistent with what we have done before.  We will introduce a resolution that outlines these issues.

I look forward to progress and communication with the Sheriff throughout this fiscal year, and I pledge to assist in any way possible.

We are working with the Mayor’s Office who will introduce a supplemental which will add these funds to assist renters to avoid eviction.

Thank you to my colleagues for their support of this effort.  I move the amendment.