Last April I requested to see the disclosure reports required by the city code under the Maryland Public Information Act or the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)

§ 37‑5. Financial disclosure.
A.      The city officials, board members and employees and candidates for offices listed in Subsection B of this section shall file annually no later than thirty (30) days prior to the first Tuesday in April of each calendar year during which they hold office a statement with the Review Coordinator disclosing any gifts in excess of twenty‑five dollars ($25.) in value, or a series of gifts totaling one hundred dollars ($100.) or more, received during the preceding calendar year from any person having a contract with the city or any person regulated by their agency. The statement shall identify the donor of the gift and its approximate retail value at the time of receipt. 
B.         The following officials and employees are required to file the disclosure statement: <> 

<>(1)        Mayor.

(2)        City Council.

(3)        City Manager.

(4)        City Clerk.

(5)       

(6)        Department heads.

(7)        Members of the Board of Zoning Appeals.

(8)        Members of the Planning and Zoning Commission.

Some of the items requested to be reviewed in the FOIA request:

4) Per section E. of the code written above I would like to review these documents for the past ten years and the past twenty years for City Manager.                                                                                                                 5) In addition to the required forms including those for 2007 since we are past the due date, I would like to inspect a copy or file of any and all complaints and their determinations, filed pursuant to this public law in Section 37-3(C). 
The city’s response was that this portion of the code only required disclosure of ‘gifts’ valued in excess of $25 in value or a series of gifts whose total exceeds $100.00 in any year from any person (or corporation) having a contract with the city or any person regulated by the city. However, according to City Attorney Edward Baker, officials are not required to report the absence of such gifts. Therefore, there are no file copies of any negative or other reports for City Officials. 

The City Clerk who responded with the equivalent of ’sworn testimony’ about documents requested under the Maryland Public Information Act is stating the City Manger Russ Blake has never reported receiving ANY gifts from anyone who does business with the city, is a resident of the city of Pocomoke or is affected by any regulations of the City for the past twenty years. 

Gifts would include

• Dinners & meals
• Hotel rooms or other accommodations’, such as being given the use of a vacation condominium, beach house or timeshare unit.
• Travel expenses such as gasoline reimbursement, airline travel, cruises, taxi-cab or car fares, care rentals and limousine service.
• Entertainment such as drinks, movies, sporting event tickets, Broadway show tickets, and complimentary admission to local events where the public is charged an admittance fee.
• Personal property such as watches, jewelry, guns, boats, clothing, cars, etc.

I find if very hard, if not impossible to believe that over the past 20-years nobody has taken City Manager Russ Blake and his wife out to dinner and picked up the tab?

Has anyone ever seen the City Manager pay to get into a local event where there is an admission fee?

Like the Pocomoke Fair? Theater events, etc?

Nobody ever gave him a pair of tickets to watch a baseball, football or hockey game?

The fact of the matter is Pocomoke’s City Manager has not filed one single financial disclosure statement for the past twenty years!

If anyone is wondering why we are asking for real financial accountability in