Council President Blaine Griffin: Staffer was pressured to be fired by Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb's administration over records downloads

Cleveland orders outside investigation into handling of city records

CLEVELAND (WJW) - The FOX 8 I-Team is tracking a firestorm at Cleveland City Hall over the handling of public records.  The mayor's office has now asked for an outside investigation to look into whether one city council employee is seeing more of those records than he should. Council president Blaine Griffin, however, said the employee did nothing wrong and he was provided access to the public records portal as part of his job. He said the emplo…

Cleveland City Council, mayor's office fight over access to public records

An administration spokesperson said the city is hiring an outside law firm to investigate the employee's use of the city records system.

Cleveland City Council Staffer Accused of Improperly Accessing Public Records Prompts Outside Investigation - Cleveland Scene

Steven Rys, a policy analyst for City Council and assistant to Council President Blaine Griffin, has been covertly downloading thousands of classified files from the city’s public records database for years, city officials claimed on Tuesday, during a press conference in City Hall’s Red Room.

War erupts in City Hall, with Blaine Griffin accusing Mayor Justin Bibb’s team of strong-arming council into firing employee

Council President Blaine Griffin has hauled a private dispute about a council employee into public view — igniting a war inside City Hall.

Bibb admin accuses council employee of accessing unredacted files; council prez says person did nothing wrong

The distrust between the Cleveland City Council and the Bibb administration boiled over publicly on Tuesday as both sides engaged in a war of words.

Council President Blaine Griffin: Staffer was pressured to be fired by Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb's administration over records downloads

Cleveland City Council employee Steve Rys is accused of downloading confidential files from GovQA, the city’s public records request database.