More employees linked to scandal

The company hired to perform a computer forensics investigation of the city’s Information Technology Department has discovered that former City Manager Bob Bartolotta and Deputy City Manager Marlon Brown were not the only employees who had access to confidential city information that should not have been available to them.

Sylint Group Chief Executive Officer John Jorgensen updated the Sarasota City Commission on the investigation Monday, but he explained it was too early to divulge the names of those other individuals.

Jorgensen also reported that his staff believed confidential city data could be on the personal computer of an employee who had been put on administrative leave.

IT Project Manager Sandra Coleman’s personal computer was used last year to access the city’s computer network, according to Sylint officials.

“Sandra Coleman’s personal computer was connected to the city network, and it’s a concern to the city, to ensure there’s no city information on that computer,” Jorgensen said. “We frown heavily on a personal computer being used under these circumstances, and it could be a very costly situation for the city if it must defend itself if someone’s personal information is on another computer outside the network.”

The commission approved an extra $15,000 to $20,000 to hire another company to extract any information from Coleman’s personal computer that pertains to city business.

The city already has agreed to pay the Sylint Group $113,365 for additional services as part of the ongoing investigation.

“We have to move forward on this and see it all through,” said Commissioner Shannon Snyder. “Our exposure and our liability are too large.”

City Auditor and Clerk Pamela Nadalini hired the Sylint Group last year to investigate a complaint from a city resident that Bartolotta and Brown had “scrubbed” their computers of data the city legally is required to maintain.

The findings, which were reported only verbally, revealed Bartolotta had deleted more than 11,000 emails, about 100 of which the company could not recover. Bartolotta resigned under pressure over the incident in February. He adamantly denies any wrongdoing.

Both Bartolotta and Brown also have been accused of reviewing exempt emails that were part of an ongoing audit and performing numerous email searches, to monitor employees they believed to have been conspiring against them, including Nadalini.

That exempt email, Jorgensen reported Monday, “now involves other individuals whose names we are holding onto because of our concern about jeopardizing the ongoing criminal investigation.”

Sylint Group employees have met with representatives of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Jorgensen said, adding that both agencies actively are pursuing the investigation.

No timetable has been mentioned for the conclusion of the criminal investigation.

In the meantime, Jorgensen said Monday that his company was wrapping up its forensics investigation and that it would release information to law enforcement officers as requested.

The Sylint Group also is focusing on rebuilding the city’s computer network, including the damaged email and archive systems.

Jorgensen added that upgrades to the city’s email and server systems had not been performed in a long time, either because the undertaking took too long for the IT Department to perform the work or because staff didn’t know how to handle the upgrades.

His staff was astonished to learn of the situation, Jorgensen said. He is training current employees, under the aegis of Nadalini’s office, to correct sub par performance issues, he added.

Commissioner Paul Caragiulo voiced frustration with the news Monday, complaining that the city had approved computer hardware and software upgrades costing millions of dollars in past fiscal years.
“We’ve spent all that money, and we have, for a lack of a better term, a dinosaur,” Caragiulo said.