Firm’s City Hall ties raise questions
Menino’s choice on e-mail search has Boston link
One day after Mayor Thomas M. Menino hired a computer forensics firm to try to retrieve e-mails that were deleted by one of his top aides, the mayor’s chief lawyer acknowledged that a partner in the firm has ties to City Hall.
Anthony C. Jordan - a Boston-based partner in the firm, the StoneTurn Group - sits on a Boston Public Library committee and is also on the board of the Boston Public Library Foundation, which raises money for the library; the library depends on Menino for two-thirds of its $30 million budget.
In response to inquiries from the Globe, corporation counsel William Sinnott said yesterday that Jordan would not participate in the firm’s work to retrieve e-mails deleted by Menino’s chief policy aide, Michael J. Kineavy. Sinnott said he wants to avoid any perception that Jordan’s ties to City Hall might skew the results of the probe in Menino’s favor.
“He has been walled off from any work on this case out of an abundance of caution,’’ he said.
Jordan said in an interview, “By no means did I have any involvement in bringing the work into the firm, nor am I involved in the work itself.’’
The city hired StoneTurn Group in response to an order this week from Secretary of State William F. Galvin, whose office directed the Menino administration to seize Kineavy’s computer and retain an “independent and competent technology expert to employ all reasonable means of recovering and restoring the missing records.’’
Galvin issued the order after the Globe reported Sunday that city officials acknowledged that Kineavy routinely deleted e-mails in such a way that copies were not saved on city backup servers, a potential violation of the state public records law. A search of city servers found only 18 e-mails sent or received by Kineavy during a six-month period.
State law requires municipalities and their employees to keep e-mails for at least two years, even if they are of “no informational or evidential value.’’
Moving to try to quell the controversy before Tuesday’s preliminary mayoral election, Menino enlisted the help of retired Supreme Judicial Court justice John M. Greaney to review the city’s handling of electronic public records.
“We’ve approached him, and he’s agreed on a pro-bono basis to serve as a consultant as we try to formulate a plan going forward for the city of Boston on e-mail retention,’’ Sinnott said. “He’s going to provide his advice and give us his unvarnished opinion.’’
Sinnott said that the administration was looking for competence more than independence when it decided to hire StoneTurn Group, saying that no firm would be truly independent because the city is paying the bill.
“If you want somebody truly independent, then they would have to be paid by an outside party,’’ he said.
Galvin said yesterday that his office planned to meet with city officials tomorrow and would evaluate the firm’s hiring.
“The issue of their competence and independence is something we’ve already identified as a key issue,’’ he said.
Sinnott said the city planned to pay roughly $300 an hour for StoneTurn Group’s services.
Dot Joyce, the mayor’s spokeswoman, said the firm has picked up Kineavy’s hard drive from City Hall and made two copies and is trying to retrieve the e-mails.
Joyce pointed out that the Library Foundation, on which Jordan sits, is not appointed by the mayor.
Two of Menino’s challengers, Councilors at Large Michael F. Flaherty Jr. and Sam Yoon, used a council meeting yesterday to call for a hearing on deletion of the e-mails. Flaherty said it was important to restore the public’s trust in city government “but most important’’ he said was “that we try to retrieve the documents to the best of our ability.’’
“I think this incident really does highlight how city government is operating in the dark ages,’’ said Yoon, adding that “if there are employees here who methodically delete e-mails . . . it’s a violation of the law.’’
No other councilors spoke on the issue.
Council President Michael P. Ross announced from the rostrum that the City Council held a training session on public records for its staff on April 3 with the secretary of state’s office, which he said was “very informative.’’
Flaherty also filed a formal request yesterday that Menino give the City Council within one week an itemized list for the last three fiscal years of any purchases or replacements of city hard drives, servers, and mainframes for Cabinet officers and department heads.
Andrea Estes of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com; Levenson at mlevenson@globe.com. 
