County inspector general issues report detailing investigation activity, progress

In the three years since its inception, the Office of Baltimore County Inspector General Kelly Madigan has gone from three people toiling in a small windowless room in the historic Towson courthouse to doubling its staff size and budget.

That was the main message of its annual report, which published Tuesday, summarizing what Madigan’s office has accomplished during the previous fiscal year. The office is charged with rooting out fraud, misconduct and waste within county government.

Baltimore City has its own inspector general, Isabel Mercedes Cumming, as does Montgomery County.

Madigan’s office received 213 complaints, opened 19 investigations, and issued four public reports, according to the annual report. It hired an attorney to handle ethics complaints, two new investigators, and two law school interns. The previous year it received 155 complaints and opened 15 investigations.

“The office also addressed 164 ethics-related inquiries, processed over 300 lobbying-related compliance documents, and attained a 100% compliance rate for the over 500 financial disclosures that were filed,” Madigan said in a Tuesday news release.

The report comes six months after the conclusion of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Ethics and Accountability, a group set up by County Executive Johnny Olszewski

Jr., a Democrat, to offer recommendations for Madigan’s office. The commission, which was hosted through the University of Baltimore’s Schaefer Center for Public Policy, began meeting in June 2022 and published its final recommendations in February.

The commission recommended that Baltimore County preserve the Inspector General’s independence, and that the county executive and County Council always offer written justifications for any reduction or change in the inspector general’s budget, which is approved by the Council.

In July 2021, Olszewski drafted legislation that would have implemented an oversight board for Madigan’s office. An industry group, the Association of Inspectors General, said the bill would have “gagged and shackled” Madigan’s work by limiting her investigative powers and allowing her to be fired or have the office’s budget reduced.

That bill, which Olszewski eventually withdrew, came after then-councilmembers Cathy Bevins and Tom Quirk, and current Council Chair Julian Jones, all Democrats, criticized Madigan during a budget meeting for her “aggressive” tactics.

Jones was the target of two inspector general investigations, for improperly using his email to solicit campaign donations, and for overriding county employees’ objections to order a county contractor to pave a public alleyway at the request of a local developer.