Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott is locked in a bitter feud with Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming, in which she accused City Hall of abusing its expenses by blowing $50,000 on snacks at sports games, according to a report.
The disagreement began in January when Cumming investigated potential fraud in a city-run youth diversion program, but was supplied with only heavily-redacted invoices by record-keepers.
When she issued a subpoena demanding to see the unmarked originals in full, Cumming says she was ignored.
The inspector general said she had “unapproved and unfettered access” to legally protected and confidential work communications but this was then withdrawn, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The city subsequently announced changes to the rules for her office, including imposing compulsory confidentiality provisions for personnel, medical and financial information, which it said was required under state law.
Cumming characterized the move as “an attempt to stop transparency,” but Scott disputed her interpretation, telling the WSJ he remained “in full support of transparency, but it has to be done the right way.”
Earlier this year, the IG released a report detailing $167,000 in unchecked spending by staffers from the mayor’s office over three years, which included the $50,000 spent on crab cakes and Old Bay wings in skyboxes at Baltimore Orioles and Ravens games.
She alleged excessive spending on “birthday celebrations, employee appreciations, baby showers, and flowers for a selective few” and noted that one named senior employee in the mayor’s office had requested last year that a “fresh fruit tray” be made available to their team daily.
Scott’s office responded by challenging Cumming’s “characterizations and implications” about the spending and pointed out that it routinely entertains “everyday Baltimoreans” and city workers on its budget.
After suing the Scott administration to regain her lost access, the IG then drew flack in April for sharing a video on Facebook that featured an AI-generated image of the two-term Democratic mayor smoking a cigar amid stacks of cash.
Scott said he was “very disappointed” by the post, noting that he does not drink or smoke and commenting: “That just adds on to the fire that we’re talking about, like, oh yeah, it is a young Black guy, he has to be corrupt.”
His chief of staff duly filed an ethics complaint over the video but Cumming told the WSJ she considered it a distraction: “My motivation is for the public. We are an independent watchdog.”
Baltimore City Council has since entertained a proposal to return the IG’s access to internal records, only for it to stall when a lawyer for the city argued it amounted to an attempt to circumvent the state Public Information Act.
The spending reports have faced backlash as many Americans face soaring bills and a cost of living crisis.
“People who can’t pay their own bills are saying, ‘I pay my taxes, I’m working three jobs,’” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center in Boston, while officials “are just blowing money on crab dinners and boxes.”
