It’s off to San Antonio, Texas, on the taxpayers’ dime, for Kara A. DiPietro, the indicted operations chief of Baltimore’s Fleet Management division.

Today Mayor Brandon Scott and the Board of Estimates approved – without comment as part of the board’s package of routine spending items – her request for $2,547 to attend the Transit Mobility Alliance Conference next week.

The conference is sponsored by Transit Technologies, a North Carolina software company that offers an A.I.-assisted platform that “unifies fixed-route transit, paratransit, on-demand microtransit, fleet maintenance, workforce scheduling and safety analytics for public agencies,” according to its website.

DiPietro, 49, was indicted on October 8 by a federal grand jury for fraudulently obtaining $2.8 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) bank loans in 2020 and 2021 as owner of a millworking shop and a micro-lending business.

According to the indictment, “Kara DiPetro knowingly and willfully executed and attempted to execute the scheme and artifice to defraud [four banks], and to obtain money, funds, credits, assets, securities and other property under the custody and control of the financial institutions by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises.”

Asked if there are any restrictions on DiPietro’s travel given her indictment, the U.S. Attorney’s Maryland Office has not immediately responded.

After filing for personal bankruptcy and Chapter 7 liquidation for her companies, DiPietro was hired last year by the Department of General Services as chief of fleet operations, responsible for overseeing 5,600 municipal vehicles, city fueling stations and a large maintenance facility on East Biddle Street.

Yesterday The Brew disclosed her many brushes with creditors, lenders and tax authorities as well as her entanglement as a borrower in a Ponzi scheme in Philadelphia that led to prison sentences of two brothers linked to organized crime.

The mayor’s press office has refused to say if DiPietro remains on the city payroll, saying it is a “personnel matter.”

Acting DGS Director Terrel Chesson and former DGS Director Berke Attila, who hired DiPietro in April 2025, have not responded to questions about her qualifications for the job, whether a required background check had signaled her financial problems and her current employment status.

Her travel request was part of a voice vote covering many items that was approved by Scott, his two appointees, City Solicitor Ebony Thompson and Public Works Director Matthew Garbark, and City Council President Zeke Cohen. (As a matter of policy, Comptroller Bill Henry abstains on all travel requests.)

There was no mention during the meeting of the fleet manager’s name or the federal indictment.

Other Attendees and Costs

DiPietro won’t be going to Texas alone.

Even though the Administration Manual (AM-240-3), says that travel approval “of more than one person from an agency per event will normally not be granted” by the Board of Estimates, the panel previously approved requests by four other Fleet management supervisors to attend the four-day conference.

Including DiPietro, the collective cost of airline tickets, lodging, conference fees and food for the five-member group has now risen to nearly $13,000.

The conference will feature a keynote address by former San Antonio Spurs star Bruce Bowen and a series of breakout sessions on such topics as “Managing your fuel budget,” “Strengthening senior services and community mobility,” “Breaking down the silos” and “Tightening up your PM [Preventative Maintenance] program.”

Identical Justifications

It won’t be all work.

The conference features plenty of meet-and-greets, a trip to The Alamo, a 5k morning run for “momentum” and entertainment by the band, High Maintenance.

Conference organizers also conveniently provided an online “justification letter” for attendees to submit to their employers.

In the case of DiPietro and her colleagues, the background explanation given to the Board of Estimates matched word for word the downloadable sample furnished by the conference: