Kevin Johnson turned Sacramento's mayor's office into a fundraising tool for his own pet projects -Sacramento News & Review

Sacramento News & Review - Kevin Johnson turned Sacramento's mayor's office into a fundraising tool for his own pet projects - Bites - Opinions - February 20, 2014:

Kevin Johnson turned Sacramento's mayor's office into a fundraising tool for his own pet projects

There are no real consequences from the Fair Political Practices Commission for bending and breaking the rules

By Cosmo Garvin 
cosmog@newsreview.com

This article was published on 02.20.14.

Mayor Kevin Johnson was fined, again, this month for legal violations involving his network of nonprofit organizations. The state’s Fair Political Practices Commission dinged him for not reporting travel expenses paid for by The Walton Family Foundation, heirs of the Wal-Martfortune. The travel was to promote Johnson’s education-reform agenda, a personal project which has become increasingly tangled up with his public office.

Johnson was fined $37,500 in 2012 when he failed to report dozens of “behested payments” to his organizations from various interests like the Walton foundation and Sacramento Kings. Some of that money was used by Johnson’s Think Big Sacramento arena booster group to cook up the phony economic-impact reports that are still being waved around by arena proponents today.

The fine this time was a slap on the wrist, just $1,000. This gives the mistaken impression that the problem with Johnson’s network of nonprofits is merely sloppy paperwork.

It’s not. The problem is that Johnson has turned the office of the mayor into a fundraising tool for his own pet projects.

These behests are blurring the line between the public office and Johnson’s personal business. Just this month, he behested $400,000 from Kaiser Permanente to fund a college-readiness program at his Sacramento Charter High School.

The FPPC’s minimal fine just confirms that the mayor’s cost-benefit analysis was right: There are no real consequences for bending and breaking the rules, so let the money flow, and let the slush fund grow.

Speaking of K.J. Inc.: The mayor’s State of the City address happened. Bites didn’t go. It was, according to all reports, more of an arena pep rally than an actual report on the state of the city