The Bibb administration is limiting hundreds of city employees’ access to Cleveland’s online public records system after a council staffer downloaded thousands of files from the site.
City Hall uses the online system, known as GovQA, to handle incoming requests for city documents from citizens, lawyers and news reporters. The city handles tens of thousands of requests each year for such records as police reports, body camera footage, emails and public contracts.
Previously, city employees with accounts in the system could view any of those incoming requests. They could also download the files that the city was preparing to release.
The mayor’s administration raised a stink last month about council staffer Steven Rys, whom city officials said had downloaded more than 2,200 files over the years. City Hall said some of the files included sensitive information that hadn’t yet been redacted. Council President Blaine Griffin has said his aide did nothing wrong.
Now many employees are losing that universal access within GovQA. City Hall changed the system so that many staffers can view only the records requests that they’ve been assigned to answer, according to a city spokesperson.
The change affects employee accounts known in GovQA jargon as “end users.” There are 418 such users in the system, according to a list that City Hall provided to Weekly Chatter. At last count, GovQA hosted a total of 639 city employee user accounts.
Here’s one more number for you. City Hall is paying $520 per hour to the law firm Littler Mendelson to review whether the council staffer’s downloads crossed any lines.
Griffin’s PAC opens its wallet
Council President Blaine Griffin threw a fundraiser last week for his political action committee, the Council Leadership Fund. Like his predecessors in the council presidency, Griffin is using the PAC to boost the reelection bids of allied incumbents.
The fundraiser took place Wednesday at P.J. McIntyre’s, an Irish bar in West Park that often serves as a staging ground for get-out-the-vote rallies this time of year.
On that side of town, Griffin is helping Council Member Danny Kelly try to fend off a challenge from democratic socialist Tanmay Shah. Far across the Cuyahoga River in Collinwood, the Council Leadership Fund recently paid for a billboard on East 152nd Street supporting incumbent Anthony Hairston.
Hairston is up against longtime Council Member Michael Polensek in the redrawn Ward 10. Polensek bought a billboard of his own just up the street.
It’s too early to know just how much money the leadership fund has spent backing Team Griff. The next campaign finance disclosure deadline is Oct. 23.