CLEVELAND — *EDITOR'S NOTE: The above video is from a previous story about the jail.
Cuyahoga County Council on Tuesday approved a $550,000 settlement for a lawsuit filed by Margaret Keenan, one of the whistleblowers in the county jail scandal.
Keenan, who served as Director of Cuyahoga's Office of Budget and Management from 2015-19, claims she was fired after raising repeated concerns about the jails conditions. Eight inmates died in the year 2018 alone, and subsequent federal and state investigations subsequently confirmed many of the problems Keenan had spoken about.
The final vote to approve the settlement was 10-0. In a subsequent statement, Michael J. Gallagher took aim at the county employers named in the lawsuit, and expressed dissatisfaction with the fact county taxpayers would be footing the bill for their alleged actions.
"I am deeply disturbed by the alleged behavior of several of the individuals named defendants in this litigation," Gallagher said, while not mentioning any specific names such as County Executive Armond Budish and his chief of staff Bill Mason. "I remain and continue to remain very unhappy with what's going on in this county regarding settlements regarding employees."
Keenan originally filed the lawsuit in June of 2020, roughly six months after her termination. According to the complaint, she originally notified Budish and others in writing in April of 2018 about a "critical nursing shortage" at the jail, which played a major role in the poor conditions that led to several inmates being harmed.
Not only did county leaders fail to act, the lawsuit says, but Mason "has since falsely denied that Keenan raised concerns about inmate safety, and in four separate letters in 2019, the County’s Department of Law falsely denied any such complaints from Keenan existed." In December of that year, Mason informed Keenan she was losing her job, with then-County Chief Talent Officer Doug Dykes accusing her of being a "leak."
Aside from matters regarding the jail, Keenan also alleged gender discrimination during her time in office, as well as retaliation for her reporting to investigators Dykes' illegal authorization of a $15,000 "signing bonus" for an IT employee. Dykes claimed Keenan lied because she "did not like him," but this past July he pleaded guilty to multiple misdemeanor counts in relation to the situation and received a suspended jail sentence.
Multiple county officials have faced prosecution for their roles in the jail scandal, with former Jail Director Ken Mills receiving a nine-month sentence behind bars. Budish has not been charged, but did announce last month he will not seek re-election to a third term.
Besides Keenan, the county also recently reached a settlement with former jail nursing supervisor Gary Brack, who was also fired after testifying before council about the "dangerous" conditions at the facility. Several former inmates and family members of those who died behind bars have also taken their claims to court.