As Baltimore County Inspector General Kelly Madigan prepares to depart from her post next month to take on a new role in Howard County, elected officials and residents are commending what she’s done and taking a closer look at what the job should look like in the future.
Madigan, the county’s inaugural inspector general and a former prosecutor, announced her resignation Monday morning, describing her decision to leave after nearly six years to become Howard County’s first inspector general as “one of the hardest of my professional life.”
Had County Executive Kathy Klausmeier chosen to reappoint the inspector general when her term expired in January, Madigan might have stayed, she said in an interview Tuesday.
But in the months since then, Madigan said she has “confronted the reality that the tools and support required to safeguard integrity in the county government continue to be restricted.”
Over her six years in the post, Madigan has cited her sometimes limited access to government records. Her staff of six, including herself, covers a county with a population of more than 850,000 people. And the existing process for appointing or reappointing her — or someone else — to the inspector general role involves both the county executive and the County Council, opening the door to potential political influence.
Madigan’s five-year term ended in January, prompting Klausmeier to open a search for her replacement in May. Though Madigan kept her job in the end, many in the county viewed the process with suspicion and claimed it had political motivations.
It was not the first time she faced resistance from county political leaders. In 2021, for instance, former County Executive Johnny Olszewski attempted to create an oversight board to monitor Madigan’s office and restrict her access to records after criticism from the County Council — an effort that a national group for government watchdogs said would “effectively gag and shackle” the inspector general’s office.That legislation was ultimately withdrawn after backlash and led to the creation of the county’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Ethics and Accountability, which laid out recommendations for keeping the inspector general’s office independent and giving the inspector general direct access to records, among others.
Baltimore County Council Chair Mike Ertel, a Democrat who represents Towson, said Madigan had blazed the trail as the county’s first inspector general while also dealing with that pushback. He hopes that the county can retain the good parts of her work.
“That position is not going to be dismantled,” he said Monday night, adding that the county will continue moving toward transparency and efficiency.
For now, it’s unclear who will replace Madigan. Steven Quisenberry, a former FBI agent and the county’s deputy inspector general, is expected to serve in the post in the interim. But the county’s lawyers are still determining how to fill that role permanently. Ertel, along with Councilman David Marks, a Republican from Upper Falls, both said they trusted Quisenberry’s qualifications.
While the watchdog role itself seems to be safe, residents who fiercely backed Madigan remaining in her role during the appointment process said their push to keep her there made it clear that the county needs to change its inspector general appointment process — and its culture as a whole.
The process for appointing or reappointing a future inspector general could change within a year if Baltimore County residents support a charter amendment to create an independent board to select someone for the role. The question will appear on the ballots in the November 2026 election.
But Nick Stewart, an attorney and Democratic candidate for county executive, said the controversy over Madigan’s office is just one example of a series of “debacles” in the county that have undermined trust in the past year, including the council’s closed-door decision to select Klausmeier as county executive, hurried councilmanic redistricting maps without public testimony and the county’s secretive $100,000 settlement with Patrick Murray, Olszewski’s former chief of staff.
There’s an “absolute dire fear of transparency” in Baltimore County, he said.
Peta Richkus, a leader with Indivisible Baltimore County who helped organize rallies in support of Madigan over the summer, said the inspector general had been “stonewalled” in her attempts to access documents for her investigations. It will take “major change” to move away from the status quo, she said.
“Our loss, Howard County’s gain,” Richkus said. “It’s an indictment on Baltimore County.”
Have a news tip? Contact Natalie Jones at najones@baltsun.com.
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