Records and public-records dispute fuel questions over Cleveland mayor’s travel spending and conference costs

What the records show

Newly released city travel records show Cleveland taxpayers covered nearly $70,000 in out-of-state travel tied to Mayor Justin Bibb and his staff during 2022, his first year in office. The total reflects flights, hotels, rental cars, meals and other travel-related expenses for trips to multiple U.S. cities.

The released figure does not include overtime costs associated with Cleveland police officers assigned to the mayor’s security detail while traveling.

Security costs and redactions

The expense reports also show that the mayor was accompanied by security on each trip reflected in the records. In most cases, the detail included one or two officers. For a June trip to Reno, Nevada, the records show Bibb and the city’s chief government affairs officer traveled with three police officers.

City Hall has declined to release the names of officers who traveled or reports describing their activities during the trips, citing security concerns, even for travel that occurred months earlier.

Examples within the expense reports

Some line items in the released travel documents have drawn scrutiny because they provide a rare, detailed view into how travel was structured.

• A trip connected to the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Institute was publicly described as occurring at “no cost” to the city. The mayor did not submit expenses for that travel, but records show the city paid more than $3,200 in expenses for one security officer assigned to the trip, including a hotel bill exceeding $1,400 and an SUV rental listed at $969 for four days.

• For travel to Austin, Texas, tied to the South by Southwest conference, records show the mayor and the city’s chief strategy officer stayed at the Fairmont Hotel, while the two security officers listed on itineraries stayed at separate hotels about four blocks away.

“The security absolutely needs to be very close on a consistent basis to the subject that they’re protecting.”

Transparency dispute over missing records

The travel totals have also become part of a broader dispute over public access to records. In a separate set of requests seeking details about later travel, the mayor’s administration faced allegations that it did not provide responsive documents within a reasonable time under Ohio public-records requirements.

In that dispute, records requests sought expense reports for travel, as well as documents related to overtime costs for security assigned to out-of-state trips. A former Cleveland law director, Subodh Chandra, described the lack of timely disclosure as a taxpayer concern and emphasized the public’s right to know how money is spent.

What remains unanswered

With some travel records released and others still disputed, key questions remain unresolved, including the full cost of travel when security overtime is included, how often the mayor traveled in subsequent years, and how City Hall measures outcomes from conferences and meetings conducted out of state.