Baltimore City is spending over $1 million to hire a consultant to help determine whether to merge its housing and planning departments. The Board of Estimates approved a request from the Department of Housing and Community Development to hire Urban Policy Development LLC, doing business as UPD Consulting, to help city leaders decide whether to merge the two agencies.

Merger Consideration

The contract with UPD will cost the city $1,067,600. It was approved without discussion as part of the spending panel’s routine agenda. Mayor Brandon Scott disclosed last February that he wanted to study whether to merge the Department of Planning and the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). He brought up the subject when he appointed Tim Keane to serve as the city’s housing commissioner and Renata “Ren” Southard to serve as its Planning Director.

As part of the transition, he directed Keane and Southard to conduct an extensive examination of the structure of the housing and planning departments and to make recommendations about possible “strategic changes” that could maximize their resources and make them more effective, up to and including a potential merger of the agencies. The professional services agreement with UPD Consulting is a sign that the two department leaders are moving ahead with that assignment.

According to a briefing document on the Board of Estimates agenda, the city is hiring the consultant “to conduct a structured assessment of the Department of Housing and Community Development and the Department of Planning. This work will help determine and advise as to a potential merger between the two agencies as well as opportunities to improve overall organizational effectiveness in the immediate term.”

Original reporting: Baltimore Fishbowl — read the source article.