FW: BlogOfSD-Flannery: The missing email. Sanders has a decision to make. 04/19/08

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From: <char.ayers@att.net>
Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2008 17:04:16 +0000
To: Charlene Ayers <char.ayers@att.net>
Subject: BlogOfSD-Flannery: The missing email. Sanders has a decision to make. 04/19/08

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From: "Pat Flannery - Blog" <pat@blogofsandiego.com>
To: "Pat Flannery" <pat@blogofsandiego.com>
Subject: The missing email. Sanders has a decision to make. 04/19/08
Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2008 08:16:50 +0000

The missing email. Sanders has a decision to make. 04/19/08
                                        by Pat Flannery                         

Former Assistant Chief Operating Officer (ACOO) for the City of San Diego, Rick Reynolds, filed a lawsuit <http://www.blogofsandiego.com/Sanders/IP_Gate/reynoldssuit.pdf>  this week against the City. Before being fired by Sanders on September 28, 2007 he had been responsible for nine City Depart ments, supervised approximately 1,400 City employees and managed more than $300 million of the City's annual budget. He has been unable to find a job since.

Mr. Reynolds' troubles began when the City's email screening system flagged an email from Fred Sainz, Director of Communications (DOC) for the Office of the Mayor, to Bob Kittle, editorial writer for the San Diego Union-Tribune, dated September 7, 2007. The email was snagged by the system because it contained numerous instances of the "f" word in reference to certain staff at the City Attorney's office and certain members of the City Council.

Chief Information Officer <http://www.sandiego.gov/ocio/index.shtml>  (CIO), Matt McGarvey, brought the offending email to his superior, ACOO Rick Reynolds, who in turn brought it to his superior, Chief Operating Officer (COO) Jay Goldstone. As it happens, Matt McGarvey quit the City this week to work nearer his home in Vista. I guess he "needed to spend more time with his family".

This particular spate of nastiness against Aguirre started with a blast email <http://www.blogofsandiego.com/Aguirre/ItalianoEmail.pdf>  from MEA <https://www.sdmea.org/>   leader Judie Italiano to her 4,800 union members calling Aguirre a "mad man". It brought this warning <http://www.blogofsandiego.com/Aguirre/Chadwick-Italiano.pdf>  dated August 9, 2007, from Scott Chadwick  the City's Labor Relations Director, regarding its "inappropriate use of the City's email system".

 

Despite being given a copy of an obscene and abusive email written by Sainz, Jay Goldstone his boss, did nothing about either the obscenity or the "inappropriate use of the City's email system". Far from being reprimanded, Sainz continued to work with his buddy Kittle (an outside person who does not work for the City) in an effort to destroy Mike Aguirre and to discredit those working for him - i.e. City staff!

Sainz obtained (and presumably still has) the IP addresses of all the computers on the desks of everybody who works in the City Attorney's office. Whoever heard of such a thing? Did he plan on impersonating Mike Aguirre or members of his staff over the Internet? Why else would he do such a thing? Did he hand those IP addresses to Bob Kittle? What use has Kittle put them to in the meantime?

Read the lawsuit fil ed this week <http://www.blogofsandiego.com/Sanders/IP_Gate/reynoldssuit.pdf>  for a complete description of how Sainz ordered and obtained the IP addresses from the CIO's office on September 26, 2007. If it weren't for the fact that the Chief Information Officer <http://www.sandiego.gov/ocio/index.shtml>  (CIO), Matt McGarvey, was on vacation that day we may never have found out about it. In the absence of his boss, a subordinate at the CIO brought the IP request to McGarvey's boss, Rick Reynolds.

Thank goodness there were still a few honorable people left in the City at the time and that Rick Reynolds was one of them. Like everybody in San Diego Reynolds knew that Mayor Sanders was waging a war to get rid of City Attorney Mike Aguirre. Sanders hadn't particularly liked being called corrupt over Sunroad a few weeks earlier.

It is clear that Sainz' boss, Chief Operating Officer Jay Goldstone, conspiring to cover up Sainz's actions. But "what did the Mayor know and when did he know it?". For the Mayor the parallel with Watergate is obvious. He can no longer blame his staff.



Attempting to gain access to the computer of the City Attorney is the electronic equivalent of the Watergate bag job. That cover-up led to Nixon's last helicopter ride out of the White House - in disgrace.

Rick Reynolds, an ex-Navy officer and straight shooter, protested Sainz action in a memo to Goldstone dated September 27, 2007:

"the information could be combined with network logs or other trackable system information, resulting in individually identifiable information which would typically not be available for or subject to disclosure. In addition, disclosure of our internal IP addresses to any unauthorized parties would violate system security policies by providing information that could be used maliciously for 'hacking' or gaining unauthorized access, to City systems (either internally or externally)."  

Goldstone's reaction: he fired Reynolds! Loyalty trumps honor in the Sanders' administration. Goldstone chose loyalty to his boss (and to his $250,000 salary).

But now for the interesting part.

Pursuant to a Public Records Request, I have Fred Sainz's emails for the period concerned, August <http://www.blogofsandiego.com/Sanders/IP_Gate/August.pdf> , September <http://www.blogofsandiego.com/Sanders/IP_Gate/September.pdf>  and October <http://www.blogofsandiego.com/Sanders/IP_Gate/October.pdf>  2007. They make interesting reading for other reasons too. More of that later.

But surprise, surprise! The obscene email to Bob Kittle dated September 7, 2007 is missing! Perhaps Fred considered it too much  for delicate ears such as mine or yours.

I don't know what the legal penalty for such a breach of the Public Records Act (PRA) is, but I can safely say that the political penalty for withholding such a document of great public interest as that email has now become, may be a "for real" picture of Sanders as the one above. And he will not be boarding a Marine helicopter.

For more background information and links to various documents associated with this story, read my blogs dated September 9, 2007 <http://www.blogofsandiego.com/Archives/BlogOfSanDiego07_2.htm#09/30/07> ,  October 2, 2007 <http://www.blogofsandiego.com/Archives/BlogOfSanDiego07_2.htm#10/02/07> and October 14, 2007 <http://www.blogofsandiego.com/Archives/BlogOfSanDiego07_2.htm#10/14/07a> . It seems that our Mayor's Office together with our monopoly newspaper the U-T, has dedicated an enormous amount of City and U-T time trying to discredit Mike Aguirre. Why?

Do you still think Mike is a little paranoid? Or is there something to what he says is going on? Is Sanders really corrupt, as Aguirre says he is? Is that what this is all about? Is that why they need to get rid of Aguirre so badly? We know there is a lot of money at stake for the unions in the pension issue. Is our City government all about special interest? Are Aguirre and Frye the only ones not in it for the money?

Sanders could clear the IP-gate issue up very quickly, by releasing the emails that were withheld in the above PRA request. But then he may have to fire Sainz, maybe even Goldstone. Stay tuned.



 
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