I love irony.

Item 11 on the Board of Estimates agenda on the day before Thanksgiving, page 15 of 76: the hidden pay raises to the mayor, comptroller and city council president.

Item 13 on the same agenda: "Police Department: Abolish position." That job is defnined: "community service officer, Grade 080 ($27,383 - $32.211). Job No. 207-18759.

As Baltimore Sun reporter Annie Linskey reports today, the raises were listed as "salary adjustments" and hidden using bureaucratic codes. Instead of mayor, it listed "88E" -- I doubt that even most employees know how their jobs are classified, much less the public, who understandably missed their elected officials approving themselves pay bumps while at the same time cutting back on services.

Does anyone even think what it looks like to vote yourself more money while forcing the Police Department to cut overtime during a crime wave? Or while state employees are being forced to take unpaid leaves at Christmas? Maybe they did think about it, which is precisely why they couldn't stomach putting their names next to the agenda item.

Speaking bureaucratease works both ways. Obscure wording can be used to hide such things as pay raises, but it can also suggest something dire happened when it hasn't. That appears to the case with the abolished police position.

Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told me the community service position the Board of Estimates eliminated had been vacant for a long time, and had been a slot assigned to a civilian. So no police officer lost a job. The money saved has been shifted to help fund a police technician. That's a good explanation and probably a sound move. Too bad the agenda item appeared right below the raises, but that isn't the police department's fault. I give Guglielmi, who is new, credit for getting right back to me with a reasonable and sound explanation.

Guglielmi also said that rumors about the abolishment of the Police Department's community services position are unfounded. Col. Rick Hite still runs the program, based out of headquarters, and has three officers assigned to him. Each of the nine police districts also have neighborhood services officers responsible for keeping in touch with community groups and addressing their issues.