Council president’s aide says she was fired

Curtis had applied to fill Scott’s former seat in 2nd District; chief of staff declines to comment about personnel issue

An aide in Baltimore City Council President Brandon Scott’s office who applied to fill his former district seat said she was fired this week.

Neighborhood liaison Glenda Curtis said she applied last month for the vacancy, despite warnings from community leaders that doing so might rankle Scott because she was committed to her neighborhood in the Northeast Baltimore district.

After being told Monday that she was being fired, Curtis said she thinks her council application cost her the job she held since 2017. Curtis’ annual salary was $51,000 in fiscal year 2018, according to Baltimore City's salary database. She earned about $36,500 during that period due to the fact she was hired part way through the year

“My work has not ever been in question,” she said Wednesday. “That’s the only thing I’ve done that’s outside what anyone else has done.”

Michael Huber, Scott’s chief of staff, declined to comment on a personnel issue.

“The council president is focused on building a mission-driven team that will deliver results for the people of Baltimore,” Huber said.

When Mayor Catherine Pugh resigned in May, then-Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young moved up to mayor. To replace him, the council elected Scott, who represented the 2nd District at the time. Pugh, Young and all of the council members are Democrats.

A nominating committee selected Danielle McCray, who was an aide to Scott in his district office, to fill his seat. The council voted to confirm her, and she was sworn in June 11.

Curtis said that during the selection committee’s hearing for applicants, she made a comment intended as a criticism of nepotism in politics, a comment she acknowledged was a reference to McCray, who is a sister of Democratic state Sen. Cory McCray, an ally of Scott’s.

“I think we need to breed a new generation of new thinking, new priorities and kind of do away with old politics,” Curtis said at the hearing.

Nonetheless, Curtis said she thought her job was secure because she thought she heard Scott say in a staff meeting that he would keep Young’s former workers in the council president’s office.

So, when she was asked Monday to meet with Huber, Curtis said she thought she might be getting a promotion. Instead, she said she was told Friday would be her last day and she didn’t need to come in for the rest of the week.

“I said, ‘So, let me get this straight. This has nothing to do with my work performance.’ Michael Huber said, ‘Absolutely not. I’ve enjoyed working with you these past two years,’?” Curtis said. “They said that ‘Brandon, he has a different mission for this office, and he feels you don’t have the level of commitment he was looking for.’?”

Curtis acknowledged she had sought other opportunities so she wouldn’t be out of work in case Scott made staffing changes. But she said she loved her current job, which involved representing the council president in a pair of districts in Northeast Baltimore.

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