Sacramento city documents detail Kevin Johnson’s involvement in black mayors’ group
The city of Sacramento released more than 6,100 emails and more than a dozen documents Tuesday detailing Mayor Kevin Johnson’s past involvement in the embattled National Conference of Black Mayors.
The involvement by Johnson and his staff was evident in the documents obtained by The Sacramento Bee through the Public Records Act.
Several individuals who identified themselves as members of the mayor’s staff had sent and received electronic communications about the group. Also included was an electronic PowerPoint presentation that detailed Johnson’s strategy to stage an “Annual Meeting ‘Coup’” to oust the group’s executive director, Vanessa Williams, through vote or legal action.
The front page of that presentation said it came from the “Office of Mayor Kevin Johnson” and included the city of Sacramento seal, a document first obtained by the website Deadspin.
Omitted from the batch of documents are 475 emails that the City Attorney’s Office pulled from the public record out of “an abundance of caution,” and in response to a private lawsuit filed by Johnson against the city of Sacramento and the Sacramento News & Review seeking to block their release.
Attorneys agreed last week to review and parse through the emails to determine which will be released to the News & Review and The Sacramento Bee, which filed separate Public Records Act requests for information this year about Johnson’s communications.
The emails in question were stored on a city server, and the City Attorney’s Office has deemed them part of the public record, but Johnson says they should be protected by attorney-client privilege.
The released documents suggest involvement by Johnson and his staff on NCBM matters. But David Pittinsky, a private attorney working with Johnson on NCBM litigation and the mayor’s request to block city release of some emails, said Tuesday on Capital Public Radio’s “Insight” program that NCBM issues had “nothing to do with the city of Sacramento” in arguing for correspondence to be withheld from public view.
Johnson served as president of the NCBM from May 2013 to May 2014. His tenure was marked by litigation and conflict. Records from Fulton County Superior Court in Atlanta reviewed by The Sacramento Bee, along with city emails previously obtained through the Public Records Act, show that Johnson went to great lengths to take control of NCBM in one of the most vivid examples of his national ambitions. Several members of his mayoral staff worked on NCBM.
Johnson testified in court in December 2013 that he tasked six people on his City Hall staff or employees of organizations he is affiliated with to work on business for NCBM, a historic group born of the civil rights movement that had lost much of its credibility and clout thanks to years of mismanagement, as detailed by court documents and a federal criminal investigation of the group’s former president.
Williams, who remains in a legal battle with Johnson over his presidency and her role in the organization, has been accused of spending group money on personal matters.
A previous Public Records Act request revealed that mayoral staff formed an email group on July 10, 2013, dedicated to working on NCBM affairs. The mayor testified in Fulton County Superior Court that those individuals “were employed by me or the city or an entity.”
Johnson has since formed a new national black mayors group called the African American Mayors Association.
The Bee will continue to update this story as more information becomes available.
Marissa Lang: (916) 321-1038; @Marissa_Jae
