Mayoral aide quietly returns to City Hall job

The aide, Michael J. Kineavy, remains under investigation, according to the office of Attorney General Martha Coakley. Kineavy appeared without announcement at City Hall yesterday, and city officials confirmed, in response to an inquiry from the Globe, that he was back on the job.

“The City of Boston consulted with the attorney general’s office for several days to ensure that Mr. Kineavy’s return would not interfere with or negatively affect its investigation into the loss of e-mails from Mr. Kineavy’s City of Boston account,’’ the city’s chief lawyer, Corporation Counsel William Sinnott, said in a prepared statement.

The mayor was hospitalized and recovering from knee surgery yesterday and so was unavailable for comment. In an interview last week, he said of Kineavy, “I’d love to have him back,’’ but added: “Before he goes back, I don’t want him to become a center point for anything that pertains to that. I want to make sure he has a clean bill of health.’’

Kineavy is the mayor’s chief of policy and planning. He is the mayor’s primary lieutenant, and a review of some of his e-mails shows that he also has used his influence to land jobs for people outside City Hall, to intervene in labor disputes and permit issues, to keep close tabs on critics of the mayor, and to thwart actions by neighborhood groups or the City Council that he believed would undercut Menino.

Kineavy has spent the last month, while on a voluntary unpaid leave, working as a strategist for Menino’s reelection campaign. The mayor easily won reelection last week.

Kineavy is under investigation after a Globe request for copies of his e-mails led to the disclosure that Kineavy had been double-deleting the e-mail on his office computer every day. A state law requires municipal employees to save e-mails for at least two years, even if they are of “no informational or evidential value.’’

On Oct. 6, Kineavy announced he was taking a leave of absence when the Globe reported that he had his computer replaced just days after receiving the public records request. Kineavy said he did not remember getting a new computer.

“I’ve become a distraction, and that isn’t good for the mayor or the city, so until this straightens out, I won’t be a part of city government,’’ he said in an interview at the time.

The deletions were investigated first by Secretary of State William F. Galvin, who found that Kineavy had improperly deleted e-mails and turned the case over to Coakley for further investigation and possible prosecution.

Coakley’s office said yesterday that the investigation is ongoing and that no conclusions have been reached.

Menino’s reelection challengers said they were not surprised that Menino welcomed Kineavy back as soon as the election was over.

“Obviously, he’s back at City Hall to do what he’s always done, which is run the mayor’s political operation,’’ Councilor at Large Sam Yoon said yesterday.

Yoon and another challenger, Councilor at Large Michael F. Flaherty Jr., had said when Kineavy first went on leave that it was a ploy to divert attention from his role in the Menino administration and that as soon as the election was over, Kineavy would be back at City Hall.

Another challenger, South End businessman Kevin McCrea, called Kineavy’s return “politics as usual at City Hall.’’

“I’m shocked to find out that a politician in Boston promised one thing and then did another,’’ McCrea quipped.