Baltimore mayor demands city comptroller apologize

There were more frosty words between the city's mayor and comptroller in the aggregate new round of charges flew about money being spent on a new telephone system.

The second week in a row

For the second week in a row, City Comptroller Joan Pratt used the Board of Estimates meeting to accuse Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake of mismanaging the city's attempt to install a new phone system, called voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP.

Pratt produced documents on Wednesday listing payments to outside consultants from the mayor's office. She argues the city's already spent more than what the proposed project calls for.

The mayor's office spent more than $650,000 on phones

Pratt repeated her main argument today -- that the mayor's office spent more than $650,000 on phones and equipment, including video-conferencing phones, without going through the bidding process.

Rico Singleton headed the agency involved in the purchase of the telephone equipment Pratt is making an issue of. Singleton had to resign as the mayor's director of information research in February afterwards alleged ethical violations concerning his dealings with a software company during working for a state agency in New York.