The Scott administration’s repeated efforts to delay or derail the lawsuit by Baltimore Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming – this time through an appeal to the Appellate Court of Maryland – faced another setback today.

The higher court’s denial of the city’s appeal means that the lawsuit by Cumming and two members of the IG Adivsory Board will proceed, with a hearing scheduled on Wednesday before Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Pamela J. White.

At issue before the appellate court was White’s August 14 order requiring the city law department to promptly identify and produce its responses to scores of recent Inspector General document requests that were not acted upon by the city.

The appellate court ruled that sending restricted documents solely to the IG creates no irreparable harm due to existing confidentiality safeguards.

Since January, the Scott administration has cut off Cumming’s direct database access to city records after introducing a novel interpretation of the Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA).

The record denials started after Cumming opened an investigation of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) and detected allegedly fraudulent time sheets and employee names in its SideStep program.

Cumming filed the lawsuit to obtain those and other documents through a court order.

• For full Brew coverage of Cumming-Scott administration dispute.

The city had sought an interlocutory appeal, asking the appellate court to intervene before the underlying lawsuit was finished.

In a two-page decision issued this morning, Appellate Judge Kevin F. Arthur, speaking on behalf of the court, ruled that Judge White “correctly held” that Cumming is restricted by law and by her office’s written standards from making any disclosure of the disputed documents, thereby safeguarding the identity of confidential sources and protecting other privileged information.

“Because any restricted document will go solely to the OIG and be disseminated no further at this juncture, the potential harm is not irreparable,” Arthur wrote.

The ruling means that Judge White’s August 14 order for the disclosure of documents will remain in effect.

Legal Blow

Today’s decision is another blow to Mayor Brandon Scott and City Solicitor Ebony Thompson, whose office has spearheaded the denial of records to the watchdog IG.

The law office argued that White’s order amounted to a preliminary injunction and was therefore immediately appealable.

White earlier rejected the law office’s contention that OIG document requests were restricted by the MPIA, calling its arguments “inapt.”

White said OIG requests were “legal orders compelling attendance and production of evidence,” not ordinary public information requests.