BALTIMORE — The saga continues between the Baltimore City Mayor's Office and the independent Inspector General's office now with resolution possibly months away.
On Tuesday, following a two-and-a-half-hour hearing in a packed courtroom, Judge Pamela White did not rule on the city’s motion to dismiss Inspector General Isabel Cumming’s unprecedented lawsuit, nor the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment.
“We sincerely and greatly appreciate the court's careful attention to these very important issues, and we are confident that upon review of the record, the right decision will be made,” attorney Anthony May said.
“I’d also like to thank the public for all the support that we received from the Office of Inspector General, and I’d like to thank my amazing attorneys,” Cumming said.
May is one of the pro bono attorneys who has taken on the OIG’s case. They declined to take any questions on specifics following Tuesday’s proceedings.
The crux of the issue lies with whether the city’s watchdog is subject to the Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA) and its exemptions.
The fight went public earlier this year, when the OIG office claimed its work to seek out fraud, waste and abuse became “impossible” as it was locked out from directly accessing city servers.
But the Mayor’s Office asserts an IT employee accessed privileged attorney-client information improperly under the MPIA.
Hitting an impasse, Cumming took the issue to court.
Judge White indicated it would be some time before she’d make her decision following Tuesday's hearing. Though she highly emphasized the OIG’s independence in her review of the city charter and the MPIA law, finding the law is “clear and unambiguous.”
May revealed the number of subpoenas from the OIG that have gone unanswered has now grown to 49, up from 19 in January.
But the city solicitor’s office’s take appeared to be at odds with that assertion.
Attorney Renita Collins claimed in court that they are honoring requests for documents "on a rolling basis" and there’s no real harm to the current OIG efforts.
She pointed to the city charter, updated in 2022 following the 2018 voter referendum that made the office fully independent, which does not explicitly state that the OIG gets “carte blanche” to city records.
The mayor's office also declined to comment on specifics and told WMAR-2 News in a statement they “look forward to receiving Judge White’s decision.”
Former Baltimore City Solicitor weighs in
Andre Davis, who served as city solicitor from 2017 through 2020, made his thoughts known in a recently filed affidavit.
Davis was a part of the team that assisted in making the OIG a fully independent body during his time as solicitor. He describes how often the City Law Department and the OIG would work hand in hand, as they now face off in court.
"The contention that the Maryland Public Information Act somehow impedes the City's effort to enhance the work of the independent OIG is a novel and extraordinary assertion,” he stated. “Had such a proposition been advanced during my time as City Solicitor, the CLD would have done absolutely everything within its authority to rebut such an assertion.”
He goes on to address his thoughts on the efforts to answer the outstanding question of whether the MPIA applies to subpoenas issued by a charter-authorized independent OIG:
"One can easily envision a non-stop stream of litigation before the courts over how the Maryland Public Information Act is being administered by the CLD, a wasteful prospect that is manifestly inimical to the goal of good government,” he states.
