A Baltimore councilman plans to introduce legislation that would place a question on ballots this fall asking voters to solidify the city inspector general’s access to records.

The proposed ballot question, which Councilman Mark Conway expects to introduce at a future council meeting, would ask voters to make the inspector general a “co-custodian” of city records, a move that Conway said would guarantee the inspector general access.

The move comes amid a legal dispute between Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming and Mayor Brandon Scott over access to city materials. Early this year, Scott’s administration discovered Cumming and her staff had “unfettered access" to city legal records — access that they said was a violation of attorney-client and work product privileges. The administration terminated Cumming’s access to legal documents.

Weeks later, the administration blocked the office’s access to a wider swath of records after receiving legal advice from an attorney with the Maryland Office of the Attorney General. That guidance, which Attorney General Anthony Brown has since tried to distance himself from, said Cumming’s office was subject to the Maryland Public Information Act, which restricts access to sensitive records, including financial information and personnel documents.

Cumming has argued that her office has long had direct access to city materials, including financial records, emails and documents created by city employees. Without that access, the inspector general’s office is not able to fulfill its duty of being a watchdog for waste, fraud and abuse, she said.

In February, Cumming sued the city, asking a judge to force the administration to fulfill subpoenas. The case remains pending.

In a news release this week, Conway, who is currently running for Congress against U.S. Rep Kweisi Mfume, said it was “profoundly unwise for any administration to resist scrutiny into how the people’s money is being spent.”

Conway’s staff said a draft of the bill would not be completed until later this week. It is unclear what City Council committee would hear the proposal. The bill will have a tight timeline if Conway hopes to get the measure on ballots for the November election. Ballot questions must be finalized by this summer.

Conway has also announced a hearing to be held next month to address the findings of several inspector general reports that looked at the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement.

Cumming’s latest report found evidence that MONSE paid two contractors for fraudulent invoices as part of a youth crime diversion pilot program. A former MONSE employee also shared a list of participants in several youth programs, a violation of state law that bars dissemination of juvenile records. Cumming referred her findings to law enforcement for further action.