City of Syracuse budget director Tim Rudd has been put on paid administrative leave by the city, Rudd and the city confirmed to Central Current.
Rudd had previously switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican and announced a run for mayor, notably against one of his bosses, Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens.
Chief Policy Officer Greg Loh said in a statement to Central Current that the city placed Rudd on administrative leave “pending an investigation by outside counsel into possible violations of city policies.”
The city’s new Chief Administrative Officer Corey Driscoll Dunham and a representative from the city’s personnel department called Rudd just before 1 p.m. to tell him he had been placed on paid administrative leave, Rudd said.
They did not inform Rudd what policy he may have violated, he said.
“I guess I was surprised today,” Rudd said. “What changed today?”
Rudd has become a harsh critic of the administration’s handling of its payroll modernization project and a complaint given to the city by a contractor regarding the project.
On Tuesday, Rudd released an 80-minute video on his YouTube covering the city’s handling of the complaint. In the video, Rudd accused city officials of not properly handling the complaint and of the city involving a pass-through company in the awarding of contracts. The city has maintained that it did nothing wrong.
According to Rudd, he had recently been iced out of certain city business and hasn’t talked to Owens or Mayor Ben Walsh since early January.
On the night of his State of the City address, Walsh said he’d be willing to work with Rudd.
“We’ve got a budget to get done,” Walsh said. “I’ll work with whoever the budget director is at the time to get the project done, as long as Mr. Rudd does his job.”
This is breaking news and will be updated with more information.
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