As the Howard County Council weighs two bills that would establish the county’s first-ever Office of the Inspector General, residents have taken more than a passing interest in the idea.

Dozens of people appeared at a council meeting Monday evening to share their thoughts and concerns about the legislation — and even a few grammatical suggestions.

Council Vice Chair Liz Walsh introduced the legislation. The council plans to review the public feedback, go over the bill’s details and hear from experts at a work session next week.

Then, on July 29, the council will either vote on Walsh’s bills or table them. If tabled at the next two votes, the bill will either be voted on or die, as the rent stabilization bill did earlier this year.

Here’s a look at some of the themes from Monday’s discussion.

Inspector general v. county auditor

Stu Kohn, the president of the Howard County Citizens Association, closely combed through Walsh’s bills and asked, “What happened to the auditor’s role? Will anything be changed?”

The short answer is that some of the auditor’s responsibilities would be shifted to an inspector general. But the auditor would still exist.

Walsh said in a press conference prior to the hearing that the auditor, who is hired by the council, performs financial management audits on a regular schedule, and that subjects are notified in advance of audits.

The auditor, though, does not have subpoena power. The inspector general would.

And rather than focusing on audits of, say, business functions, the inspector general would focus on individual and whistleblower complaints as well as concerns about potential wrongdoing, Walsh said.

Baltimore County’s Inspector General Kelly Madigan said inspectors general are similar to auditors, but their role is more reactionary.

“So they’re similar, but they’re different,” Madigan said at the press conference. “An audit is really looking at the program functions or their logins or their checks and balances in a programmatic structure, which is why they have a different certification — they have a different association, where [inspectors general] are investigators, and we’re reactionary in the sense that most of all we do is respond to complaints by statute and the statute that Councilman Walsh is introducing.”

Is the IG independent of politics?

Walsh said that should the bills pass, a committee would be established to select the inspector general. A committee called a non-political citizen advisory board would select the inspector general.

The county executive would nominate a person from each of the five council districts; they would be subject to council approval. Nine members must be chosen from specific professional backgrounds “that have direct relevance to appointing, monitoring and removing our new inspector general.”

Many speakers worried that the inspector general would not be completely independent of politics if the county executive chooses who is on the committee.

“I appreciated a lot of the commentary from the other people speaking tonight,” said Kathy Howell, an Ellicott City resident who testified in support of the bill. “There were concerns that I share with them, which is the way the current legislation is written — I’m a little concerned about independence, with it being in the county executive’s choosing.”

Madigan was the last person to testify. She shared some of her experiences as Baltimore County’s inspector general to help alleviate some of the concerns she heard.

“It really also matters on who you appoint, and how they approach that position. So, for what it’s worth, I was appointed by the county executive,” she said. “Some would say that that’s not an independent appointment. I wasn’t employed by an advisory board. There wasn’t an extensive application process. I have the benefit of being the first IG for Baltimore County.”

She said she set the tone for how the office would operate, what the policies and procedures would look like and what independence meant to her. The Howard County inspector general would have the same tasks.

Another aspect of the bill is that the inspector general cannot work in federal, state or county government, which concerned some residents, including former County Executive Allan Kittleman.

“I’m a little bit unsure of why it says no federal employees or state employees,” Kittleman said to the council. “I mean, Howard County is full of them, and you’re going to take a whole lot of Howard County citizens away saying you can’t be part of this.”

But Kittleman nevertheless testified in support of Walsh’s bills.

Council Chari Deb Jung said she wants to make the position as independent as possible and asked for help from Kittleman, who said he is happy to help.

No, the IG wouldn’t look into school system complaints

Several students testified in support of the bill, noting that if the county had an inspector general earlier, he or she could have investigated the Zum bus crisis from last school year.

Laura Mettle, president of the county’s League of Women Voters, said she wants the inspector general to “have the oversight, responsibility and authority for the Howard County Public School System, as that organization spends half the county’s funds annually.” She said this could be written into the bills at a later date.

However, Jung said that the inspector general legislation would unlikely address anything related to the school district, including issues with Zum, a California-based contractor that initially struggled when it took over many of the district’s school bus routes.

Walsh said she’s looked into what extent the office will have investigatory ports. The bill, as drafted, “describes it as anyone receiving the benefit of county services funds, resources, and so that by its terms would include something like the Howard County School District,” she said.

She added that the law office informed the council that there is no definitive law one way or another, and that school district oversight will be a fight for the future.

Changes can always be made later

Isabel Cumming, Baltimore City’s inspector general, also testified in support of the bills. She stressed that any law that’s adopted can be revised, and noted that the city changed the legislation two times for the inspector general.

“This office was established in 2005,” Cumming said. “It wasn’t until 2018 that it became independent. So you’re already trying to start off much stronger.”

Jungs said, “We know how hard it’s going to be to get four votes [on the council] to do anything with the charter.”

Kittleman stressed the importance of passing the bills now and improving them later.

He said that while he and Walsh disagree on many things, he thinks everyone should support this measure.

“I just wanted to make sure that everyone knows this is a bipartisan issue,” Kittleman said. “It’s not a partisan issue. It’s for Republicans, Independents and Democrats and those who are in other parties, because this is what’s best for Howard County, and this is what’s best for transparency and accountability.”