The Rise And Fall Of Kevin Johnson
By George E. Curry
NNPA Editor-in-Chief
NEWS ANALYSIS
WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Kevin Johnson, the former All-Star point guard for the Phoenix Suns, was in a zone. A year ago, the California native was re-elected to a second term as mayor of Sacramento, his hometown. In 2014, he is scheduled to assume the presidency of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. And after being crowned president of the National Conference of Black Mayors (NCBM) at its annual convention
in Atlanta on May 30, he told anyone who would listen: “I’m going to shake things up.”
But how Johnson went about “shaking things up,” led to his abrupt and unexpected downfall. After just 44 days in office, the board formally declared last Friday that his election was invalid and that a new election – in which Johnson is not expected to win – will probably take place in November. What started out as an easy political layup ended in Johnson fouling out with many of his fellow mayors.
Jeff Dickerson, a spokesman for Johnson, said that Friday’s board meeting was improperly called and violated the organization’s bylaws.
“Any actions that they attempted to take – and I do mean attempted to take – at an improperly called meeting are null and void. They have no effect and they are not going to be acknowledged,” Dickerson said in a telephone interview Monday.
The NCBM was already slowly but steadily recovering from a scandal involving its former president. Last September, former St. Gabriel, La. Mayor George L. Grace, Sr., 68, was sentenced to 22 years in prison on corruption charges that included bribery, obstruction of justice, making false statements and mail and wire fraud in connection with his city and NCBM positions.