K.J.'s former adviser reveals email and elections wrongdoing inside mayor's office
‘We were violating [state law]. It was just sloppy.’
Former mayoral adviser R.E. Graswich was known for Hawaiian shirts. Now, he’s speaking out about mistakes and wrongdoing during his time working for Kevin Johnson (pictured) at City Hall.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY BRIAN BRENEMAN
R.E. Graswich is more than Hawaiian-print shirts and local sports takes. For instance, after the former Sacramento Bee columnist left the hive, and did a stint under Mayor Kevin Johnson at City Hall.
From 2009 through 2012, Graswich was part of K.J.’s inner circle, as a senior adviser. He also briefly worked at Johnson’s nonprofit, Think Big, in 2013, where he focused on Kings arena matters.
Perhaps as much as anyone inside the mayor’s world, Graswich understands its ebb-and-flow. He reached out to SN&R last week to discuss K.J.’s email problem—his blurring of private and public business (and even elections work) inside his office.
Graswich says that, just days after he joined the mayor as “special assistant,” then-Chief of Staff Kunal Merchant (who now is a vice president with the Kings) set him up with a private Gmail account.
The mayor’s spokespeople have repeatedly stated that Johnson and staff useCityofSacramento.org emails for public business, and Gmail accounts (with the OMKJ label for Office of Mayor Kevin Johnson) for private work. They insist that there is a separation, that the lines aren’t blurred, and they they follow all state, city and Fair Political Practices Commission rules.
Graswich, however, painted a dissenting portrait of operations inside K.J.’s City Hall.
He told SN&R, for instance, that the mayor and staff used Gmail as their “main form of communication” for city work, private K.J. projects and campaign business. He says he did “more than 80 percent” of his communications via Gmail.
“Gmail was our bulletproof method of communication beyond the reach of the city and the public,” Graswich told SN&R via phone.
Why Gmail? He says that the mayor and senior staff had “a real paranoia” about keeping their conversations away from others at City Hall, especially fellow council members. “We really wanted to separate ourselves from the bureaucracy, from the apparatus. Nobody trusted theCityofSacramento.org.”
The mayor did not have a city-provided computer in his office, nor did he carry a city cell phone (he had two of his own personal phones), according to Graswich. “He would not use any city equipment whatsoever.”
The former adviser says they never discussed using Gmail to avoid public-records inquiries. “It was an underlying motive, but it was never explicitly stated.”
He claims that mayoral adviser, attorney Jeffrey Dorso, advised that Team K.J. should “be careful” using Gmail, and that they shouldn’t assume their messages would remain private for ever. “’Don’t do stupid things,’” Graswich says Dorso advised.
Indeed, California law rests in a gray area when it comes to public officials using private email for Sacramento News & Review - K.J.'s former adviser reveals email and elections wrongdoing inside mayor's office - News - Local Stories - July 16, 2015:
