Sarasota News Leader

03/08/2013

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Sarasota News Leader March 8, 2013 Page 39 After Jorgensen's report March 4, City Commissioner Terry Turner circulated a spreadsheet prepared by the city's former finance director, Chris Lyons, detailing the cost of the incident. Nearly $130,000 was paid to Sylint, and $72,434 was spent in legal fees. Bartolotta received $112,760 in severance pay, and nearly $120,000 was paid to the employee on administrative leave from the Information Technology Department. The searches for a new city manager and IT director and the new hires' moving costs added up to $53,435. City Manager Robert Bartolotta resigned in January 2012 in the wake of allegations he had broken the law by accessing certain city emails. Contributed photo The grand total for the investigation and its inconclusive aftermath was $547,017.72. That figure does not include the $89,169.36 paid eventually the Florida Department of Law Ento Interim City Manager Terry Lewis, which forcement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Housing and pushes the total to $636,187.07. Urban Development all were brought into the SYLINT'S FINDINGS case. None of the three will press charges, according to reports. Sylint was hired by the city on Nov. 8, 2011 to investigate the allegations Johnson raised in Sylint found what its report called "several an email to City Commissioner Paul Caragiulo. serious lapses" in IT management. "Certain "And they did find a lot of issues over there," people's accounts were known by others, so Johnson told The Sarasota News Leader. they could use other people's passwords," Jorgensen told the commission. "Sylint identified unusual activity and significant issues regarding the management of the "This has been a very unfortunate time for the City of Sarasota Information Technology (IT) city. I don't think any of us thought the comdepartment operations and the potential mis- puter system was as bad as it was," said Comuse of access to City of Sarasota email data missioner Shannon Snyder. "Our team was not and potential exposure of Personal Identifi- competent enough to handle it." able Information (PII) and Personal Health Information (PHI). A second audit/investiga- Jorgensen noted, "We do not believe there was tion was begun to resolve those issues," the a breach [into the computer system], and the information did not get out into the wild. We company reported Monday. believe the corrective actions taken by the IT Sylint tipped law enforcement officials to the Department are sufficient to protect the City possibility illegal activities had occurred, and of Sarasota at this time."

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