By Megan Sayles
AFRO Staff Writer
msayles@afro.com
A senior aide to Mayor Brandon M. Scott sent a letter to the Baltimore City Ethics Board and the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) Advisory Board on April 21, calling for a review of Inspector General Isabel Cumming’s online conduct. In the letter, Chief of Staff John David Merrill denounced an April 20 Facebook post from the inspector general’s account that shared a YouTube video with an AI-generated thumbnail of Scott.
The image portrayed the mayor smoking a cigar, holding a seemingly alcoholic drink and clutching luxury shopping bags. It also depicted a notice of the city’s bank account being overdrawn.
The clash comes as Cumming and Scott engage in a legal dispute over the IG’s access to city records, particularly those related to the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE). On April 17, a Baltimore City Circuit judge denied the city’s motion to disqualify Cumming’s private attorneys in her lawsuit against the mayor and Baltimore City Council.
“We are cognizant of the ongoing context in which both the Scott Administration and the OIG are currently operating, including active litigation. While we may have differences around what constitutes lawful access to City documents and the City’s responsibility to follow state law, there is an appropriate way to resolve those differences through our traditional governmental processes,” Merrill wrote in the letter. “However, while those processes unfold, there is simply no place in our civic life for public officials to elevate the kind of vile, racist and caricatural content like what IG Cumming shared on her social media.”
The video posted by Cumming was entitled, “Baltimore Mayor is in Big Trouble After Losing in Court Exposes His $4.5 Million Office Power Grab.” In it, YouTuber Hannibal Darby—known as Hannibal Is Hungry—criticized the mayor’s addition of 16 positions to his office within his preliminary budget for fiscal year 2027.
Darby, known for his watchdog-style content about government officials, compared Baltimore’s proposed staffing level of 134 positions in the mayor’s office to those of larger cities, including 96 positions in Philadelphia and 94 in Los Angeles—arguing that Baltimore’s mayoral staff would be unusually large by comparison. The creator also raised concerns about the inclusion of privately funded positions within the mayor’s office, questioning whether they could be subject to outside influence.
Scott addressed the proposed staffing expansion during a budget meeting on April 22, saying that eight of the 16 positions are not funded by city taxpayers but instead supported through grants.
According to the preliminary budget, those positions include one supported by the city’s Opioid Restitution Fund and seven funded through a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies to support the city’s Innovation Team (i-Team). The Baltimore i-Team operates as part of a nationwide initiative supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies and focuses on initiatives related to vacancy prevention and public safety recruitment and retention.
The budget also notes that some of the roles reflect internal staffing changes, including the transition of part-time positions into full-time roles within the Mayor’s Office of African American Male Engagement.
During the budget meeting, Scott said his administration continues to pursue a mix of funding sources to support city operations and initiatives.
“We take managing the city’s taxpayer dollars very seriously. We make sure that we bring things in house when we need to, but the strategy that we have always and will continue to have is to make sure that we can get investment in any way that we can to make the city of Baltimore a better place,” said Scott. “That includes going on to seek grants and other funding for what is happening in the city of Baltimore.”
When Cumming shared Darby’s video on Facebook she included a caption that read: “A friend sent me this very interesting video from YouTube—ties many things together.” The inspector general has since removed the post from her profile.
In a statement sent to the AFRO on April 22, Cumming issued an apology, saying she did not realize the image of Mayor Scott was created by AI.
“I shared a link to third-party video commentary on current events on my personal Facebook account. That video included a satirical, AI-generated digital image that I did not notice and do not endorse or support. I removed the video from my personal Facebook post upon receiving feedback,” said Cumming. “I apologize to Mayor Scott, my dedicated OIG team and the residents of Baltimore City. This post detracted from the important mission of the OIG to investigate waste, financial abuse and fraud. It will not happen again.”
Scott’s administration has called for a review of whether Cumming’s online conduct violated ethical standards related to professionalism and impartiality and whether any corrective action is needed to ensure fairness and objectivity within the OIG.
