BALTIMORE (WBFF) — As the city awaits a decision from a judge regarding Baltimore’s watchdog’s subpoena power, the fallout could trickle down to other inspectors general across Maryland.
Baltimore City Inspector General Isabel Cumming field a lawsuit against Mayor Brandon Scott’s Administration after subpoenas went ignored amid an ongoing battle over information. Cumming’s probe into the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, MONSE, sparked headlines after she posted a photo of hundreds of pages filled with redactions.
In January, she said her office’s access to records was suddenly cut off. The Mayor’s Office issued a statement over the weekend as the city braced for historic snow, detailing what they described as attorney-client privileged information had been breached; because of that, the OIG’s access to records was severed.
For years, however, the city’s inspector general – tasked with rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse inside City Hall – has conducted investigations through the same access to records. Now, the MONSE investigation seemingly touched on something new and the access was cut.
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After Cumming filed the lawsuit, City Councilman Mark Conway announced plans to introduce a bill through the council to make the OIG co-custodian of records. Because the plan is a charter amendment, if the council signed off on the bill, the issue would go before the voters of Baltimore.
“If we want our city to thrive and succeed, we do need to hold folks accountable when there is fraud or abuse or waste,” Conway said.
Changing the charter for the Office of Inspector General wouldn’t be new. Voters did it in 2018 and again in 2022 to ensure the office was truly independent and free from political influence.
Cumming emphasized the importance of access to records for her office, which has handled nearly 5,000 hotline complaints and over 200 investigations since 2018. She said Conway’s charter amendment would allow the office to continue doing the job it’s been doing for years.
“In those same eight years we have had three different mayors, four different council presidents, four different solicitors,” Cumming said. “During all those changes, the office has performed the same work with the same access, serving as a constant for this city. This office has tried to be responsive always, always to the people it serves.”
But the effort is already facing hurdles. City Council President Zeke Cohen said while he supports the work Cumming has done, especially investigations into working conditions for Department of Public Works employees, he said he has legal concerns with Conway’s proposal.
“What I cannot do is support a bill that I don’t know whether it’s legal or not,” he said. “And the opinions of at least the attorneys that I’ve spoken to seem to indicate that it’s not, that it would have to be done at the state level.”
Friday, Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Pamela White denied the Scott Administration’s attempt to throw Cumming’s attorneys off the case; Mayor Brandon Scott has argued Cumming can’t sue the Mayor’s Office since the two offices are within the same city government structure.
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While White has yet to rule on the main issue of subpoena power in the case, during Friday’s hearing, it was clear the judge seemed at least skeptical of Mayor Scott’s team’s arguments.
The Scott Administration “minimizes the charter authority of the OIG, particularly concerning [its] powers and responsibilities to issue and enforce subpoenas” when they tried to say Cumming’s request for access to documents was nothing more than a “political disagreement,” Judge White said.
But access to records isn’t just an issue impacting Baltimore City. In Montgomery County, Inspector General Megan Davey Limarzi said she too has hit a wall getting information.
“I have been able to access the information that I need to do my job since I was first appointed in 2019,” Limarzi said during a previous FOX45 News interview. “Only recently, in early 2026, was I, for the first time, denied a record that we had requested for an investigation, and the basis for the denial that was cited was the Maryland Public Information Act.”
Limarzi said the records denial was for a type of record that her team had “routinely requested in the past and received.”
“So, it really was just all of a sudden this came at us, and it is definitely something that is going to inhibit our ability to do a thorough job when we are conducting investigations if we continually run up against the MPIA,” she explained.
Legislation was introduced in Annapolis to exempt inspectors general from the MPIA restrictions, but the effort failed to get out of committee before the end of session. Senate President Bill Ferguson indicated during an interview on FOX45 News In Depth with Mikenzie Frost that a workgroup may be formed to review the issue over the interim, but so far, details have yet to be announced.
Follow Political Reporter Mikenzie Frost on X and Facebook. Send tips to mbfrost@sbgtv.com.
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