Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb’s pick for a new top safety position made "tweaks" to his own job description before it was posted, records obtained by Ideastream Public Media show.
Controversy has followed Phillip McHugh, Bibb’s former college roommate, since the mayor selected him to fill a newly-created Senior Advisor for Public Safety position last month.
Now, emails show that McHugh, who resigned Thursday, helped craft the job description last fall before he was a city employee. The annual salary for the job is $124,000.
“I have attached for your consideration a draft of the position description for the role that Chief [Bradford] Davy mentioned,” Abby Poeske, the manager of strategic initiatives in the mayor’s office, wrote in an email to McHugh’s personal email address on Oct. 3, 2023. “Once you have had a chance to review, we would welcome your feedback, so please give Bradford or me a call when you would like to discuss.”
McHugh responded: “Abby, thanks so much for sharing. I think this is great — it’s focused and comprehensive and describes a role that should exist to make sure governments are using their limited resources most effectively to keep people safe. I highlighted a few tweaks, moreso style than substance."
The documents came as part of a public records request by Ideastream Public Media for emails between McHugh and Davy that yielded hundreds of pages, most of which were redacted or blank.
McHugh’s correspondence with the city came weeks before the job was posted. According to a city spokesperson, the position was posted in "late October" and was up for two weeks. McHugh's exchange with Poeske regarding the job description was Oct. 3.
McHugh was one of 16 applicants. The spokesperson said all candidates went through the same process of resume review, interviews and background checks.
Ideastream Public Media has requested all those applications, including McHugh's, as well as his personnel file. Those documents have not yet been provided.
What is the controversy surrounding McHugh?
McHugh, a former D.C. police detective, assumed the Cleveland safety role in March. The position did not previously exist.
Almost immediately, council members and residents began raising concerns about his personal attachment to Bibb, with whom he reportedly roomed at American University, and allegations that he violated an elderly Black couple’s civil rights and falsified police reports.
Those allegations landed McHugh at the center of a 2016 federal civil rights lawsuit while he was serving as a Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police detective.
The district settled the suit three years later —reportedly for a “six-figure” sum — and the couple agreed to drop the claims against McHugh.
In Cleveland, a city under a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice to reform a police department that has faced numerous civil rights lawsuits and paid out millions to settle excessive force claims, McHugh's relationship with the mayor and his involvement in the federal lawsuit have kicked off a firestorm of criticism.
The president of the Cleveland branch of the NAACP created a petition on Change.org to call for his ouster last month.
Then at an April 15 Cleveland City Council meeting, Councilmember Richard Starr, dressed in a “Who’s getting fired?” t-shirt, spoke passionately about removing McHugh from the position immediately. Councilmembers Kevin Conwell, Anthony Hairston and Kris Harsh also spoke out against his hiring at that meeting.
In the weeks since, pressure has been mounting on Bibb from council and members of the public.
“We gave privilege to a man who did not earn his job. He was given a job because of a relationship and that’s disrespectful for any Clevelander, and I’m going to stand on business,” Starr said at the end of the May 6 council meeting.
“Mayor Bibb, we can go to the ballot about this, and I’ll be on the front line making sure the people in the city of Cleveland know you ain’t ride for people like me. You ride for something else, and that’s the facts,” he said.
Bibb was in attendance at the meeting.
At the conclusion of Starr’s comments, members of the public rose to their feet and applauded.
At a Monday committee chairs meeting, Council President Blaine Griffin weighed in on the matter, telling members he did not support McHugh’s employment.
Griffin said he is concerned about how the hire will impact public perception of the city’s public safety leadership, especially as the city continues to hemorrhage police officers and with the approach of summer, when gun violence tends to spike.
“I do want to make it clear that I have concerns as well,” he said. “I just understand that within our charter, we don't have the ability to make someone resign. We can only suggest, recommend or anything else. But just keep that in mind that my biggest issue is overall perception, real or perceived, that safety is not meeting the bar that we needed to fix.”
McHugh’s hiring comes amid a shake-up in the public safety department.
Earlier this year, Karrie Howard — who was the director of Public Safety when McHugh was reportedly hired in January — resigned his position. He was replaced by Cleveland Police Chief Wayne Drummond, who assumed the position in an interim capacity.
