Baltimore's fraud watchdog blasts city for "unprecedented" action blocking access to records, whistleblower protections

Baltimore's inspector general, the city's watchdog for fraud, waste, and abuse, is outraged over being blocked from access to documents that she said are essential to her job. 

Isabel Mercedes Cumming also told WJZ Investigates her team can no longer monitor who is looking at sensitive online data, including whistleblower complaints.

In response, the communications director for Mayor Brandon Scott has accused the inspector general's office of misleading the public. 

"How could I possibly do my job?"

"It's shocking," Cumming told WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren as she held up some heavily redacted documents. "Cash app $102. I can't tell you who paid it. $500 here. I can't tell you where the money went, just pages that I don't even know what it is."

Cumming referred to some of the hundreds of pages of redacted documents she received while looking into Slack communications connected to the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, or MONSE, Mayor Scott's signature violence reduction program. 

"How could I possibly do my job?" the longtime inspector general asked. "My job is to protect taxpayer dollars. I can't follow the money anymore because it's redacted."

While Cumming has subpoena power, she said the city is treating her like any general member of the public who requests documents through the Freedom of Information Act. 

"My office is based on transparency, accountability and integrity, so I've been kind of backed into a corner where transparency is what I have, so I wanted the public to know what the financial documents that I asked for looked like," Cumming said.

In a news release from the city sent Saturday as the region prepared for one of the biggest winter storms in a decade, the mayor's office said the issue stemmed from unauthorized access to law department files protected by attorney-client privilege and alleged "an account associated with the inspector general's office had gained unapproved and unfettered access to the lawyer's legally-protected confidential work product and communications."

According to that news release, "The office of the inspector general did not get authorized access to these files for a current investigation. Removal of this access will not impede the lawful work of the office of the inspector general."

Cumming strongly disagreed. 

"Bad actors will use the privilege of writing the words 'attorney-client privilege' on documents to shield things," she noted. 

Whistleblower confidentiality compromised?

Cumming said the city's information technology department also abruptly cut off part of her office administrator's access, including the ability to see who else in city government may be looking at whistleblower complaints and documents related to ethics investigations.

"That was why I could say it will be confidential. We will protect you," Cumming said. "And that is why I am now so concerned. That is why I had to notify my law enforcement partners about data that we have. We don't have a protector anymore. You took it away."

She told Hellgren the city's move was "unprecedented."

"The gatekeeper lost his access on a snowy night without any notice other than a press release that was not even sent to this office or my board," Cumming said. "…They don't understand that the people voted for this office, and they've taken away my ability to protect the people's information and data."

She said it comes at a time when her office is set to release multiple investigative reports over the next month. 

Her past investigations have uncovered wasted taxpayer funds and shined a spotlight on unsafe conditions for DPW workers. 

"Misleading" the public

In a new statement Tuesday to WJZ Investigates, the mayor's director of communications Tracy King said the inspector general's office "is choosing to conflate two independent issues in an intentional effort to mislead the public about this situation." 

"Additionally, their administrative access over their own files was not impacted so claiming otherwise is also misleading."

What's next? 

Cumming said the city denied providing her a lawyer to review the situation. 

"That avenue is closed for me, but that avenue is not closed for the public. The public could sue on behalf of the inspector general," Cumming said.