Odysseys and overlords: The drama between Baltimore’s IG and mayor is back in court

Who is vying to be Baltimore’s overlord?

Both Mayor Brandon Scott and Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming are pointing the finger at each other as their attorneys head to court this week.

For years, Cumming has had direct access to city documents, her attorneys argued in court filings, making her a “de facto custodian” to all city records.

In fact, Cumming is also the “de facto supervisor” to all city employees, they said, making her entitled to what the city says are sensitive personnel records.

In filings of their own, attorneys for Scott scoffed at Cumming’s assertion. The inspector general is on an “odyssey,” they argued, to elevate herself “above all legal checks and balances.”

“They demand that this court ... make these unelected officers the overlords for all municipal operations now and in the future without restraint,” the attorneys wrote.

“The only ‘overlords’ seeking to deprive the citizens of Baltimore of transparency,” the inspector general countered, “are the current mayor and his appointed city solicitor.”

These pointed arguments are the latest in a dispute that’s set to return to court Tuesday, with broad implications for future investigations by the inspector general. Retired Baltimore Circuit Court Associate Judge Pamela White will hear arguments from attorneys for Scott and Cumming, who are duking it out over how much access the city’s inspector general should have to Baltimore’s records.

When both groups were last in court in April, White signaled her disappointment with the situation, calling the administration’s position “concerning.”

“The OIG is an independent agency within city government,” White said, adding that it is expected to carry out its responsibilities “without oversight and without interference from the city law department.”

How did we wind up here?

In January, Scott’s team cut access for Cumming and her staff to city legal records after officials discovered that the inspector general had “unfettered access” to a city attorney’s files. That access, City Solicitor Ebony Thompson argued, was a violation of attorney-client and work product privileges.

Weeks later, Scott further limited Cumming, this time blocking her office from direct access to all city documents. The administration cited legal advice it had received from an attorney with the Office of the Maryland Attorney General, which said Cumming was subject to the Maryland Public Information Act. That act bars public entities like the city from releasing certain records, such as personnel and financial information.

Cumming, the city’s inspector general of eight years, took the issue to court in February, asking a judge to enforce her subpoena power, which is outlined in the city charter.

What will be decided Tuesday?

When both sides were last in court, White ruled against the administration’s attempt to disqualify Cumming’s attorneys, who are representing her pro bono.

This time, White will consider a motion filed by the administration to dismiss the case and a motion for summary judgment filed by the inspector general. Cumming is asking the court to order the government to perform its official duties, which would mean responding to her subpoenas.

That’s not possible, city attorneys argued, because they are already complying with the law.

What’s happened since the last time they were in court?

Both sides have submitted a flurry of arguments since April. Cumming’s team argued that her investigations have been slowed considerably under new restrictions. Data requests, for example, now take months to fulfill instead of hours.

In an affidavit, Matthew Neil, Cumming’s deputy, said Scott’s administration hasn’t complied with 13 subpoenas demanding documents from the city’s information technology office, Law Department and the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement.

Cumming’s office must now give the Law Department “key words” when requesting documents, potentially jeopardizing investigations, they argued.

“Not only does this run the risk of the Law Department filtering out information that could be relevant, but it requires the OIG to disclose key terms that compromise the confidentiality of the investigation because it discloses the very topics and areas of inquiry that should remain confidential,” Neil wrote in one filing.

Attorneys for both the city and the inspector general continue to debate whether the Maryland Public Information Act applies to the inspector general’s office. Cumming’s attorneys argued that even if it does, city officials have made her a “de facto custodian” of all city records by supplying them for many years.

Cumming’s attorneys claim that she is entitled to personnel records protected by the Public Information Act as a “de facto supervisor over all city employees.”

City attorneys called that position “tenuous.”

“Plaintiffs grossly exaggerate the powers of the OIG in an attempt to make an end-run around the MPIA,” attorneys for Scott’s administration wrote in response.

The Public Information Act bars certain documents from release, such as personnel and financial records, but Cumming’s attorneys argued that those exemptions could be overridden by a “compulsory legal process authorized by state law, such as a court order or judicial subpoena.” They cited a 2025 email from Law Department attorney Jeff Hochstetler lobbying for the disclosure of federal tax information as evidence that the inspector general’s subpoena power is derived from state law.

“Plaintiffs did not conjure this theory from thin air; they adopted it from the city itself,” Cumming’s attorneys wrote.

Has there been any other drama?

Since her access to documents was cut earlier this year, Cumming has said publicly that she can no longer guarantee protections for whistleblowers because she cannot ensure that the administration is not accessing her server.

In a June filing, Cumming’s legal team alleged that the city’s information and technology office logged on to her server hundreds of times in the four days preceding the April court hearing. The log-ons were detailed in a report from City Administrator Faith Leach, the filing said, and could not be independently verified.

In their response, attorneys for the administration said city tech officials “confirmed that the alleged abnormalities were not a security breach or the result of human activity, but rather a benign system program run on 125 servers of which the OIG was just one.”