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Despite criticism, Menino campaign extends welcome to Kineavy

E-mail|Link|Comments () October 7, 2009 01:10 PM

By Michael Levenson and Donovan Slack, Globe Staff

A spokesman for Mayor Thomas M. Menino said today that chief aide Michael J. Kineavy would be welcome to work on Menino's reelection campaign during his unpaid leave from City Hall because of the ongoing investigation of deleted e-mails.

Mayoral aide Michael Kineavy

“It’s too early to pin down the details on what he’s doing,” Nick Martin, a spokesman for the Menino campaign said of Kineavy, the mayor’s chief of policy and planning. “It’s safe to say that the mayor still values him as a person that knows the neighborhoods and knows how to bring people together and energize people for the upcoming election.”

Martin made the assertion just minutes after the mayoral campaign of Councilor Michael F. Flaherty blasted the mayor’s willingness to allow Kineavy to work on the campaign, for which he has been a longtime political strategist.

“It seems … disingenuous for the mayor’s top political operative to take an unpaid leave to go and be the mayor’s top political operative and to run his campaign,” said Councilor Sam Yoon who held a press conference with Flaherty this morning on City Hall Plaza. Yoon is campaigning for Flaherty and has been promised the position of deputy mayor, if Flaherty is elected.

“It’s clear that the chief of policy and planning in our city doesn’t do policy and planning and never has,” Yoon said. “This is something the city should be upset and outraged about.”

Flaherty, meanwhile, renewed his call for an investigation by Attorney General Martha Coakley into thousands of deleted e-mails at City Hall. “What has unfolded over a month’s period has bee a troubling pattern of lies and deceit,” Flaherty said. “You don’t need to be a fancy talker to tell the truth.”

Coakley's office issued a statement today saying that it was now involved in a review by the secretary of state's office that is looking to recover missing e-mails.

The mayor said Monday that Kineavy had told him that he didn't know his computer had been replaced and said Kineavy will have a role in his administration if he is re-elected.

"He’ll always have a position," Menino said in an interview on Fox 25. "He is a guy of integrity."

However, work orders show Kineavy reported that his computer was operating slowly in April and it was subsequently replaced. Click here to see the work orders and click here to see an e-mail exchange between computer technicians and Kineavy's assistant, Cathy Downey.