In the ballroom of the Hilton Salt Lake City Center, Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates was settling in for a second day of panel discussions with prosecutors and law enforcement officials from across the country.

Fourteen-hundred miles away, a Baltimore Police officer on Bates’ security detail, was already on the ground, scoping out conditions for the state’s attorney’s next stop: Chicago. Three days of meetings with other out-of-town prosecutors would follow.

The back-to-back trips, which took Bates away from Baltimore for about a week in October, were two of at least eight trips that the state’s attorney took in 2024, the Democrat’s second year in office. Bates also spent time in Dallas, Miami, Boston, San Diego and Boise, Idaho, on city business.

Only half of those trips received approval from the city’s Board of Estimates, as required.

A Baltimore Banner analysis of city records and social media posts found that Bates spent at least 44 days outside the city since he took office, excluding personal travel which does not need to be approved by the city spending board.

Through his spokesman, Bates acknowledged that multiple trips did not receive proper Board of Estimates approval, blaming rising demand for training after he took office, inadequate staff to process the requests and problems with the city’s budgeting system.

His office has begun seeking approval for some of those trips.

The rules governing Bates’ travel, and that of all city officials, were tightened amid a flurry of attention in 2021 in response to a different Baltimore state’s attorney: Bates’s predecessor Marilyn Mosby. A report released by Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming in 2020 revealed that Mosby, also a Democrat, had spent 140 days away from Baltimore in 2018 and 2019. The travel took her to Kenya, Scotland and Portugal.

Bates has also failed to abide by a disclosure rule implemented in response to Mosby that requires approval for travel paid by outside organizations. The state’s attorney took three trips furnished by Prosecutorial Performance Indicators, a partnership of Florida International University and Loyola University Chicago that uses data to measure prosecutorial effectiveness. The group spent $4,385 to send Bates to Miami and Chicago in 2024 and Miami again in February.

Bates also received a free hotel stay in New York City in July 2023 when he appeared on a televised town hall discussion about public safety on News Nation. The cable network footed a $725 bill for two nights in a hotel that was not disclosed to the Board of Estimates because Bates believed it did not exceed an $800 limit for reporting. The limit is actually $100.

Bates’ travel paid by outside groups has flown under the radar because it was also not listed on his ethics disclosures, filed annually with the state. Bates’ spokesman said the Maryland State Ethics Commission advised that trips paid by PPI do not require disclosure because the group is run through Florida International University, a public institution. (The group’s other backer, Loyola University Chicago, is a private institution.) Maryland ethics law exempts government entities from gift disclosure rules.

Roger Hartley, dean of the University of Baltimore College of Public Affairs, said there are often justifiable reasons for elected officials to travel, but when third parties fund trips, disclosure becomes essential.

“It’s important to have transparency around who is paying for your travel. It could be totally fine,” Hartley said. “If it’s paid for by someone that does business with the city or with the justice system ... that’s where you start to get into entanglements.”

Travel for Bates, one of three city officials who is guarded by a detail of Baltimore Police officers, comes with extra costs for city taxpayers. City records show one to two officers accompanied Bates on most of his trips, sometimes traveling in advance and at times tripling the cost of the excursion. The back-to-back trips to Salt Lake City and Chicago in 2024 cost an additional $4,486 for two members of Bates’ detail to make the trip.

Before assuming the office, Bates was publicly critical of Mosby’s travel.

“As a citizen, when crime and murders are out of control, you want your state’s attorney to be in Baltimore city working as much as possible,” he told Fox45 in 2020.

Mosby did not respond to a request for comment.

Bates defended his travel, calling the number of trips he has taken “reasonable.” He said via a spokesman that the training sessions and conferences he attends “each serve particular roles” in helping his office to fulfill its mission.

“Even while away from the city, State’s Attorney Bates is working to advance the mission and vision of the office and the interests of the residents of Baltimore,” said James Bentley, a spokesman for Bates.

