By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews
BALTIMORE — A Baltimore judge put teeth into her ruling against Mayor Brandon Scott’s administration Monday, signing a written order that gives City Hall two business days to restore Inspector General Isabel Cumming’s access to city computer systems and 45 days to hand over records it has withheld for months.
Senior Circuit Court Judge Pamela White’s order closes out, at least for now, an eight-month standoff that began in January, when the Scott administration cut off Cumming’s direct access to city servers and databases. The fight escalated after Cumming subpoenaed records tied to the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement’s SideStep youth diversion program. A preliminary IG report in March found the program had paid fraudulent invoices and suffered a data breach in which the names of more than 700 people, many of them juveniles, were sent to a city employee’s relative.
“A developing pattern by the City to delay, diffuse and deny.”
The written order follows a Sept. 16 hearing where White said from the bench that she would grant summary judgment largely in Cumming’s favor. It also comes after the city lost twice in the intervening days. On Aug. 14, White denied the city’s motion to dismiss the case, and on Sept. 14 the Appellate Court of Maryland refused to pause the proceedings while the city pursued an appeal.
In an 11-page opinion attached to the order, White did not mince words. She wrote that Cumming’s complaint documents “a developing pattern by the City to delay, diffuse and deny” OIG subpoenas to city offices and employees. She also rejected the administration’s central defense, that Cumming had abused “unfettered access” to privileged records, finding that argument “unsupported by any factual attestation of the existence of a privilege.”
The court found the city’s privilege argument was “unsupported by any factual attestation of the existence of a privilege.”
The order specifically requires the city, within two business days, to restore Cumming’s office access to:
- The city’s M365 Cloud Administrator account, covering SharePoint, OneDrive, and Exchange
- The Enterprise Domain Administrator account
- The Enterprise Server Administrator account
- The Enterprise Workstation Administrator account
- The Splunk platform used to review system logs
Separately, the city has five days to begin producing records tied to every subpoena the inspector general issued in 2025 and 2026, with full production due within 45 days, a deadline that falls on or around Nov. 5. White wrote the records must be turned over “without redaction or limitation,” though the city may still withhold specific documents it can justify as attorney-client communications or legal work product, listed on a privilege log.
The city must begin producing subpoenaed records within five days and complete production within 45 days.
The order also bars the administration from denying future OIG subpoenas and from using a misapplication of the Maryland Public Information Act or attorney-client privilege to limit the inspector general’s investigations. It does not eliminate legitimate privilege claims, which the city can still raise through the privilege log, and it bars the administration from revoking her office’s system access again.
Mayor Scott signaled days before the written order that he does not plan to simply accept it. In a statement issued after the Sept. 16 hearing, he repeated his office’s claim that Cumming has “repeatedly abused her previous unfettered access to information” for “personal motives.” Scott said the city would review the written order once it arrived and “explore all options,” while also renewing a push for legislation to add oversight of the inspector general’s own record access.
Scott accused Cumming of abusing her access for “personal motives.” The administration has now appealed the ruling.
Cumming’s attorney, Anthony May, who has represented her without charge, called the ruling “a win for transparency for all of Baltimore.”
The inspector general’s office was carved out as an independent agency by Baltimore voters in 2018 and further insulated by a 2022 charter amendment creating a civilian advisory board. Cumming has led the office since January 2018.
What to Watch
- Whether the city restores Cumming’s system access by the court’s two-business-day deadline, which falls on Wednesday, Sept. 23
- The administration filed a notice of appeal late Monday and is now seeking an emergency stay of the order from the Appellate Court of Maryland
- Whether the 45-day document production, due around Nov. 5, includes records tied to other open OIG inquiries, including outstanding requests to the Department of Housing and Community Development
- Whether Scott’s push for new legislation governing IG access gains any traction in Annapolis or on the City Council
Sourcing: This story draws on Mark Reutter’s reporting for Baltimore Brew, including the full text of Judge Pamela White’s Sept. 21, 2026 order and opinion, and his Sept. 17, 2026 report on Mayor Scott’s statement. Background on the SideStep data breach comes from Fern Shen’s March 17, 2026 report for Baltimore Brew. Additional details on the Sept. 16, 2026 hearing come from CBS News Baltimore, The Daily Record and The Baltimore Banner. Background on outstanding OIG records requests to the city’s housing agency comes from WBFF/FOX45’s reporting on the Department of Housing and Community Development. Details on the city’s Sept. 22, 2026 appeal are covered in a companion piece.
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