CLEVELAND — Cuyahoga County’s Chief Transformation and Innovation Officer was fired Monday after being on unpaid leave since March 2018 following an investigation into the county’s IT department.
Scot Rourke was first placed on administrative leave on Feb. 21, 2018 in the wake of an investigation by prosecutors involving county officials and documents dealing with Westlake-based information management company Hyland Software.
Rourke was moved to unpaid leave on March 30, 2018 after county leaders learned of the investigation into the IT department.
When asked why Rourke was fired this week, county spokesperson said only that the decision was made to terminate him.
At the time of the investigation, County Executive Armond Budish said he and his administration were not aware of any wrongdoing by Rourke or Emily McNeeley, the IT General Counsel and Director of Special Initiatives who was also placed on leave.
Budish released a statement at the time of the investigation that read, in part:
“As the Cuyahoga County Executive, I take my oath of office very seriously, and will not tolerate any breach of the public trust. My administration and I are fully committed to discovering any wrongdoing by any county employee and will be fully assisting the investigation being conducted by our County Prosecutor in every way possible.
To that end, my office will be taking multiple actions to ensure that the integrity of all documents sought by the prosecutor is maintained. First, my office will be immediately hiring an independent forensic investigator to make sure that all information sought in this investigation is fully secured and provided promptly to the prosecutor.
Second, I have made the difficult decision to place Scot Rourke and Emily McNeeley on administrative leave. To be clear, both had previously consulted with the Inspector General, and my administration is not aware of any wrongdoing by these two members of our staff. But, we are taking all precautions available to make sure that the integrity of the investigation and the documents sought by the prosecutor are maintained.
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