Jakimah Dye, an ousted Cleveland public safety official, has turned to TikTok in what she says is an effort to clear her reputation.
The social media videos have an eye-catching hook: AI-generated illustrations spoofing Mayor Justin Bibb. In one, Bibb and Council President Blaine Griffin engage in a tug of war with a rope labeled “accountability.” In others, the mayor and his cabinet are depicted as children.
This story takes some explaining. This account comes from an interview with Dye and documents from her appeal case that were filed in court.
In April 2024, City Hall fired Dye from her job as an assistant safety director. The firing stemmed from a February car crash. While leaving a youth basketball game, Dye hit another vehicle on a slick road while driving her city-issued Ford Taurus. There were four kids in her car.
Dye had planned to drop her son and nephew off at the game before heading to a promotional examination for firefighters. But when a niece’s car broke down, she agreed to drive the niece’s kids home along with the two kids she had taken to the game.
The crash made the news. The city ultimately fired Dye on the grounds that she hadn’t been forthcoming with city officials about the children in her car.
Dye contests the accusation of dishonesty. She said that her supervisor, then-Safety Director Karrie Howard, knew she was transporting kids. She called him about the crash and he arrived on scene. He gave Dye and the other kids a ride from the crash site.
Dye notified human resources about the crash. Her email didn’t mention the kids. (She told Signal Cleveland that she didn’t think to mention them because she had already told Howard.)
In an interview with city officials, she mentioned two kids but not four. (Dye argued in her appeal that she was describing the trip to the game, when there were only two kids in the car.) In a subsequent email to city officials, Dye clarified that there were four kids in the car.
The city fired Dye. As an employee covered under civil service protections, she appealed.
Referee, Civil Service Commission disagree
A civil service fact-finder known as a “referee” recommended a 30-day suspension instead. While Dye had “lacked candor” about the kids in the car, she hadn’t lied about them, the referee wrote. Her 13 years of service to the city were otherwise without blemish, the recommendation said.
“There was no lie nor did she make any deliberately untruthful statement,” the referee wrote. “Her sin, if it be a sin, was one of omission, not commission.”
City safety officials overruled that recommendation. (By then, Howard had resigned as safety director.) Dye appealed to the Civil Service Commission, which upheld her firing.
There’s another twist in this story. Dye said she believes she was fired to make room for Phillip McHugh, a former police detective and college roommate of Bibb’s who briefly served in an upper-level safety position.
The Civil Service Commission rejected that explanation as speculation. McHugh was given an offer in December 2023 and joined the city in March 2024. The city fired Dye the following month.
She said she shared her concerns about the hiring with Council Member Richard Starr, who publicly criticized the decision to offer McHugh a job. McHugh resigned in May 2024.
Termination appeal goes to court
Now Dye is appealing her termination in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. Last week, lawyers for the city asked a judge to dismiss the appeal.
Dye has also been pressing her case on TikTok, where she also criticizes the Bibb administration over other news stories, such as the city’s shutdown of Play Bar.
“As a girl who grew up in the projects on East 30th, I was taught that my word and my name is all I have,” she told Signal Cleveland. “Those are the two things that mean the most to me. The City of Cleveland destroyed them both by making me out to be a liar.”
Asked about Dye’s court appeal and social media videos, the mayor’s office replied with a tight-lipped statement.
“Ms. Dye’s termination was upheld by the Cleveland Civil Service Commission,” the statement read. “The City will not comment further at this time other than to note that after three days of testimony and a full hearing where Ms. Dye presented her arguments, the Civil Service Commission affirmed the findings.”
Judge Sherrie Miday has not yet ruled on whether to dismiss the case.
