Emails show Cleveland safety advisor helped write own job description: I-Team

Ed Gallek
·2 min read
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CLEVELAND (WJW) — The FOX 8 I-Team uncovered internal e-mails shedding new light on a top city of Cleveland safety official who’d helped write his own job description.

Records show emails between Phillip McHugh and the mayor’s office writing back and forth about the job description for a newly created position.

And, McHugh, recently, got the job of safety advisor.

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Friday, we revealed Phillip McHugh had helped write the job specifications for the position. And, we questioned him about it.

Earlier, the I-TEAM had also requested e-mails between McHugh and the mayor’s office.

One from October shows the mayor’s office writing, “I have attached for your consideration a draft of the position description for the role Chief Davy mentioned. Once you have had a chance to review, we would welcome your feedback…”

McHugh responded, “… 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, more so style than substance.”

Last week, McHugh told the I TEAM: “I say that I helped create a job description. I had no expectation that I was gonna get the job. That I was even gonna get an interview.”

We followed with, “Having any input on the job description, how could you not be the top candidate, or the guy that they’re ultimately going to hire?”

He responded with, “That’s a fair question. I trust that they would’ve picked the right person. They had 16 applications. They did interviews, and they selected me.”

McHugh has been under fire since he’s a former roommate of Mayor Justin Bibb. And, he once was the target of a civil rights lawsuit while working as a police officer in Washington, D.C.

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We had requested months of emails between McHugh and the mayor’s chief of staff. We found only a few pages related to the new position.

At the same time, the response to the records request involved hundreds of pages. Many were completely blacked out, or blank.

The job pays $124,000 a year.

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