If scoring political points with Sacramentans were field goal attempts on a basketball court, our good mayor would probably be benched by now for his poor shooting–at least when it comes to fulfilling his campaign promise to run a transparent city hall. KCRA’s piece today about Johnson’s volunteer MayorCorps cast some welcomed light on what many people feel is turning out to be a shady mayoral office.

I have to say I’m impressed with KCRA for confronting Johnson officials in city hall and demanding answers; I really hope they do more of this. Asking KJ campaign-manager-turned-pro-bono-adviser Steve Maviglio to produce the conflict of interest disclosure forms was a bold move, not to mention one I believe was warranted given the less-than-totally-transparent way Johnson has gone about staffing his office.

I already know how Johnson’s supporters will respond: “KCRA is just trying to create controversy! Anne Rudin is a Fargonian nutjob who is determined to ruin Johnson! Kevin loves Sacramento! You should be thankful Kevin wants to fix this clusterf%$# city!”  And maybe they are right. But there is something all these retorts miss, and that is this: Kevin Johnson has a growing credibility problem, and if he doesn’t address it IMMEDIATELY, he can probably kiss his strong mayor push goodbye–and maybe his local legacy too.

The first thing I think KJ MUST do is get rid of Steve Maviglio–or at least bury him in the think tank where he will have limited to no contact with the public. I have nothing against Steve personally; in fact I have exchanged emails with him on multiple occassions, and overall I find him to be a very sharp, politically savvy professional. Trouble is, Steve is not a PR

seems agitated and flippant with the reporter, and at one point even pulled his cell phone out and checked it in the middle of the interview.

featuring some interviews with several people. One was Steve Maviglio, KJ’s campaign manager and pro bono adviser. I do not know Steve personally, but I have exchanged quite a few high level emails with him since he joined Johnson’s campaign.

who feel Kj is being less than honest with the people of Sac Town. You can check it out here in case you missed it. Granted, it could be argued the interviewees they selected (Anne Rudin, the union people), have political motives, but that aside, I think it’s valid