Sacramento Shakedown - Kevin Johnson’s crossover corruption
Back in the fall of 2014, Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson was unstoppable. Hed pushed through a $300 million city subsidy for a new downtown arena for the Sacramento Kings. Hed helped elbow out racist Los Angeles Clippers team owner Donald Sterling, and grabbed a little of the spotlight for himself in the process. Hed been named president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
He and his wife, Michelle Rheeonce the brightest star in the corporate-backed education reform movementshowed up at the White House Correspondents Dinner. An adviser told Johnsons hometown newspaper, the Sacramento Bee, that the couple was a modern-day version of Bill and Hillary Clinton. There was talk about a run for California governor or U.S. Senate.
At his peak, KJ was a figure to behold, an urban policy entrepreneur and brander-in-chief selling #Sacramento 3.0, a world-class city where kids would take Uber vehicles instead of buses to their charter schools, never check out a library book, and have more smart devices than toothbrushes.
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Aside from the arena, Johnsons other legacy is something I call KJ Inc. Its a particular way of doing public business, and its also a political machine: a blended network of nonprofit auxiliary organizations, political cronies, and paid city staff, powered by unlimited donations from downtown developers and corporate benefactors.
Last year, Johnson sued me for filing public records requests for city emails, part of an ongoing project to better understand KJs mingling of public resources with his private nonprofits. The suit appears intended to economically damage the small alternative weekly I write forthe only media outlet in town to write critically about Johnsons arena deal, or his educational reform campaign, or his use of city resources for his private agenda. Were still in court.
more at: http://thebaffler.com/salvos/sacramento-shakedown