BALTIMORE — From, he's done a magnificent job to....he is a bag of garbage, the report from a Baltimore city council delegation’s fact finding trip on Joel Fitzgerald is a mixed bag.
In the more than 200 page document, you'll find the Fort Worth community lauding Joel Fitzgerald for his community policing philosophy, training program for officers and how the people found him approachable, but others called him inept in a crisis, thin skinned and fiscally incompetent.
"You’re going to hear negative and positive,” said Councilman Brandon Scott, “I am a professor and I am grading Dr. Fitzgerald and whether he has the qualifications, the great qualifications to be the commissioner for Baltimore City."
And Scott says his grade isn’t in just yet.
He was part of the Baltimore delegation that traveled to Fort Worth and heard the positive and the negative and is weighing all of it.
As are other councilmembers.
Councilman Ryan Dorsey declined an on-camera interview today but released a twitter thread last night highly critical of the mayor's pick.
Dorsey calls Joel Fitzgerald a “corner clearing, broken window devotee,” and that in his meeting with the commissioner designate, Fitzgerald wouldn't define what success would look like in Baltimore.
Dorsey also quoted another colleague who met with Fitzgerald saying he too was shocked by just how incredibly bad he actually was.
Mayor Catherine Pugh, who is planning public events with Fitzgerald this weekend prior to his confirmation hearings didn't have much to say about the council's report.
"I haven’t read it,” the mayor said on her way into city hall Wednesday, “I just got back in town."
But others have done their due diligence on Joel Fitzgerald and are considering the report as one part of the bigger picture...due to come into sharp focus in the coming weeks.
"We have not heard from the most important voices in this yet and that is the citizens of Baltimore,” Scott said, “And when we hear from them, then councilmembers in my opinion can make their decisions and I can only speak for myself."
Fitzgerald faces two confirmation hearings.
This Saturday will be for the public followed by Monday evening for city council members.
The Baltimore City council has until the 28th to confirm the mayor's pick to lead the Baltimore Police Department.
