— Officials in a Boston suburb are investigating a former city employee who shut down the police website during a pay dispute.
The former employee who was the information technology director of the police department took down the department's website in late June and July, according to Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller. The website directed visitors to a message that called for them to contact Fuller and ask the mayor to restore it, The Boston Globe reported on Friday.
Fuller said the employee controls access to the site and has not turned it over to the city. Newton created a new police department website in its place. The old website was no longer active on Sunday.
Fuller told the Globe in a statement earlier this week that the employee shut down a vital resource for the residents of the city of Newton. The employee notified city officials in March that he was leaving the job, the Globe reported. The paper reported that the employee felt that he was owed $137,000 in compensatory time at the time he shut down the website.
The employee said in a statement that he was disheartened by the city's representation of the facts in this matter and that he would work with the city to solve the problem.