I just skimmed an Examiner article that I thought I could care less about: two city employees were suspended for stealing copper wire from inside City Hall and the courthouse, selling it to scrap yards for $50,000. Let’s face it, for Baltimore City employees, that’s on the low end of schemes.

Two quotes in the article caught my eye, however. The first is from Mayor Dixon’s spokesman: “They basically stole from every taxpayer in the city, and we expect these individuals to be punished.” Does that sentiment hold for elected officials as well, I wonder?

The second quote is interesting not for its content, but rather for its source. The article cites Hilton Green, Baltimore’s inspector general, on the investigation of these employees. He declined to name them, explaining (rather incoherently, as printed): “Right now we’re getting information that more buildings have been targeting and get reports of more theft. We also don’t want to name names now because it’s starting to go up the ladder.”

Remember all those fraudulent parking tickets issued last year? Green was in charge of that investigation as well, until he abruptly took a leave of absence two months into the probe and stalled it indefinitely. As of a June 2 article in the Examiner, Green was in his fourth month of leave. No mention of him has been made since.

Does Green’s return to the office mean that we will finally see some progress in the parking ticket probe? Or will the copper wire investigation fall by the wayside as well, once it reaches too high on that aforementioned ladder?

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