Embattled Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh resigned Thursday amid a widening scandal over a lucrative deal she inked with the University of Maryland Medical System to write a series of kids books — while she sat on the group’s board.
“Dear citizens of Baltimore, I would like to thank you for allowing me to serve as the 50th mayor. It has been an honor and a privilege,” Pugh said in a statement read by her attorney, Steven Silverman, at a press conference, according to the Baltimore Sun.
“I’m sorry for the harm that I have caused to the image of the city of Baltimore and the credibility of the office of the mayor,” the statement added. “Baltimore deserves a mayor who can move our great city forward.”
Pugh, who did not attend the briefing, first submitted her decision to step down in a letter earlier Thursday.
“In the best interest of the people and government of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, I am writing to attest that, effective immediately, I hereby resign from the Office of Mayor, to which I was duly elected on November 8, 2016,” Pugh wrote in the letter to the council president, a copy of which was tweeted by a Daily Record reporter.
“I am confident that I have left the City in capable hands for the duration of the term to which I was elected.”
Pugh’s resignation caps a bizarre saga that saw the FBI and IRS raid her home on April 25, prompting Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan to call for her resignation.
Pugh had been on an indefinite leave of absence since April 1.
The 69-year-old Democrat’s office insisted at the time that she was stepping aside to battle pneumonia, but the timing coincided with growing calls for her to resign over the shady dealing.
In 2011, while a board member of the UMMS, Pugh cut a deal with the system to self-publish a series of illustrated kids books called “Healthy Holly.”
The no-contract bid netted her more than $500,000.
With Post wires