Baltimore’s Office of the Register of Wills spent, but could not justify, more than $1 million on media and promotions, including almost $200,000 for a television series that never aired, according to a state audit.

The audit released Tuesday also found that the office had circumvented competitive bidding for media production services, hired an employee under questionable circumstances that “potentially violated state ethics law,” and improperly paid an employee thousands of dollars after they had stopped working. Auditors have forwarded their findings to the state ethics commission for its review.

The Register of Wills is responsible for appointing representatives to administer the estates of those who have died in addition to other responsibilities connected to wills, estate and probate matters in the city.

In response to the audit, the wills office, which has been led by former Baltimore City Councilwoman Belinda Conaway since 2014, called the allegations “unsubstantiated” without elaborating, but added its staff would improve their operations in the future.

Conaway did not respond on Tuesday to requests for comment. The city’s Register of Wills is elected by voters to a four-year term and Conaway, who made $151,000 in 2024, is up for reelection next year.

The wills and clerk’s offices housed within the Baltimore Circuit Court have long been a family affair for the Conaways, who have had a flair for the promotional; Conaway’s mother, Mary, served as the city’s register of wills from 1982 until she retired in 2012, while her father, Frank M. Conaway Sr., one of the city’s most colorful political figures, was clerk of courts from 1998 until his death in 2015.

Referring to themselves as a political dynasty, they once donned bear costumes and had campaign signs referring to themselves as Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear. Belinda Conaway’s son, Xavier, was elected as Baltimore’s clerk of court in 2022, and was sworn in by his mother.

But promotion of the register of wills office, including her slogan “Where there’s a will, there’s a way!” sparked a tip to the fraud, waste and abuse hotline of the Department of Legislative Services’ Office of Legislative Audits. The tipster raised questions about procurement and payroll practices since at least 2017.

Auditors found questionable procurement practices that indicated the competitive process had been circumvented.

In fiscal year 2019, for example, the office made 23 payments totaling $66,100 to one vendor for media production services. Each of the payments was less than $5,000, which was the threshold to trigger competitive bids for the work. Some payments appeared to have been artificially split for that purpose, such as an $8,300 payment split and processed the same day, according to the state audit.

The office, auditors said, could not provide documentation to justify approximately $1.1 million spent on media and promotional items, which was “significantly higher” than what other register of wills offices reviewed by auditors had spent on media and promotion. Three similarly-sized register of wills offices reported they had spent no money on promotional items; one had spent $350 per year on pens, and another had spent $2,500 a year on pens, calendars and other items.

Management of the Baltimore wills office told auditors that the materials were used to “inform residents of the probate process and the importance of writing a will.”

But auditors concluded that the Baltimore office “could not provide documentation that it had assessed the need for these purchases and to demonstrate how these items would enhance residents’ knowledge of the office’s mission.”

For example, the office spent $1,300 for 500 manicure sets printed with the “Where there’s a will, there’s a way” slogan; the sets did not include the name of the office or any contact information, auditors said.

And between 2017 and 2020 fiscal years, the office paid $197,000 to produce an informational television show that never aired, auditors said. The office later determined there was “not sufficient interest to warrant broadcasting the show publicly, resulting in waste of the amounts paid to produce the show,” auditors concluded.

Auditors wrote that they also investigated another employee who founded and operated a company that provided professional services to a manager in the office who had hired them. The outside business relationship was not disclosed on the employee’s annual financial disclosure form submitted to the state ethics commission, auditors wrote. During several site visits, auditors did not see the employee at work and later learned they were on leave each of those days.

Auditors wrote that they referred that matter to the state ethics commission because those actions could potentially violate state ethics laws.

Another employee was investigated because of allegations of a non-show job. The employee stopped working for the office in March 2022, but continued to be paid though February of the following year. The total payout of $5,000 was allegedly for hundreds of hours of leave and holiday time.

The wills office told auditors they did not attempt to recover the funds because the employee did not return to work at the office. The state Department of Budget and Management told auditors that the Register of Wills office should have attempted to recover the funds, either through the employee or the central collections unit.