By Tom Kennedy, Baltimore City GOP Chairman
Baltimore City’s failed website redesign isn’t just a digital misfire—it’s a poster child for government dysfunction, waste, and cronyism. After three years, three vendors, and nearly $4 million spent, the city still doesn’t have a functional BaltimoreCity.gov. But what it does have is a paper trail of political favoritism, poor oversight, and squandered taxpayer funds.
This project, intended to modernize the City’s website to be more user-friendly and compliant with accessibility standards, has instead spiraled into an embarrassing money pit. As detailed by The Baltimore Brew’s Mark Reutter in a July 17 exposé, the total cost is now pegged at $3.9 million—with no live website to show for it. Worse, the design currently in development is reportedly already outdated. Reutter’s reporting is based on city procurement documents, vendor contracts, and internal communications, which paint a picture of ballooning budgets and nonexistent results.
Then came a Fox Baltimore investigation that added a troubling layer of political entanglements to the mess.
As Fox Baltimore reported on July 17, Baltimore’s IT department invited six companies to bid on the website redesign in 2021. Only two submitted proposals. One bid $300,000. The other—Fearless Solutions—came in at $1.2 million, four times higher. The city awarded the contract to the more expensive bidder.
Fearless Solutions is owned by Delalai Dzirasa, a donor to Mayor Brandon Scott’s campaign and the husband of Baltimore’s then-Deputy Mayor, Dr. Letitia Dzirasa.
Mayor Scott defended the award: “This is a professional service contract. They went out and talked to multiple contractors and decided to go with Fearless.” What he failed to mention: this project never underwent a full competitive bid process. The city used a selective procurement approach, bypassing the broader competition that is usually required for projects of this scale.
The original contract was valued at $1.078 million. But five months in, Fearless asked for an additional $887,000. Then, seven months later, the city approved another $250,000, bringing the total payout to Fearless to over $2.2 million.
Yet despite all that, there is still no functioning website.
Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming stated flatly: “There is no website at this time. In fact, the company we hired stopped working for the city a year ago yesterday.”
The Baltimore’s Office of the Inspector General released a blistering report on July 11 (OIG Report #24-0043-I), detailing the failures of oversight and management throughout the project. The findings include:
- No competitive bidding for the Fearless Solutions contract, despite the size and scope of the project.
- Milestones missed without consequence, yet payments continued.
- No detailed project plan, and vague deliverables from start to finish.
- City agencies that were supposed to be served by the new website were never consulted.
Cumming’s office concluded that “the city should have opened the project for competitive bidding instead of inviting a select few companies.” That’s not just a procedural critique—it’s a warning sign of a procurement culture that privileges insiders over taxpayers.
In its official response, the city claimed that “the cost was not the result of uncontrolled spending, but rather a structured response to project demands that became clearer as implementation progressed.” Translation: we didn’t know what we were doing at the start, and just kept writing checks.
The City’s Information Technology department acknowledged that it needs better planning and clearer scope definitions in future projects—a tacit admission that this one was anything but structured.
Baltimore eventually brought in other vendors, pushing total expenditures to $3.9 million. But the “new” website now in the pipeline is reportedly already outdated, according to The Baltimore Brew. With design frameworks and user interface standards having evolved since 2021, the final product—if it ever arrives—will likely need immediate rework. That means additional costs. Possibly a full do-over.
What’s missing in all this? Accountability.
No resignations. No vendor clawbacks. And no apology to the taxpayers who funded a digital ghost project with nothing to show for it.
Baltimore’s failure here isn’t just technical. It’s institutional. It reflects a culture where cost overruns are met with shrugs, political ties are rewarded, and results are optional.
Government mismanagement of IT projects isn’t new. But rarely does the story involve such a trifecta of cronyism, incompetence, and fiscal recklessness. Baltimore residents deserve better than insider deals and a blank homepage.
Sources Cited:
- Mark Reutter, The Baltimore Brew, “Repeated delays and soaring costs: Baltimore’s website redesign now pegged at $3.9 million”
https://www.baltimorebrew.com/2025/07/17/repeated-delays-and-soaring-costs-baltimores-website-redesign-now-pegged-at-3-9-million-and-will-still-be-out-of-date/ - Baltimore Inspector General Report #24-0043-I
https://inspector-general.baltimorecity.gov/sites/default/files/24-0043-I%20Report.pdf - Fox Baltimore, “Baltimore’s website project ends with no website, taxpayer funds wasted”
https://foxbaltimore.com/news/city-in-crisis/baltimores-website-project-ends-with-no-website-taxpayer-funds-wasted
Direct Line News is a Maryland-based free-access publication committed to the Republican reform tradition.
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