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Cleveland Public Safety fiscal manager Shawn Gidley resigned this week, citing a number of scandals plaguing the department, including the Nov. 22 shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice.

(The Plain Dealer, file photo)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A fiscal manager for Cleveland's Public Safety Department has resigned, stating that he has lost his faith in Mayor Frank Jackson's administration after the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice and other controversies that have plagued the police and fire departments in recent years.

In his resignation letter dated Dec. 17, Shawn Gidley said he once enjoyed his position and the work he did, "believing it was making the City of Cleveland a better place to live." (Read the full letter in the document viewer below.)

But three major controversies have destroyed that belief, wrote Gidley, who began working for the city in 2002. And years of mismanagement, poor leadership and improper training in the Public Safety Department have "ended with a child paying the ultimate price," he wrote.

Rookie police officer Timothy Loehmann shot Tamir on Nov. 22, near a West Side recreation center. The officer and his partner, Frank Garmback, were responding to a report that someone was brandishing a weapon, which turned out to be an airsoft, replica gun.

Loehmann opened fire on Tamir immediately upon arriving at the scene. And Tamir received no medical attention until a man, whom Cleveland police said was an FBI agent, showed up and administered CPR nearly four minutes after the shooting.

The incident remains under investigation.

Gidley's letter also refers to the U.S. Justice Department's recently released report concluding that use of excessive force by Cleveland police officers is the result of departmental deficiencies in training, management and disciplinary procedures.

"The Department of Public Safety and the City of Cleveland is no longer an employer for which I am proud to work," Gidley concluded in his letter. "It does not provide the leadership that the residents of Cleveland deserve."

Among his reasons for resigning, Gidley also cited the 2011 Fire Department payroll scandal, in which city auditors uncovered years of abuse of the department's shift trading policy. Some firefighters were found to have illegally paid colleagues to work their 24-hour shifts, freeing them up to work other full-time jobs or even run businesses on the side.

Thirteen firefighters eventually pleaded guilty in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court to the low-level charge of complicity to receiving unlawful compensation. All but one were suspended without pay. The most brazen of the shift-trade abusers, Calvin Robinson, who paid others to work 3-1/2 years worth of shifts, was fired in May.

The third controversy was the Nov. 29, 2012 police chase that ended in a hail of gunfire and the deaths of two unarmed suspects, Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine labeled the incident -- which involved more than a third of the officers on duty that night -- a "systemic failure" of the police department. Jackson continues to reject that characterization, blaming instead the poor decisions of a handful of officers, many of whom have since been disciplined. One officer and five supervisors were indicted, and the victims' families recently received a $3 million settlement from the city.

Gidley, who noted that today would be his last day in office, could not be reached for comment.

The city also declined to comment.