Of the groups Bates travels to meet with, the most frequent is the National District Attorney’s Association. Bates is among more than 80 prosecutors who serve on the group’s board of directors, and he attended four of their events during his first two years in office. The group provides “essential training, technical assistance and services to prosecutors,” his spokesman said. State’s attorneys from Frederick, Montgomery and Howard counties are also on the board, he noted.

Meetings with the National District Attorney’s Association took Bates to Dallas, Boise, San Diego and San Juan, Puerto Rico. The San Juan trip, a four-day meeting of the association, was one of three in 2023 that Bates did not get approved by the city’s spending board as required. It was also among the most costly for his detail. City records show two BPD officers accompanied Bates at a cost of almost $3,500. One officer arrived a day early to assess security needs. Both were paid a special per diem rate because San Juan is outside the continental U.S.

Bates blamed the unapproved trips on the transition his office was undergoing in 2023. Bates was sworn in in January of that year after besting Mosby in a three-way Democratic primary.

The agency had only one fiscal officer managing the office’s budget, grant reporting and travel, said Bentley. The volume of travel by people in the office “increased considerably” because Bates wanted his staff to receive “continuous training,” Bentley said.

“Most travel requests were processed on time, but others required additional information and obtaining documents was delayed,” Bentley said.

Bates faulted challenges with Workday, the city’s budgeting system, and changes to Board of Estimates submission rules for the lack of approval for trips to Boston in August 2024 and Boise in July of that year.

Bentley said other unauthorized trips like those to San Juan and Chicago in 2023 were submitted to the board as of Friday. The trip to Boston, taken nine months ago at a cost of $2,007, will appear on the board’s agenda this week.

Hartley, who himself travels regularly for work, said he sees benefits to Bates networking with prosecutors from other areas of the country, particularly as policies and funding rapidly shift on the federal level. If Bates has top staff in place when he’s out of town, the office can still function, he said.

“That’s the kind of thing that might make the citizens a little more comfortable,” Hartley said.

Bentley said Bates remains in “constant communication” with his six executive team members when he is out of the office. City records show various members of Bates’ staff accompanied him on several trips, including executive team members Angela Galeano, Catherine Flynn and Gregg Solomon-Lucas.

The full cost of Bates’ travel is difficult to calculate because not all trips were submitted to the spending board. The four trips approved by the board cost the city a collective $5,175. Two trips to Ocean City for the Maryland State’s Attorneys Association’s annual conference were not submitted to the board because they were under an $800 threshold, but cost the city another $1,386.

Travel expenses for Bates’ detail since he has taken office total more than $25,000, city records show.

About $5,100 in travel for the state’s attorney was paid for by outside organizations. Board of Estimates rules require board approval for all travel paid for by a third party over $100, but Bates only recently began seeking approval for such trips.

Board of Estimates rules call for it to send a letter of reprimand to those who fail to make timely notice of travel, including the cost and any third-party payers. Subsequent failures result in a fine starting at $100 and increasing by $100 for each successive failure.

Asked if he would pursue penalties, a spokesman for Council President Zeke Cohen said the Board of Estimates has been made aware of the issue and is looking into the matter. “We will not be commenting until that review is complete,” the spokesman said.

Bates endorsed Cohen in his bid for the office last year.

Mayor Brandon Scott, who sits on the board and controls two other appointees, referred questions to Solicitor Ebony Thompson, also a board member. Thompson reiterated the board’s rules, but said she could not comment further because the administration was not aware of trips Bates took beyond those that were submitted to the board.

Comptroller Bill Henry said he wanted to hear further justification from Bates about the late and absent submissions before deciding whether a penalty is warranted.

Henry, who routinely abstains from travel requests that come before the board, said he objects to third-party funded travel being reviewed by the board. The city’s Board of Ethics is better equipped to consider whether the trips are a conflict of interest, he said.

Henry said he would prefer to amend the board’s rules so that taxpayer-funded travel is not subject to the board’s approval.

“Ultimately, it is up to the voters, not other politicians or their political appointees, who should decide whether their elected officials’ travel is justified and hold them accountable, if necessary,” Henry said.

Baltimore Banner Reporter Dylan Segelbaum contributed to this report.