City Hall feud erupts over aide's "covert" download of 2,000 unredacted records

• On the eve of an election where both Bibb and City Council President Blaine Griffin are expected to retain their seats, it's bad blood, not cool heads, prevailing.

State of play: Bibb's law director, Mark Griffin, and chief of government affairs, Ryan Puente, met last week to alert council leadership that council's policy analyst Steven Rys had been improperly accessing unredacted public records via the citywide GovQ&A database.

• Unlike front-end users (such as journalists, lawyers, and residents), Rys had unlimited back-end access, which allowed him to view record requests as they were entered into the system and to download documents before they were redacted.
• City officials told the media Tuesday that they'd made multiple attempts to shore up security protocols, including by tagging confidential emails in the system.
• But they said Rys repeatedly circumvented them, often downloading documents before the law department could classify them.

The latest: Rys' access has been temporarily revoked pending an investigation by a third party into his actions.

• For now, there's no evidence that Rys disseminated the materials he downloaded — but that possibility is "the scary part," said Bibb spokesman Tyler Sinclair.

The big picture: The question of impropriety versus illegality is for investigators to answer, but city officials noted that Rys accessed sensitive medical information, Social Security numbers and victim information in police reports.

• That's relevant because Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost ruled that a state law requiring cities and police departments to redact the names of crime victims from police reports applies even when the documents are released to legislative bodies.

By the numbers: The administration says Rys downloaded more than 2,000 documents since 2022. He has had elevated authorization since 2017.

• An audit found that he only downloaded 13 documents in 2021, the final year of Frank Jackson's administration.

The intrigue: Jackson was a political ally of former council President Kevin Kelley, for whom Rys worked. Bibb and Blaine Griffin's relationship is more volatile.

The other side: Griffin hosted an impromptu press conference after the administration's presentation at City Hall on Tuesday, denying that Rys behaved improperly and ratcheting up the confrontational rhetoric.

• He asserted that the council and the administration are co-equal branches of government and that he would not be threatened by "message boys" from Bibb.

Friction point: Griffin said that at the meeting last week, the administration delivered an ultimatum: fire Rys, or the administration would go public and take the matter to federal court.

• Administration officials denied that explicit threats were made, but said they expressed "extreme concern" during the meeting.

What they're saying: Both sides leaned on metaphors to describe the situation. Griffin said it was like giving someone a library card and then accusing them of wrongdoing for looking at the books on the shelves.

• The administration said it's more like a bank teller having unfettered access to the vault.

Between the lines: Rys is a well-known political strategist specializing in opposition research. He has orchestrated some of the most deceptive and inflammatory tactics in political campaigns since he started working as Kelley's aide.

• The administration noted Tuesday that among the documents that Rys downloaded were personnel files of council members themselves.

What's next: "I don't think this is going to be the last shoe to drop," Griffin told the press Tuesday.

• If the administration continues to dig up dirt in "salacious" attempts to undermine council, they can expect "legislative constipation" on consequential city business, he said.