Hub puts recovered e-mails online
Aide’s 5,000 deleted records are viewable
City of Boston officials, seeking to contain the burgeoning controversy over their handling of deleted public records, posted 5,000 e-mails from a top mayoral aide on a city website yesterday, allowed reporters to review 600 previously unreleased e-mails recovered from one of the aide’s computers, and said that they have provided state investigators with a copy of both hard drives used by the aide.
The 600 e-mails provide little new information about the work of Michael J. Kineavy, a top aide to Menino who had been “double-deleting’’ his e-mails every day, despite a state law requiring that most such correspondence be kept for at least two years.
But there are revealing snippets that shed more light on the inner workings of City Hall. Many of the e-mails released were essentially blank.
The city continued to insist yesterday that it is cooperating with investigators from the offices of Secretary of State William F. Galvin and Attorney General Martha Coakley. Menino’s administration released a letter from the city’s chief lawyer to Galvin’s office indicating that the city has now turned over copies of all the e-mails retrieved so far, as well as Kineavy’s hard drives.
The letter reveals that the city is now sending copies of its correspondence with Galvin to one of Coakley’s top aides, Deputy First Assistant Attorney General Edward Bedrosian, indicating that Coakley’s office is keeping close tabs on the matter.
The letter also suggests that the city did not immediately tell investigators last week when it found a second computer used by Kineavy.
“I fully appreciate and share your desire for communication of developing information,’’ wrote William F. Sinnott, the city’s chief lawyer. “I hope you understand that there was never any attempt to deprive you of any information, to include the discovery of the second computer.’’
Dot Joyce, a spokeswoman for Mayor Thomas M. Menino, declined requests for interviews with Sinnott or other city officials involved in the e-mail search, but said the effort is continuing.
Menino told reporters at a community meeting in Mission Hill last night: “It’s a concern of mine, because it’s the public’s trust. And we’re being as transparent as we can.’’
The document disclosures are the broadest since Galvin’s office ordered the city last month to seize Kineavy’s computer and hire a computer forensics firm to try to retrieve his deleted e-mails.
Galvin’s order followed a report by the Globe, which, after requesting six months worth of Kineavy’s e-mails, reported that he routinely deleted messages in potential violation of state public records law.
The law requires municipal employees to save e-mails for at least two years, even if they have “no informational or evidential value.’’
Since city officials instituted a computer program that keeps copies of every e-mail sent and received by every city employee in August, Kineavy’s e-mail traffic has averaged 614 messages per week, or 15,964 during a six-month period.
Kineavy announced this week that he was taking an unpaid leave from City Hall.
The roughly 5,000 messages posted on the Web yesterday were first released to the media on Sept. 25 and include only messages Kineavy exchanged with other city employees that were saved in their e-mail boxes. They provide a rare glimpse into Menino’s City Hall, where aides keep close tabs on everything from an annual Christmas trolley tour to the jerseys that will bear the mayor’s name in a Charlestown youth football league.
Those e-mails also show senior mayoral aides attempting to shut down potential Menino critics and keep close tabs on neighborhood disputes.
The other 600 messages the city allowed reporters to review yesterday were recovered in a preliminary forensic search of the second computer found last week.
In one e-mail, Daniel A. Grabauskas, who was general manager of the MBTA, checked with Kineavy to make sure he liked the design for a new Charlie Card. “Should we add ‘Thomas M. Menino, Mayor’’ or would you rather the City of Boston seal, etc.?’’ Grabauskas wrote.
In another e-mail, Kineavy was notified by Eileen Fenton, his girlfriend, who works as a lawyer for the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, about proposed toll increases.
“If you live in South Boston, it should be free,’’ wrote Kineavy, who resides in the neighborhood.
Boston’s transportation commissioner, Thomas J. Tinlin, added: “They should pay us to use their stupid tunnels.’’
Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com. 
