Monday’s Baltimore City Council luncheon, which turned acrimonious when photographers and television camera crews were temporarily ejected by city officials, has now spawned another controversy: the menu.
A report in The Examiner that said half the media were expelled because City Council members did not want photographs of the august body munching on crab cakes, was called into question by Mayor Sheila Dixon’s spokesman Tuesday.
“They were not eating crab cakes; it was salmon cakes,” Ian Brennan said. “We need to clarify that.”
Brennan said the mix-up may have occurred because the cakes, which were served by caterers to council members along with fried chicken, green beans, garden salad and chocolate cake, looked similar to crab cakes.
“They looked and smelled like crab cakes, but they were in fact salmon cakes,” Brennan said.
All City Council luncheons — convened before each of the 26 council meetings held annually — are catered, but Brennan said he did not know how much the meal of salmon cakes cost taxpayers.
City officials have rolled back raises, cut police and fire overtime, and instituted a hiring freeze to fill a $37 million budget gap. However, city officials said there are no plans to discontinue catering council luncheons or other city lunch meetings.
