Baltimore Mayor Pugh to take leave of absence in midst of 'Healthy Holly' book controversy

[brooklynite]

Source: Baltimore Sun

altimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, engulfed by a scandal over hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments for her self-published “Healthy Holly” children’s books, announced Monday that she will take an indefinite leave of absence because of her health.

“Mayor Catherine E. Pugh has been battling pneumonia for the past few weeks. She has been advised by her physicians that she needs to take time to recover and focus on her health,” according to a statement from Pugh’s office. “At this time, with the mayor’s health deteriorating, she feels as though she is unable to fulfill her obligations as mayor of Baltimore city. To that end, Mayor Pugh will be taking an indefinite leave of absence to recuperate from this serious illness.”

...snip...

The scandal over the books — a series featuring a young girl named Healthy Holly aimed at promoting exercise and good diet — has quickly overtaken the mayor. A no-bid deal with the University of Maryland Medical System was first reported by The Baltimore Sun last month.

Under the deal, the medical system paid Pugh $500,000 for copies of the books while she served on its board. UMMS paid $100,000 in each of five transactions in 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2018 to purchase 20,000 copies of her self-published books at $5 per book. Pugh was among nine members of the 30-person UMMS board that had contracts or other business deals with the medical system. Pugh and two other board members have resigned. Several others were placed on leave.

Read more: https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-pugh-developments-20190324-story.html

[jmowreader]

1. Five bucks a copy? Whoa.

I just picked a print shop online at random, if you're a government agency (like the University of Maryland Medical System) you get your print cheaper because you buy so much of it. But let's bid this thing out.

20M copies 6x6 saddle stitched, 32 pages plus cover, 100-pound gloss cover (a nice thick cover stock, perfect for kid's books) and 70-pound matte text...printing cost $10,275.28, freight cost $378.29, sales tax $906.71. Total is $11,210.25.

Yeah, $90,000 a year in profit from a hospital you're on the board of sounds scandalous to me.

And you also know the Oompa-Loompa In Chief is going to tweetstorm the shit out of this, Catherine Pugh is (1) a Democrat, (2) a woman and (3) African-American.

[NurseJackie]

2. Twenty million copies for $11,210.25?? That can't be right.

[jmowreader]

3. In the printing business, we use Roman numerals

20M is 20,000 copies - the length of her print runs.

Twenty million copies would be "20MM".

[NurseJackie]

4. Ah... you fooled me. I'm not in the printing business. I'd have said 20K copies.

Still... that's a good price at under 12K for 20K copies. (Something fishy is going on in Baltimore.)

Thanks for the explanation. I learned something today.

[jmowreader]

5. It really is a good price

BTW, here's a two-page spread from one of the books:



Oh, and you have to read this:
https://baltimorebrew.com/2019/03/25/healthy-holly-books-a-2011-pugh-mayoral-campaign-give-away/

It looks like the REAL scandal is with the UMMS board; most of the people on it got yooge, non-competitive contracts from the University.