Posted on 07/24/23
| News Source: FOX45
Two council members are pushing back after being the target of an opinion piece written by the former director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement as questions surrounding the agency’s operations and protocols for programs.
Shantay Jackson led MONSE from 2022 – when the agency was first formed – until her departure on June 30. One of the programs overseen by MONSE is Safe Streets, Baltimore’s flagship gun violence prevention program.
During a council hearing on July 13 discussing the Brooklyn mass shooting, several council members questioned MONSE leaders about the protocols for Safe Streets and the workers. Four Safe Streets workers were at the Brooklyn Day block party from 9 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. and mediated five conflicts, according to MONSE leaders. The conflicts took place before the shooting took place that left two young people dead, and 28 others injured.
Councilmembers Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer and Eric Costello are targeted in the op-ed by Jackson; the two leaders questioned interim MONSE Director Stefanie Mavronis about the policies in place for Safe Street works when it comes to notifying other agencies about potential threats and what the details were surrounding the mediations completed before the shooting took place.
“The two white councilmembers misconstrued the efficacy and role of community violence intervention work being done in some of the city’s Black communities,” Jackson wrote.
Councilman Schleifer made it clear during his line of questioning that he didn’t need to know the names of the individuals involved in the mediations, he said he wanted to know whether the information about the conflicts had been reviewed by MONSE leadership and whether guns were involved.
“When we know there are 10 different people who were possibly shooting at this one incident, and they mediated five conflicts and the odds are four of those conflicts had weapons, [we need] to know whether or not there’s any correlation,” Schleifer said Friday.
“This whole thing was a complete distraction and that’s what she’s trying to do,” he added. “It was laced with inaccuracies and that’s what we’ve seen from this individual since she started.”
Throughout Jackson’s tenure in office, she refused to do an interview with FOX45’s Mikenzie Frost about the Safe Streets program, and dozens of emails and questions about how the program operates, who are the workers, what are the hiring practices, and other inquiries about the day-to-day operations of Safe Streets went ignored.
“She spent her entire tenure in this agency running away from the media,” Schleifer said. “It’s really consistent with ignoring questions from the media and the council and when questions are being asked, the response is really to deflect instead of answering the questions.”
Councilman Costello, who was also named in Jackson’s piece, has raised questions previously about the expansion of MONSE since it was created. Costello questioned the expansion during the budgeting process and in a statement to FOX45 News, reiterated his commitment to getting answers from the city agency.
“I have consistently asked questions of a brand-new City agency that now has 40+ employees and an annual budget north of $20 million, let alone received an additional $50 million in ARPA grants,” Costello said via statement. “As the budget chair, I strongly believe goals and outcomes are important activities to track. I will continue to ask hard questions of MONSE because the people of Brooklyn and the City as a whole deserve real solutions and supports from wrap-around services like Safe Streets - not just continued lip service.”
While Jackson’s criticism targets Costello and Schleifer, there’s no mention of another councilman who went further in his critique of MONSE; Councilman Antonio Glover told FOX45 News after the July 13 council hearing he had serious reservations about MONSE’s funding given the information publicly released.
“Right now, I think that until we start to see transparency and data, I think that money should be held to halt,” Glover said.
Councilman Schleifer said he’s made another request to MONSE for information following the first hearing and won’t stop demanding answers.
“I’m going to continue to ask for it and If I don’t get the follow-up, I’m going to ask the very same questions at the next hearing that I asked the last time,” he said.
Another oversight hearing for the Brooklyn mass shooting has been scheduled for Sept. 13, 2023, at 1 p.m. at City Hall.