“We can’t provide any further comment but I can confirm that is true,” said Amanda Smith, deputy press secretary in the Mayor’s Office of Communication.
Baltimore's websitestill listed Mullen as CIO in the Mayor's Office of Information Technology (MOIT) on Wednesday, Feb. 22 — as did his LinkedIn profile — but the city's deputy CIO, Evette Munro, has been named acting head of the department, Smith said.
The reasons for his resignation remain unclear. However, citing a spokesman for Mayor Catherine Pugh, The Baltimore Sun reported the mayor is interested in expanding MOIT's role and giving residents better access to city services.
According to the Baltimore Brew, however, problems with the city's website and a lack of MOIT support for health department initiatives could have led to his departure.
Regardless, the move could signal continued tough sledding for the tech sector at City Hall, where Mullen is the city’s third CIO to depart in five years.
His immediate predecessor, Christopher Tonjes, resigned in June 2014 during a fraud investigation into allegations the department paid contract employees for work they didn’t do. Before Tonjes, the IT office’s then-Director J. Rico Singleton resigned in February 2012 after a New York state audit revealed alleged ethical violations.
“But there’s no correlation there other than that he resigned,” Smith said, referring to the lack of a connection between Mullen, Tonjes and Singleton.
Mullen was the CIO since early 2014, having previously worked as the city’s deputy CTO. He joined MOIT in 2011 as director of IT infrastructure and enterprise services.
