Phillip McHugh, until last Thursday a top advisor to Cleveland’s safety director, departed City Hall with a broadside against the media and certain City Council members.
McHugh, who roomed with Mayor Justin Bibb in college, faced criticism over a now-settled lawsuit from his time as a police officer in Washington, D.C.
He announced his resignation through his lawyer, Andrew Stebbins – a defamation attorney with Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs. In a resignation letter addressed to Bibb, McHugh accused media and council of launching a “smear campaign” against him.
“I am confident that I would have been able to help you advance your vision for the city,” McHugh wrote. “However, I refuse to allow certain disingenuous media outlets and members of City Council to use me as a political punching bag to hurt you and to distract us from doing the vital work needed in their communities.”
Stebbins also represents Dennis Kucinich in his twin defamation lawsuits against Cleveland.com and a City Council staffer that stemmed from Kucinich’s 2021 mayoral bid.
City Hall’s technology chief signs off
One of Bibb’s earliest hires left City Hall last month under much quieter circumstances.
Froilan Roy C. Fernando joined the Bibb administration in March 2022 as the city’s chief innovation and technology officer – an important role for a mayor who campaigned on modernizing City Hall.
Fernando resigned April 1 this year. “The time has come to make a change,” he wrote in a brief resignation letter that City Hall provided to Signal Cleveland last week.
Bibb has big technology plans for City Hall. The city launched a new website last year, and a new strategic plan calls for further tech overhauls. The city’s Office of Urban Analytics and Innovation – another tech-focused wing of city government – recently launched an open data portal.
