Refusing to recognize Sheila Dixon as the rightful mayor of Baltimore, Circuit Court Clerk Frank Conaway is holding up records the city says it needs signed to secure bonds related to a landfill deal.

“I don’t believe she’s mayor,” Conaway said Thursday. “She was never sworn in before me. I don’t believe it was done legally.”

Conaway objected in December when Dixon had Gov. Martin O’Malley swear her in instead of Conaway, who usually swears in the city’s elected officials.

On Wednesday, Conaway, who ran against Dixon, received a letter from city Treasury Manager Stephen Kraus asking him to sign off on documents related to a master purchase agreement. The $4.5 million deal would transfer a parcel of the city’s Quarantine Road landfill to a city-owned corporation, the Industrial Development Authority.

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Conaway promptly returned the forms to Kraus.

“I am returning them to you because I cannot execute them due to the fact that Mayor-elect Dixon did not appear before me on Dec. 4, 2007 to be sworn-in,” he wrote. “Therefore, I cannot attest that she was duly qualified before me.”

Sterling Clifford, a spokesman for Dixon, said Conaway was holding up “important” documents the city needs to secure bonds. Clifford said he could not immediately determine how much money was held up.

“Before we can issue bonds, there’s a certification and ratings process we have to go through,” Clifford said. “Part of the process is having him sign this form.”

“We are absolutely sure Mayor Dixon is the mayor of Baltimore. We’re going to reach out to Mr. Conaway and get this resolved.”

According to state tax records, the Industrial Development Authority was incorporated in 1979, and its corporate agent is the city’s director of finance.

Shaun Adamec, spokesman for City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, said he understood the documents Conaway is refusing to sign to be a “purchase agreement that amounts to a transfer of funds and is the final piece of the six cells forming this landfill.”

He said Rawlings-Blake “has not been involved in this.” Calls to the Baltimore Development Corporation were not returned.

lbroadwater@baltimoreexaminer.com

sjanis@baltimoreexaminer.com