Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson seeks to block release of e-mails
K.J. sues SN&R over controversial emails http://bit.ly/1JxLt4B
Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson has filed a legal challenge against a local newspaper in an effort to block the release of e-mail records sought under California’s open records law.
In a petition filed in Sacramento Superior Court on Wednesday, private attorneys hired by Johnson are seeking to block the release of e-mails from one of Johnson’s personal accounts on the basis of attorney-client privilege.
The e-mails in question are at the center of a public records request filed by the Sacramento News & Review in which the newspaper reported the mayor and other city officials had been using private Google Mail accounts to conduct official city business.
Under the California Public Records Act, government officials at the state and local level are required to hand over records related to government matters, including correspondents sent from and received to official government e-mail accounts. However, certain records may be withheld under the CPRA, including documents that relate to attorney-client privilege.
The newspaper reported in March that Johnson and other city officials had been discussing and conducting official city business using third-party e-mail service providers instead of their government accounts. The paper identified Johnson’s Chief of Staff Daniel Conway and press spokesperson Ben Sosenko as using Google mail accounts; the paper said Johnson himself uses an account under the address kevinjohnson.com, which is paid for through a commercial service, according to records reviewed by The Desk.
Johnson has already handed over some of his e-mails to Michael Benner, the deputy city attorney for Sacramento, according to the News & Review. Benner said the e-mails were public records because they contained messages between Johnson and a private firm hired to handle an ongoing legal matter involving the mayor. Since the e-mails did not contain communications between Johnson and a city attorney, the e-mails were determined to be public records, Benner told the paper.
But sources close to the mayor told The Desk on Wednesday that an audit performed by the city attorney’s office turned up some e-mail records that “probably fit under the attorney-client privilege” exemption of the CPRA.
“Upon its review, it’s been discovered that approximately 100 emails contained in the responsive documents were communizations between the law firm…and the mayor and his staff,” the city attorney wrote in an email message sent to city officials. “It was deemed likely that these e-mails would be considered attorney-client privilege, but the city has no basis to claim this privilege between a third-party law firm involving non-city manners. The third-party law firm would have to assert the privilege through a court order.”
The e-mail written by the city attorney was provided verbally to The Desk by a source familiar with the ongoing dispute involving the records request. The Desk could not independently verify the authenticity of the e-mail message.
The e-mail would appear to contradict a claim reported by the News & Review in which the paper said Benner found the records from Johnson’s personal account were not exempt from disclosure under attorney-client privilege.
“As far as I’m concerned, these are public records,” Benner told the paper.
But Ballard Spahr, the private law firm hired by Johnson for the matter, disagrees.
“Public records requests are not intended to violate that privilege and the law does not allow disclosure of attorney-client privileged materials pursuant to public records requests,” Peter Haviland, an attorney for the firm, told The Desk by e-mail.
The petition filed in court on Wednesday notes that another newspaper, the Sacramento Bee, filed a Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson seeks to block e-mails:
