To those who haven’t been following Baltimore politics, Mayor Brandon Scott’s declaration that he doesn’t use his city email account might have sounded like a casual, off-the-wall quip.

In reality, it was anything but.

“Mr. President, you can have my email because there’s no emails there,” he declared. “That’s the only way to protect your email is not to email.”

Scott was addressing City Council President Zeke Cohen at last week’s Board of Estimates meeting when the subject of digital privacy arose, animating both of them.

The extra zing in Scott’s remark helps clarify what’s behind his prolonged battle with Baltimore Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming – namely, her ability to examine online the way he and his aides conduct public business.

Earlier statements by the mayor indicate that his biggest problem with the inspector general, whose mission is to “stop fraud, waste and abuse” in municipal government, is that she is not beholden to him.

A corollary concern is that her office can look into complaints of improper or illegal conduct involving not just contractors or city employees, but also elected officials.

Cumming serves at the pleasure of a citizens’ Advisory Board following the passage of 2018 and 2022 charter amendments overwhelmingly approved by Baltimore voters. This contrasts with an earlier era when the IG served at the pleasure of the mayor and was subject to an advisory board filled with political appointees.

The board’s chair and secretary joined Cumming in a lawsuit after City Solicitor Ebony Thompson, a Scott appointee, denied the IG access to the city’s database and emails last January and blacked out nearly 200 pages of financial records requested following preliminary probes into the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) and SideStep program.

In August, Circuit Court Judge Pamela J. White ordered the city to restore server access to the IG and respond to scores of subpoenas bottled up by the law department. Twice Scott’s lawyers appealed her ruling; twice they lost before the Maryland Appellate Court.

This has led him to proclaim to the media that Cumming has “unfettered access” to “snoop” and “surveil” and “secretly look through” what he called “people’s emails.”

And according to the law, that is exactly what her office is empowered to do.

“No Expectation of Privacy”

All employee message and files originating on the city’s communication system are the property of the city, not the personal property of individual employees or elected officials.

The Administrative Manual states explicitly that “users have no expectation of privacy when using City IT resources.”

All messages, files, logs and content may be subject to examination by four city agencies – Human Resources, Law, the city’s information technology arm BCIT, and the Office of the Inspector General.

The efforts by Scott and Thompson to water down the inspector general’s power by claiming her office’s search for information is limited by the Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA) and by potential attorney-client, work product and legislative privilege have been rejected by White.

How Does Scott Communicate?

If the mayor doesn’t use the city’s email system, what forms of communication does he use to conduct public business?

Does he rely on Skype or Slack or instant messaging? Does he deploy a private email account? Cellphones? Personal contacts? A combination of the above?

Emails and messages sent or received by public officials regarding government business are considered public records regardless of whether they are stored on a private email account or a government-issued address.

The Brew asked the mayor’s press office how he communicates while conducting city business if he avoids the city’s email system. Ditto with communications between and among his senior staff.

So far we have not gotten a response.

Scott was not the only member of the Board of Estimates who seemed preoccupied by the inspector general now that she has regained access to city records. A report of online financial security by BCIT quickly turned into a discussion about privacy among elected officials.

• Here’s the link to the 4½-minute segment of the meeting. See here for The Brew’s extensive coverage of the IG dispute.

“Privacy, security is critically important for all of our stuff,” began Council President Cohen. “I just want to make sure that I’m not in the mayor’s emails. The mayor’s not in my emails. My colleagues only have access to what they need access to.”

That’s when Scott jumped in. “You can have my email because there’s no emails there,” he told Cohen as City Solicitor Thompson grinned at his side.

The mayor then turned to T.J. Mayotte, who he had appointed head of BCIT last March:

“I want the council president and the comptroller to hear it not from me but from you. There are, I won’t say gaps, there are gaps within the system because with a certain level of access, is it still true that even Microsoft cannot track everything a certain person with a certain level of access does?”

“Yes, sir,” replied Mayotte, referring to what he said some call superuser access.

“It’s very important that we limit those accounts because, should those accounts be compromised, the city has a serious problem. So we at BCIT ensure that those accounts are as limited as possible.”

Mayotte was referencing mid-level employees in, say, the water department who may have access to customer financial data. Such jobs have online access limited to the data they must have to do their work, he said.

But Scott wanted his colleagues and members of the City Council to know “on the record” that their online communications could be viewed without their knowledge.

“You know, if I had that access, Mr. Comptroller, and I, of course, wouldn’t do this, I can go into all of your files, and there is no way for Microsoft to know that it was me and not you.”

Loaded Questions

Thanking Scott for his “reassurance,” Comptroller Bill Henry tossed out a series of questions to Mayotte that brought hushed laughter and knowing headshakes from Scott and others.

Henry: “Is there anyone with superuser access outside of BCIT?”

Mayotte: “Yes.”

Henry: “Umm, Is that person here today?”

Mayotte: “No.” (Laughter)

Henry: “Is that person a member of the legislative branch of government?”

Mayotte: “No.”

Henry: “Okay. Does that person work directly for anyone who’s here today?”

Mayotte: “No.”

“I think that’s as far as I want to go,” Henry said, gesturing to City Solicitor Thompson.

Noting that she appeared to be on the edge of her seat, he joked, “I found that when she’s at a poised point, that’s the point to stop because the next position past that may be leaping.”

It wasn’t just the posture of the city solicitor that ended his line of questioning.

Inspector General Cumming had appeared in the hearing room and sat down. Those present at the meeting say they saw her glare at the mayor and other members of the board.

Meanwhile, the CharmTV camera caught City Administrator Faith Leach motioning to the side of the podium where the mayor and Thompson sat.

A minute later, the board had moved to its next item of business.