Overview
- Councilman Mark Conway introduced a bill to place a charter amendment on the fall ballot that would make the inspector general a co-custodian of city records.
- The change would curb the mayor’s ability to deny records and give the watchdog direct access during investigations.
- Mayor Brandon Scott’s administration earlier cut the office’s access to legal and other files after a state lawyer advised treating inspector-general subpoenas like public-records requests.
- Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming sued the city in February to enforce subpoenas, saying officials recast them as Maryland Public Information Act requests and delivered heavily redacted documents.
- A recent OIG report said at least two contractors overbilled a youth diversion program and a former MONSE employee emailed a list with 701 mostly juvenile names, which Cumming sent to law enforcement, while MONSE launched an audit, said the worker is gone, and called the issues isolated.