A public feud in Cleveland over an investigation into a city council employee cost taxpayers thousands of dollars before it was dropped, according to records from city hall.
Mayor Justin Bibb and Council President Blaine Griffin agreed to end an investigation into Steven Rys, a special assistant to city council, who was accused of downloading confidential records.
The invoices show the city was billed over $15,000 by Littler Mendelson law firm and over $2,000 by Zashin law firm.
Longtime City Councilman Mike Polensek said the investigation was a waste of taxpayers' money.
"It's not only the invoices, it should have never happened," Polensek said.
In Sept. 2025, the Bibb administration accused Rys of downloading over 2,200 files from GovQA, the city's public records database, including some that were confidential.
"He was working on behalf of council doing research, doing due diligence, and that's what took place - and that's it. That's the end of the story," Polensek said.
But nearly five months later, Law Director Mark Griffin revealed the Bibb administration dropped the investigation before it was completed.
"We’ve taken some steps to make sure that what happened before doesn’t happen again, but we just want to move and we want to work with you," Griffin said during the meeting.
Blaine Griffin responded by saying the investigation into Rys caused a lot of "rough days."
"I think it was not fair for him to, you know, be posterized like he was, so I just want to make sure that I state that," Griffin said.
Rys is still employed with city council.
He has not responded to our request for comments on the investigation.
