After news broke of a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by ex-CIO Charlie Brennan against the City of Philadelphia, the former occupant of Brennan’s office had a couple things to get off his mind.

According to Adel Ebeid, the Chief Innovation Officer under Mayor Michael Nutter, who stepped down in December 2015, his tenure did focus on back-office work and the upkeep of legacy technology systems.

“It’s unfortunate that some folks held a view that we only focused on supporting the civic tech movement and paid less attention to ‘back office’ functions,” said Ebeid in an email Thursday. “Anyone who felt that way was missing a critical point — the vision was to invite the civic tech community as partners and collaborators. By contributing their skills and ideas, they were able to channel their passion for good government to help us modernize the city’s ‘back office’ systems.”

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