Baltimore council shake-up: Conway removed from key public safety post

Baltimore City Council member Mark Conway will no longer lead the council’s influential Public Safety Committee, part of a restructuring that City Council President Zeke Cohen announced Thursday.

Taking Conway’s place is council member John Bullock, a 10-year veteran of the City Council. Bullock previously headed the council’s Education, Youth, and Older Adults Committee, which will now be chaired by council member Mark Parker.

Conway, who was informed of the decision Thursday, said the changes were retaliation for his outspokenness on the council. In May, Conway proposed a charter amendment that would have enshrined the inspector general’s access to city records, a stance he believes contributed to his reassignment.

Mayor Brandon Scott and Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming have been engaged in a court battle over records access.

“My colleagues are behaving as though the mayor is too popular to be held accountable when he is wrong,” Conway said. “They have made the political calculation that standing up for our watchdog is more trouble than watching her powers be stripped away.”

Conway, who has represented North Baltimore neighborhoods since 2020, has increasingly found himself at odds with his fellow members, particularly as he embarked on an unsuccessful campaign for Congress this year.

Tensions have repeatedly flared on the floor of the council chamber as Conway has suggested his fellow Democratic colleagues are a “rubber stamp” and lack conviction.

“I ask you to have a backbone,” he said during a 2025 vote on the city budget.

“This is not a body of rubber stamps,” Cohen shot back.

A clip of Conway’s statement was later included in a campaign video.

Conway’s colleagues have publicly accused him of abusing his council position for his campaigns. Conway challenged longtime incumbent Rep. Kweisi Mfume for his Baltimore-based congressional seat in the June Democratic primary. Mfume won comfortably.

Conway has repeatedly failed to build consensus around his agenda.

When Conway attempted to pull his inspector general amendment out of committee for a council vote, not a single member of the 15-member body backed him.

Conway pushed the issue again during a June vote on unrelated charter amendments. His fellow members responded with exasperation.

“I’d like to explain my vote, Mr. President, for the public because I’m pretty sure this is going to end up in an ad,” said West Baltimore council member James Torrence, who has sparred frequently with Conway.

Cohen, who has sole control over committee assignments as the leader of the council, did not directly address the clash with Conway in a statement issued Thursday.

“Baltimore deserves leadership committed to collaboration and focused on delivering results for the people we serve,” Cohen said. “Let’s keep winning together.”

Conway, then a freshman council member, took the reins of the influential Public Safety Committee in late 2020 under the leadership of then-Council President Nick Mosby during a wholesale reorganization. He kept the post when Cohen took control of the council in 2024.

Past chairs of the committee have used it as a platform to propel their careers. Mayors Brandon Scott and Bernard C. “Jack” Young both chaired the panel.

As leader, Conway steered conversation toward open-air drug markets and the city’s overdose crisis. He demanded hearings on overdoses, running afoul of Scott, who pushed for the council to delay public discussions until after a lawsuit against manufacturers was settled.

“I have been incredibly effective as chair of public safety, so whether you like me or not, look at the results of the committee,” Conway said Thursday. He said he’ll seek to get his inspector general charter change on the 2028 ballot.

In his announcement, Cohen touted Bullock’s legislative record. Bullock represents West Baltimore neighborhoods such as Harlem Park and Violetville.

“In this moment of record-breaking declines in violence, his commitment to community will serve him well as chair of our Public Safety Committee,” Cohen said.