Retrieveing config for a custom ctools content type
What I think you want might be possible, but it is not easy.
The configuration settings are saved in the DB in the panels_pane table as serialized data in the 'configuration' column. That allows each instance of the pane to have its own configuration. In order to get that you would need to know how to get the specific instance of the pane being displayed, grab the column, and then unserialize it. 

You are probably better off figuring out a different way to handle this (if you haven't already).