On The Sacramento Bee's soft spot for K.J.
The Bee has been criticized before for its handling of Johnson’s various controversies, and this latest legal dust-up isn’t helping
It’s weird when news organizationsbecome the news. But that’s exactly what happened when Mayor Kevin Johnson filed a lawsuit against the city and SN&R.
The July 1 lawsuit came after SN&R refused to back off its public-records request for emails between his office and attorneys involved in a legal entanglement with the National Conference of Black Mayors. As a result, Johnson sued to block the city’s release of said emails, citing attorney-client privilege—emails that the city attorney had already determined to be public record.
Weird.
Even taking SN&R out of the equation, the lawsuit is odd—and a pretty big deal. When was the last time (if ever) that a mayor sued his or her own city? When was the last time (if ever) that a mayor requested a restraining order against the city he or she governs?
News of Johnson’s landmark legal moves spread fast. By end of day Wednesday, all three major local TV news stations had visited SN&R’s Del Paso Boulevard headquarters to interview publisher Jeff vonKaenel. National outlets such as Deadspin, The Huffington Post and USA Today also picked up the story.
All of which just makes The Sacramento Bee’s coverage of the lawsuit all the more, well, weird.
Take its initial report, for starters: After the news broke, the paper posted a short, unbylined brief on its website. That’s not necessarily the strange part; breaking news is a fast beast, surely the paper’s print version would be meatier.
Nope. The Bee’s July 2 print version of the story was buried on page A3, credited only to “Bee Metro Staff.”
How and why, exactly, did Bee editors decide this story wasn’t front-page news?
(Full disclosure: I worked at the Bee from 2000-09 as a features writer and have a pretty good idea of its Sacramento News & Review - On The Sacramento Bee's soft spot for K.J. - Feature Story - Local Stories - July 9, 2015:
Why Mayor Kevin Johnson sued SN&R, what we've learned—and what happens next
“The mayor is completely open and transparent.” That’s what Mayor Kevin Johnson’s spokesman Ben Sosenko told the TV cameras and reporters gathered outside Sacramento Superior Court Room 44 last week.
Shortly before that, Sosenko flatly refused to answer any of SN&R’s questions about the mayor’s use of private emails to do city business. He made it clear that he didn’t intend to answer any of SN&R’s questions any time soon, either.
“It is what it is,” he said with a smirk.
Regular readers know that, last week, Johnson took SN&R and the city of Sacramento to court, in order to block the city from releasing about 100 emails, which the mayor says are protected by attorney-client privilege (read about the lawsuit on SN&R’s Page Burner blog athttp://tinyurl.com/KJlawsuit).
But the bigger story may be that, thanks to Johnson’s lawsuit, we now know that the mayor has actually failed to turn over thousands of emails from his private Gmail accounts. Those emails were sent by city employees, doing city business, and aren’t protected by attorney-client privilege.
Outside the courtroom, SN&R attorney Thomas Burke told the gathered media that Johnson’s use of private email accounts is a way to get around the California Public Records Act. “There’s no way to check whether or not you have access to everything that they’re doing in the public’s business,” Burke said.
Sosenko wouldn’t talk to SN&R, but assured the other reporters gathered that the Gmail accounts, which use “OMKJ” for “Office of Mayor Kevin Johnson” in the address, were no problem, because “the private email accounts are used for things that are not city business.”
Not even remotely true: The OMKJ emails accounts are routinely used for city business. To take just a few examples: Johnson and his staff used outside emails extensively to discuss strategy for the 2013 arena deal. Other OMKJ emails obtained by SN&R show Sosenko responding to an article in the Bee about an anti-gang program, and developing talking points for remarks Johnson made to Sacramento police officers about the unrest in Ferguson, Mo. By using these outside accounts, Johnson has effectively short-circuited California’s public-records law. And no one on the city council, or the city manager or city attorney, seems willing to do anything about it.
Back in March, SN&R requested any emails sent and received using the set of special “OMKJ” Gmail accounts used by the mayor’s staff (see “Special delivery” by Cosmo Garvin, SN&R News, April 23, at
Why Mayor Kevin Johnson sued SN&R, what we've learned—and what happens next
Big Education Ape: Nine things that burn in your brain when the mayor sues you - Sacramento News & Review - http://bit.ly/1HgQb6c