Baltimore inspector general to sue for access to records

Baltimore City Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming got permission on Tuesday to retain a pro bono lawyer to fight for her access to unredacted records.

The board that governs the Office of the Inspector General voted Tuesday evening to allow Cumming to hire an attorney to help her force the city to comply with subpoenas after Mayor Brandon Scott took multiple steps in recent weeks to keep records out of her hands.

“Fighting to do the job. Going to court for the taxpayers,” Cumming posted on X after the hearing. “The City Charter is clear — the Inspector General may enforce a subpoena.”

The Scott administration last month redacted almost all of a batch of documents subpoenaed by Cumming as part of an investigation into his public-safety office, claiming that the subpoena was the same as a request under the Maryland Public Information Act.

The city’s IT office also cut the OIG’s access to internal city data, a move Cumming said means she can’t guarantee confidentiality to whistleblowers.

“I don’t know who’s looking at all my records,” she told The Daily Record.

Then, last week, Scott escalated the conflict by choosing to interpret all of Cumming’s requests — even those backed by subpoenas — as subject to the state’s public records law.

The mayor cited an opinion by the Maryland Office of the Attorney General which argued that the MPIA, as a state law, preempts the OIG’s subpoena power because it comes from an inferior source of law — the Baltimore City Charter.

As such, Assistant Attorney General Shaunee Harrison wrote that Cumming shouldn’t have access to personnel records, financial information and more — all of which she says are important for her office to identify waste, fraud and abuse in city government.

Cumming says these actions are all unprecedented in her eight years on the job, during which she’s worked with multiple mayors and city solicitors. Her “direct access” to all city records was unquestioned, she said, until she began investigating the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, which coordinates Scott’s crime-prevention strategy.

Cumming argues her access to records is distinct from that of civilians, and that the OIG is a “co-custodian” of all city records.

In a statement, the mayor’s office questioned Cumming’s ability to pursue legal action against the city in her official capacity and said it was “eager to have the Law Department brief the Board Chair on these issues.”

“(T)he board would have benefitted from additional context about these decisions that, so far, they have not sought,” the mayor’s statement said. “Only hearing from one perspective is not going to provide a complete picture.”

After releasing the OAG opinion and further restricting her access, Scott said he took those steps “reluctantly.”

“The actions we are reluctantly taking today were not decided lightly, and they are not intended to hinder or interfere with the lawful work of the OIG,” Scott stated in a news release. “They are intended solely to ensure the City comes into compliance with state law to ensure the integrity of investigations and limit liability.”

Cumming believes she has the authority to sue the city directly to force compliance with the subpoenas to MONSE.

“We’re going to move forward with the mandate I was given,” she said, noting city referendums that made her office independent and gave it subpoena power. “I’m not asking for anything that isn’t best practices.”

This story has been updated.