I arrived at the Board of Estimates in City Hall yesterday to find the public meeting delayed while a few board members huddled in a side room with the door closed.

They were in the room to privately discuss a proposal to give a 95% property tax discount for 25 years to a developer in partnership with the University of Maryland, Baltimore to build a “Collegetown” development on West Lexington Street.

That side room has an infamous history.

It is where the late Mayor William Donald Schaefer hashed out all the important decisions before every Board of Estimates meeting – from city agency spending to lucrative contracts for his cronies – without letting the media into the room.

Eventually a lawsuit opened the door, but many people from that era remember that shut door as a symbol of City Hall secrecy.

I attended yesterday’s meeting as a longtime city resident to testify against the Collegetown project as a member of the With Us For Us (WUFU) coalition.

The coalition consists of labor unions, civic and community groups who are very concerned that this latest tax discount (one in a long line of many) will deplete the city’s future revenues and thereby shortchange salaries for teachers, sanitation workers and others as well as hinder any well-working city infrastructure.

I am not opposed to this development on the 600 block of West Lexington Street, now vacant lots that do not pay taxes.

The proposal will create a 15-story student dorm with 404 units and 730 beds in a rent-by-the-bed arrangement that will have ground-floor retail. It’s a joint venture between UMB and private developers led by Wexford Science & Technology. Under the terms of the agreement, the developer will lease the land from the university for 99 years.

But the members of WUFU feel very strongly that this tax discount – and a bigger one slated to be approved for the redevelopment of Harborplace – should have been approved at a lower discount for many fewer than 25 years.

We also strongly believe that the mayor and BOE should have demanded that the developer hire all union labor and required more public oversight.

We also wanted “clawbacks,” which require the developer to pay back the discounted taxes retroactively if it breaks promises on the deal.

Doubtful Profit-Sharing

In my written testimony, I noted that WUFU is “pleased that there is a profit-sharing agreement in this PILOT” whereby the developer would share profits with the city.

But I had to retract that statement in my oral testimony after an official from the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC) admitted that it’s not likely the city will get any share of profits.

When City Council President Zeke Cohen asked Jeremy Watson, BDC senior vice president and real estate officer, if the city is likely to get any profits from the project, Watson said, “I think it’s a low probability.”

He explained, “The profit share should be viewed less as an entitlement than as an opportunity.”

Asked if the city is likely to get any profits from the project, a Baltimore Development Corporation official admited “it’s a low probability.”

The BDC, by the way, is the city’s development arm, which approved the PILOT for Collegetown – and for Harborplace – at a secret meeting in late August that is likely illegal. (The Brew and Baltimore Business Journal are challenging it before the State Open Meetings Compliance Board.)

Continuing with my running theme on secrecy, a city lawyer recently sent me a letter denying a Public Information Request I sent asking for all documents involving PILOT applications since the new RISE PILOT law for downtown tax discounts took effect this summer.

“Until the City enters into a contract with the property owner for the PILOT, which happens only after BOE approval, the property owner’s offer and the documents associated with that offer and BDC’s evaluation of it are not disclosed ‘to protect confidential advisory and deliberative communications to government officials’ while any decisions on any PILOT agreement are made,” wrote Hilary Ruley in the City Solicitor’s office.

Now you might understand why the shameful history of “closed doors” in City Hall is on my mind.

The Scott administration’s argument is that without the steep tax discounts, the land on West Lexington Street will stay vacant. BDC projects that city will forgo $80.6 million in property taxes over 25 years and collect just $4.5 million by the end of the deal.

Time to Care

Everyone on the BOE was onboard. Comptroller Bill Henry’s only concern was that the university promise not to transfer the property to itself and nullify certain tax requirements.

Neither Mayor Brandon Scott nor the other board members appeared concerned that union wages may not be paid.

Nobody cared about holding the developer’s feet to the fire with clawback provisions.

And nobody cared to add any promises of public oversight over the 25 years of the deal. (The only requirement in the new law allowing these tax deals is for the city to send a report once a year to the City Council president’s office.)

The city’s next big tax discount on the Board of Estimates’ agenda, perhaps in November, will likely be the rebuilding of Harborplace, a luxury project for the very rich, with apartments going for $7,000 a month and hotel rooms at more than $500 a night.

At yesterday’s Board of Estimates meeting, I was the only person testifying against the Collegetown tax break. I hope more residents join me next time.

• Joan Jacobson a former reporter for the Evening Sun and the Baltimore Sun who has written also for Baltimore Brew, is the author of several Abell Foundation studies scrutinizing Baltimore government, and the co-author of two memoirs, one with a former mobster, the other with an investigator of political corruption.