
Kathy Klausmeier's non-reappointment of IG Kelly Madigan
Black out: Nearly every document involving the Kelly Madigan case is redacted by the Klausmeier administration
The county delivered more than 500 pages of material in response to a Baltimore Brew quest for documents pertaining to the non-reappointment of Kelly Madigan. The contents of all but a few pages were blocked.
Above: One of hundreds of redacted pages of a PIA request by The Brew.
Last month, The Brew filed a Maryland Public Information Act (PIA) request for emails and other written communications to and from Baltimore County Executive Kathy Klausmeier and her top aides regarding the non-reappointment of Inspector General Kelly Madigan.
Over the last week, the county delivered more than 520 pages of emailed correspondence.
And except for a dozen random pages, all of the text was redacted.
There was not a single page of correspondence from the county executive that was not partly or fully blacked out by James R. Benjamin, the county attorney, and the PIA administrator.
For example, an undated letter from Klausmeier to Baltimore County Council Chair Mike Ertel includes a salutation – “Dear Chair Ertel” – and a closing sentence – “Thank you again and please let me know if you have any questions” – with the body of the letter removed.
The County Council is required by law to review and approve the inspector general candidate put forward by Klausmeier. Thus, a written exchange between its chair and Klausmeier concerning her decision not to reappoint Madigan and to throw the inspector general position into an “open search” would seem to be covered by The Brew’s request for:
Any and all emails and other communications received by County Executive Katherine Klausmeier, or sent by her to, regarding the subject matters of “Baltimore County Office of Inspector General,” “Inspector General,” “Robert Olszewski,” “Inspector General Selection Panel,” or “Kelly Madigan” between April 1, 2025 and the June 12, 2025 date of this request.
We also requested any and all correspondence received or sent by Amanda Conn, Klausmeier’s chief of staff, who took an active role in Madigan’s non-reappointment, according to informed sources.
What we got instead were a few redacted emails between Conn and Benjamin and a couple addressed to County Administrator D’Andrea Walker.
The only fully disclosed message came from an administrative aide, who wrote, “I am on jury duty. Can someone pdf this? I think Val [Deputy COS Valerie Roddy] has the packets.”
The hundreds of pages of emails with blacked-out contents parallels the dearth of material available about the five-member Inspector General Selection Panel, who Klausmeier appointed to try to quell the public uproar that followed her decision not to reappoint Madigan.
The Selection Panel’s deliberations were fully redacted in the records remitted to The Brew.
County Attorney Benjamin has previously justified the redaction of county records – for example, in last year’s Tirabassi affair – as a legal necessity because the PIA Act does not allow the disclosure of personnel records. This includes such things as a job candidate’s contact information, social security number, medical records and financial information.
• For The Brew’s full coverage since breaking the story of Madigan’s non-reappointment, see here.
How this exemption extended to all of the county executive’s outgoing correspondence regarding the Madigan case – and nearly all correspondence she received – was not disclosed by Benjamin or the unnamed “PIA coordinator” who handled The Brew’s request.
Interviews of the three finalists for the job, which included Madigan, were completed last Friday by Klausmeier, acting outside the Inspector General Selection Panel she had earlier appointed, and two hand-picked associates, Washington attorney Arthur A. Elkins Jr. and County Ethics Commission Chair Mandee Heinl.
Sampling of County’s PIA Response . . .

Minutes of the final meeting of the IG Selection Panel before Kathy Klausmeier appointed herself and two others to conduct the final interviews.

One of the few emails disclosed (then redacted) attributed to Klausmeier’s chief of staff, Amanda Conn.

Email by Kathy Klausmeier to Arthur Elkins, a Washington lawyer and a colleague of Amanda Conn when they both worked for the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC), who was subsequently asked to sit on the final IG candidate interviews last week.
. . . and a Rare Exception

NOT EXPUNGED: State Delegates Kahty Szeliga and Ryan Nawrocki write in support of Madigan’s reappointment, saying she “has demonstrated exceptional integrity, professionalism and independence, all essential to the role . . . [of] serving the residents of Baltimore County with the transparency and accountability they deserve.”