Demonstrator Interrupts City Meeting, Calls Mayor Liar Over Inspector General Dispute

With more than 200 fraud-linked financial records still locked behind city redactions, a demonstrator walked into Baltimore's spending board meeting Wednesday and called Mayor Brandon Scott a liar.

The protester interrupted the Baltimore Board of Estimates to read a prepared speech in defense of Inspector General Isabel Cumming, whose fight with the Scott administration over access to city documents has escalated from social media standoffs to Baltimore Circuit Court since January.

The Board of Estimates, which approves every significant city contract and expenditure, sits at the center of the dispute in more ways than one. City Solicitor Ebony Thompson, a board member, has rejected three of Cumming's requests for independent legal counsel over the past year. Thompson's Law Department also redacted more than 200 financial documents central to Cumming's ongoing fraud investigation.

That investigation targets SideStep, a now-shuttered youth crime diversion program run by the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, known as MONSE. The city paid 15 contractors roughly $694,000 to work with Baltimore youth in the Western District from 2022 to 2024. Cumming found that at least two of those contractors committed fraud, submitting altered or fabricated invoices to collect larger city payments than they earned, and referred the findings to law enforcement.

But Cumming has argued those findings represent only what her office could see. With the bulk of the financial records redacted, she has said the investigation remains incomplete, and that the city's restrictions could be concealing additional fraud from scrutiny. Her office has documented that 104 of its 324 investigations during her tenure would not have been possible without direct access to city records, putting the stakes of the standoff well beyond the SideStep case alone.

Baltimore City Councilman Mark Conway recently introduced legislation that would designate the inspector general as a co-custodian of city records, a move designed to guarantee independent access to financial data regardless of how the court case resolves. The Scott administration has maintained its restrictions follow legal guidance from the Maryland Attorney General's office. The lawsuit is pending in Baltimore Circuit Court.