The Baltimore Board of Ethics says Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming did not violate “prestige of office” or other ethical laws when she posted information about the AFSCME Local 44 election on her personal X and Facebook accounts.

“The social media accounts in question clearly belong to you as a natural person, public figure and engaged citizen, not the City of Baltimore or the OIG. As such they are considered protected speech,” concludes an eight-page advisory posted today by Ethics Board’s Director J. Christoph Amberger.

Cumming’s tweets have been drawn into an escalating dispute after AFSCME Maryland Council 3 President Patrick Moran threw out the results of the August 23 election where a grassroots candidate, Stancil McNair, defeated the union’s hand-picked choice, Trevor Taylor, who subsequently filed a protest to invalidate the vote.

Today’s advisory noted that the “prestige of office” restriction has been interpreted by the State Ethics Commission and others as referring to “economic gain” by a public official.

“This is clearly not the case here, nor have allegations been made that any party has realized or is likely to realize an economic or material gain as a proximate result of the cited postings,” the advisory says.

Cumming request for an official ethics guidance follows a Baltimore Banner article that used remarks from an unnamed City Hall source, a Cornell University professor and a City Hall lobbyist to suggest that Cumming may have “finally crossed a line” by posting the labor-related tweets.

Her office had been documenting malfunctioning equipment, poor working conditions, mishandled injuries, lack of training and a “negative culture” in city sanitation yards.

The most detailed report, issued in March, probed Local 44, noting that sanitation workers did not feel represented by the union, that membership meetings were not conducted regularly and that union attorneys had blocked OIG attempts to review the local’s dues-paying records.

In an August 15 tweet on X, Cumming opined:

Kudos to @BaltimoreDPW worker Stancil McNair who is running for President of the AFSCME Union. Stancil was vocal in making the changes that are starting in DPW. Change only happens when people stand up and are heard! The election is Saturday, August 23 at Union Hall.

Today’s ethics guidance, addressed to Cumming, noted that:

“Your [social media] accounts are clearly marked as personal pages. They span several years preceding your current position and provide a forum for your private sentiments, family news, community engagement, personal and professional achievements, and third-party media coverage. While there are occasional postings relating to your professional activities, the pages don’t cross-reference any City, municipal or other governmental internet presence. . . Thus, there is no basis for finding a violation of the City Ethics Law for the mere posting of personal opinion or community-related information on personal or even multi-personal accounts.”