Baltimore Comptroller Sues City Over Phone System

BALTIMORE (AP) -- The Baltimore comptroller is suing the administration of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to block its office of information technology from installing a new phone system.

Comptroller Joan M. Pratt says the selection of the new system subverted the competitive bidding process in "illegal" fashion and that the contract should have been awarded to the lowest bidder.

The suit, filed Friday in Baltimore City Circuit Court, is the latest salvo in an ongoing dispute about the Voice over Internet Protocol phone system.

Ryan O'Doherty, a spokesman for Rawlings-Blake, tells The Baltimore Sun that he hasn't seen the suit but called the case a waste of taxpayer dollars and ill-advised. He says the mayor's administration had been trying to arrange a solution with the comptroller's office.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)