Baltimore City Mayor Catherine Pugh announced last night she is taking "a leave of absence" as more information comes out about her bogus book deal with the University of Maryland Hospital and, now, Kaiser Permanente health insurer. Pugh, back when she was Democratic Majority Leader of the Maryland State Senate before being elected mayor in 2016, sat on the board of directors of the University of Maryland Hospital and convinced her fellow directors to approve the purchase of 100,000 childrens’ books she had written for $5 a book, for a total of $500,000. The books were to be given to child patients in the hospital, but no child ever got a book.
In return, Pugh and her fellow board members voted to award other no bid deals that benefited other board members. In return, the then Senate Majority Leader:
Pugh repeatedly sought — with eight different bills — to make it harder for aggrieved patients to sue hospitals and doctors for big judgments via medical malpractice claims and lessen the financial impact of those suits. Those measures did not win General Assembly approval, nor did legislation she sponsored to expand the kinds of bonuses insurers can pay health care professionals.
Pugh did not report this $500,00 income on her financial disclosure forms.
Yesterday, Monday, it was revealed that health insurer Kaiser Permamente paid Pugh $100,000 for 20,000 of her books, when Kaiser Permamente was attempting to win the contract to be the health insurer for City employees. At the time, Senator Pugh was chair person of the Senate Health Subcommittee.
During the past week, Pugh, taking her lead from Trump, denounced the revelations as a “witch hunt.”
Baltimore City Council Jack Young will be replacing Pugh as mayor, whether temporarily or permanently remains to be seen.
There is effectively no Republican Party in Baltimore City — I don’t believe believe a single Republican ran for district or city wide office in either 2016 or 2018.