After closing Baltimore County chapter, Kelly Madigan is ready to start in Howard County

Kelly Madigan, the now former Baltimore County inspector general, will start as Howard County's first inspector general on Monday. 

Madigan announced the move and her resignation last month after a tumultuous year during which she was almost replaced. 

Howard County Community Reporter Dennis Valera spoke with her on Friday, where she explained why she feels she's better prepared to hit the ground running in her new position.

"I'm an investigator at heart."

On the final day of 2025, Madigan released her final report for Baltimore County. In it, she exposed more than $737,000 in wasted spending for software the county didn't even use. 

Baltimore County had been paying for a software program called PRiSM since 2008 to ensure contracts with minority and women-owned businesses were compliant with county regulations.

However, because there were compatibility issues between PRiSM and the county's financial systems, the software wasn't ever fully integrated or used as intended. After reviewing 350 contracts, only a small fraction of them had been manually reviewed by staff for compliance.

"The best analogy would be that the county was paying for basic cable, then at some point [bought] enhanced channels of cable," Madigan said. "[But the county continued to be] only watching local channels."

That's the kind of investigation she's ready to do in Howard County. Madigan will be building the county's IG office from the ground up, just as she did in Baltimore County.

On day one, she'll be able to immediately start hiring three new workers for her office. It's something she said took years to do in Baltimore County.

While she's excited to start her new job, she knows her work isn't the most popular.

"Nobody wants someone kind of standing behind them shining the flashlight, but I think you have to just lean into the idea we all are doing our best to make local government more accountable, official, and have integrity," Madigan said. "The work is so important to me, I'm an investigator at heart. It kind of suits my personality, that it's both the exposing of the conduct, but also trying to figure out ways to make it better."

Over 50 people applied to be the Howard County inspector general before Madigan was picked.

More independence

Madigan helped guide the council bill that established the IG office. She said the county's policies help lay out the expectations of her office clearly. 

"I have to test drive it, but it seems to be perfect," Madigan said. She adds that there's a clear procedure for the appointment and re-appointment of the position, and she also likes the Inspector General Advisory Board having jurisdiction over her.

"You don't have political interference right off the bat," she said.

In her resignation letter, Madigan said serving in a holdover capacity for nearly a year and not being reappointed pushed her to leave Baltimore County. 

In a December interview with Valera, she said the attempt to replace her didn't sit well, either.