Baltimore IG asks judge to hold city officials in contempt over blocked records access

Maggie Trovato, Baltimore Sun on Sep 28, 2026

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BALTIMORE — Attorneys for Baltimore Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming asked a judge Monday to hold the city in contempt and impose daily fines for failing to restore her office’s access to government records, even as Mayor Brandon Scott said he had directed his team to comply.

The petition escalates a months-long battle over the city watchdog’s ability to investigate fraud, waste and abuse in Baltimore government. Cumming’s attorneys say the city’s refusal to restore access to records it cut off in January continues to obstruct those investigations.

“This is not a case of negligence, inadvertence, or good-faith incapacity; the City has deliberately withheld access that lies entirely within its control,” attorneys H. Mark Stichel and Anthony J. May wrote.

The filing came the same day Scott said he had ordered access restored after the Appellate Court of Maryland on Friday denied the city’s request to pause the order while it appeals.

“I ordered my team to start doing that immediately following the order,” Scott said at a city event Monday. “We’re always going to follow the law, and immediately I ordered them to do just that.”

Scott said access should have since been restored, but said he wasn’t sure. Monday afternoon, a person within the Inspector General’s Office told The Baltimore Sun that access had not yet been restored.

Cumming’s attorneys asked Baltimore City Circuit Judge Pamela White to require the city to explain why it should not be held in civil contempt and, after a hearing, impose a fine for each day it fails to restore the access. They proposed no dollar amount, leaving that decision to the judge.

The city could end any sanction imposed by fully restoring the permissions and certifying that restoration to the court and the plaintiffs, the filing said.

“The City’s failure to restore this access continues to obstruct the OIG’s Charter-mandated investigations,” they wrote.

White’s Sept. 21 order required the city to restore, within two business days, all system access permissions held by Assistant Inspector General of IT Operations Bryan Bartsch as of Jan. 22. Those permissions include tools for searching electronic records, accessing email and stored files, preserving mailboxes, and reviewing activity logs.

The order separately required the city to begin producing documents responsive to outstanding subpoenas within five days and finish within 45 days.

In a letter emailed Sunday to city attorneys and included with Monday’s petition, Stichel and May asked that access be restored by 1 p.m. Monday and that the city confirm compliance in writing. They warned that they would seek court enforcement if access remained restricted.

As of the filing, the attorneys wrote, they had received no response to their Sunday letter.

“Because the City itself granted and then revoked these permissions, it can restore them by the same administrative action, immediately and without burden,” they wrote.

Court ordered access restored

The city appealed White’s ruling and sought to pause its enforcement. On Wednesday, the Appellate Court granted a temporary stay while White considered the city’s request for a stay pending appeal. White denied that request Thursday, and the city renewed its request in the Appellate Court.

Friday, the Appellate Court denied the renewed request, finding that the city had failed to demonstrate that it would suffer “irreparable harm” without a stay in place. The underlying appeal remains unresolved.

The city has argued that the inspector general’s direct access conflicts with state law and could expose protected information.

The appellate judges clarified that White’s ruling did not require the city to provide the inspector general’s office with attorney-client privileged communications or attorney work product generated in this litigation. They also said the ruling prohibited the office from further disclosing documents containing privileged or confidential information.

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