Advertisement 14 mayors threaten to sue Sacramento mayor, city Mayors: Kevin Johnson used city resources to shutdown national organization Share Shares Copy Link Copy

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson’s use of city staff and city resources to do the business of a national mayors’ organization is at the heart of a new dispute that may lead to a lawsuit against the city. An attorney representing 14 mayors who were members of the now-defunct National Conference of Black Mayors sent the city a notice, saying they intend to file a claim.Johnson served as president of NCBM in 2013 and 2014. The group of mayors claims Johnson took a lead role in NCBM only to shut it down and form a new organization. Their attorney, Kenneth Muhammad, told KCRA 3 Thursday that he and the mayors only recently obtained documents showing that an ultimate shutdown of the organization was Johnson’s longstanding plan.What’s more, Muhammad accuses Johnson, his staff and volunteers of defamation, saying they lied to the news media about the group’s executive director, Vanessa Williams.“Many of these are personally, you know, him going out of the way to call people, talk to people, go on news outlets,” Muhammad said. “The city's staff issued press releases about it, all calling her a thief and calling the leadership incompetent."Muhammad’s notice, which was sent to the city Wednesday, names volunteers and city staff, including Johnson’s spokesperson, Ben Sosenko.“We have documentation showing it was city of Sacramento staff carrying out plans on city of Sacramento letterhead, inside of city of Sacramento offices, under the direction of the city’s mayor,” Muhammad said.The city of Sacramento released thousands of emails last summer detailing Johnson’s takeover of the organization and his use of city resources to do work related to NCBM. The emails were released after KCRA 3 and other media organizations filed a public records request.Sosenko said Thursday that the city attorney has advised that neither he nor Johnson comment on the matter.Another mayor, Johnny Ford of Tuskegee, Alabama, told KCRA 3 that Johnson did nothing wrong as president of NCBM. The organization had been struggling financially and several of its members were under investigation before Johnson took over as its president.But, whether or not Johnson was right in the way he led the group may not matter from the standpoint of Sacramento taxpayers who would have to pay the city’s potential legal bill."I think what we're going to face is we're going to have some legacy costs with this mayor that are going to last beyond his term,” said Craig Powell, president of Eye on Sacramento, a local watchdog group. "For the city to argue, ‘Well, we're not responsible because he was just acting in his individual capacity,’ I don't think they're going to have much success in making that argument, giving how overwhelming the physical evidence is."The organization of mayors had a long and storied history of about 40 years when it disbanded. