海角破解版

漏 2025 海角破解版

1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115
(216) 916-6100 | (877) 399-3307

WKSU is a public media service licensed to and operated by 海角破解版.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
News
To contact us with news tips, story ideas or other related information, e-mail newsstaff@ideastream.org.

Fired Cuyahoga County Budget Director Questioned IT Spending

Cuyahoga County Budget Director Maggie Keenan addresses county council in November this year. [Cuyahoga County Council]
Cuyahoga County Budget Director Maggie Keenan addresses county council in November this year.

Just one day after Cuyahoga County Council passed a new two-year budget, County Executive Armond Budish鈥檚 administration fired budget director Maggie Keenan, offering little explanation for the move.

鈥淲e have decided to go in a different direction,鈥 Chief of Staff Bill Mason said in a short emailed statement. 鈥淲e thank Ms. Keenan for her service.鈥

While overseeing the county鈥檚 $1.5 billion in annual spending, Keenan often strongly challenged other county officials to justify their projects and requests for money, according to documents and interviews with two former county officials.

Keenan that she planned to 鈥渟ue the sh-t鈥 out of the county and 鈥渒nows where all of the bodies are buried.鈥 In an email to ideastream Thursday, she wrote that her attorneys had advised her not to comment.

Last year, Keenan clashed with county IT staff working on the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) project, the slow-moving, $25 million effort to link county computer systems.

According to an April 2018 human resources memo included in Keenan鈥檚 personnel file, IT staff accused the budget director of questioning their competence, using profanity and engaging in 鈥渓oud, confrontational and accusatory behavior.鈥 HR could not corroborate the accusation of profanity, according to the memo. 

In a 2018 email, also in her personnel file, Keenan acknowledged criticizing IT leadership, saying she believed the ERP project had been poorly managed. 

鈥淚 recognize that to some I am considered to be too critical and not accommodating,鈥 Keenan wrote to HR, 鈥渂ut as I previously mentioned I have a responsibility鈥攂oth professionally and personally鈥攖o act in accordance with the law and to make what I feel are the best decisions for OBM, the Fiscal Office, and this County. And I believe I have done that.鈥

Keenan outlined her own complaints about the county administration in a June 2019 court filing seeking to quash subpoenas from attorneys for indicted former IT general counsel Emily McNeeley.

In the court filing, Keenan wrote that she brought concerns to Budish about possible illegal or unethical activity, but 鈥渇ailed to receive a satisfactory response.鈥

Keenan then contacted Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O鈥橫alley, she wrote. Representatives from O鈥橫alley鈥檚 office, the FBI and the Ohio Attorney General鈥檚 Office questioned her 鈥渞epeatedly,鈥 according to her court filing.

At the suggestion of investigators, Keenan wrote, she began using a personal email address after she believed IT had compromised her county email.

鈥淓arly in the investigation of the defendant, Emily McNeeley, I communicated to investigators that I believed employees in the Cuyahoga County Department of Information Technology were accessing, reading, and deleting my County email,鈥 Keenan wrote.

The ERP and contracts related to the project are part of a wide-ranging investigation by the Ohio Attorney General鈥檚 office into Cuyahoga County government.

The county has not yet provided ideastream with a response to Keenan鈥檚 June 2019 court filing.

Nick Castele was a senior reporter covering politics and government for 海角破解版. He worked as a reporter for Ideastream from 2012-2022.