Baltimore’s IG tweeted about a city union election. The results are now being contested

Emily Opilo

The Baltimore Banner

August 28, 2025

“Kudos to @BaltimoreDPW worker Stancil McNair who is running for president of the AFSCME union,” the social media post began.

“Dream Team,” read an attached graphic. “VOTE Stancil McNair (President).”

The post, which appeared on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, didn’t come from a member of McNair’s slate of fellow candidates or a supporter within the city’s Department of Public Works, which AFSCME Local 44 represents.

It, and many more like it, were instead posted by Baltimore Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming, leading to a protest filed this week that is contesting the election results.

The position of inspector general, a role charged with investigating waste, fraud and abuse within City Hall, is one that hinges on independence. Best practices call for independent boards, rather than elected officials, to govern inspectors general, lest they live in fear that an unfavorable investigation could lead to their firing. Baltimore strengthened its board in 2022 after Cumming raised concerns.

Less attention has been paid, however, to how Baltimore’s inspector general governs herself. The tweet was the latest of many from Cumming, who during her seven-year tenure has grown increasingly vocal, and who lately — in the wake of her searing investigation into working conditions at DPW — has grown into an advocate.

Cumming’s numerous posts, which run the gamut from whimsical photos of the Inner Harbor to sharp rebukes of DPW leadership, advocacy for her fellow inspectors general and cozy photos with Baltimore’s state’s attorney, have long raised eyebrows inside City Hall, although many are reluctant to voice concerns for fear that Cumming could steer her investigative powers in their direction, according to a source inside City Hall who was not authorized to speak.

As some Baltimore County politicos have found, criticizing an inspector general can be bad politics.

But Cumming’s labor-related tweets have struck a nerve. And some say the inspector general has finally crossed a line.

“It is without question inappropriate,” said Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. “Whether it is illegal is up to Baltimore labor law.”

Sean Malone, the city’s former labor commissioner-turned-lobbyist, took it a step further.

“It is an unfair labor practice under the city code for management to weigh in,” Malone said of union elections. “She seems to have overstepped the bounds of the code’s direction.”

Cumming, a former prosecutor, offered a full-throated defense of her tweets, arguing that she posted each from her personal account. (A separate account for her office has a fraction of Cumming’s more than 8,100 personal followers.) Cumming said she never endorsed McNair.

“That’s just me suggesting that he’s brave for running,” Cumming said. “I can’t vote. I’m nothing. I’m not in the union, but I think it’s positive. Sometimes change is good.”

There’s little doubt McNair would bring change to AFSCME Local 44, a unit that represents the city’s sanitation workers as well as blue-collar laborers with the departments of transportation, general services and recreation and parks. McNair, a longtime sanitation worker, ran as an insurgent, claiming victory in the Aug. 23 election over sitting Vice President Trevor Taylor.

McNair’s complaints about poor working conditions in the Department of Public Works fueled a series of scathing reports Cumming issued last year. The probe found poor conditions at a number of DPW facilities, including broken air conditioning, inoperable water fountains, nonfunctional ice machines, damaged locker rooms and basic necessities such as toilet paper kept under lock and key. The deaths of two DPW employees in 2024, one of heatstroke and the other who was crushed, compounded fervor over the reports.

Blame for the conditions fell largely on DPW leadership and the administration of Mayor Brandon Scott, but both McNair and Cumming have also faulted union leaders. Cumming has repeatedly used her platform to elevate McNair’s union complaints, posting videos of him speaking to the media and the City Council, and using her personal funds to “boost” tweets $25 at a time.

“Not all heroes wear capes,” Cumming tweeted a week before the election, noting that McNair was running for president.

While Cumming maintained that she was not supporting McNair in the election, she was open about her belief that the union needed new leadership. Complaints about the union were a constant among the 125 DPW employees interviewed for the investigation, she said.

“The fact that the reports even happened means that someone isn’t doing their job,” she said.

Malone, who served as the city’s labor commissioner from 2003 to 2007 and negotiated labor contracts for various local jurisdictions, said Cumming fits the definition of an employer under city code as the head of the Office of the Inspector General. Employers are barred under city law from “interfering with, restraining or coercing” union activity. Employers are also forbidden from “controlling or dominating an employee organization.”

Cumming, who has a staff funded by the city budget, manages no employees represented by AFSCME, she said.

Nonetheless, Bronfenbrenner said that Cumming has the ability to affect the employment of workers represented by Local 44 via her investigations.

“Under Baltimore labor law, the worker should be able to determine who their leadership is,” she said. “When you have someone who is in a supervisor position who has the ability to threaten your tenure in your position, if they weigh in, it carries weight.”

McNair gushed about Cumming in an interview with The Banner, calling her “a blessing” and arguing that DPW employees are more familiar with her than current union leadership. Still, he believed she had no influence on the election.

“That lady is celebrating me,“ he said. ”Everything I do.”

Bronfenbrenner said managerial interference is grounds to overturn the union election.

Taylor, who lost the election to McNair, filed such a protest this week. He said Cumming’s tweets, which mentioned McNair and not him, were clearly partisan.

“When an arm of the city, our employer, interferes in our election, it undermines union democracy,” he said.

The Association of Inspectors General, a group representing inspectors general across the country, publishes a guide to principles and standards for inspectors general, which speaks generally about the importance of independence in the role. The guide does not specifically address political activity.

“The inspector general and OIG staff should consider not only whether they are independent and whether their own attitudes and beliefs permit them to be independent, but also whether there is anything about their situation which might lead others to question their independence,” the guide states.

Cumming is first vice president of the association. When asked what kind of guidance the group provides around social media activities, Cumming said she teaches the association’s class on the subject.

Cumming’s union tweets are not the first to draw sideways glances. In January, she posted a graphic comparing crime statistics under Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates to his predecessor Marilyn Mosby, calling him a “partner.” In June, after the city moved money from Bates’s budget to Cumming’s, she tweeted and boosted a photo of the pair together, calling them “Baltimore’s Accountability & Oversight Team.”

Cumming investigated Mosby ahead of a federal probe that resulted in an indictment and conviction for the now former state’s attorney. Asked whether she could investigate Bates, Cumming said she would investigate her own mother if she received a complaint.

Cumming has also been a vocal advocate for neighboring Inspector General Kelly Madigan in Baltimore County. When Baltimore County Executive Kathy Klausmeier pushed to replace her, Cumming encouraged participation in a rally supporting Madigan and criticized the competing candidate.

“Candidate never investigated an elected official, lives 100 miles away, career federal auditor for this investigative office & has never served as an IG for a day,” Cumming tweeted. “Experience matters!”

The Banner’s attempts to reach out-of-state former inspectors general to weigh in on Cumming’s online activities did not receive responses. Instead, one contacted Cumming about the communication.

Cumming suggested that a reporter speak to Chris Amberger, the director of Baltimore’s Board of Ethics. As inspector general, Cumming also serves as ex officio director of the Board of Ethics and appointed Amberger.

Amberger called Cumming “extremely conscientious” about the ethical implications of her own actions and those of her employees. Amberger said he could not comment on whether ethics officials had been asked to weigh in on the matter.

Baltimore’s ethics ordinance prohibits a public servant from using their “prestige of office” for their own private gain or that of another. Amberger said he interprets “gain” to be financial or economic benefit and pointed to a definition in Black’s Law Dictionary.

“A gain can’t just be speculative. It can’t just be conjecture. It can’t just be power or leverage,” he said.

For her part, Cumming has shown no signs of curtailing her social media activities amid scrutiny. Her tweets about McNair continued over the weekend, after she was contacted by The Banner for this story.

Asked whether she views advocacy as part of her role, Cumming said it is, particularly if city leaders refuse to act on her reports.

“Once you start taking action, my job stops,” she said. “But don’t tell me you’re taking action and then lie to me. That’s my job. It’s my job to follow up.”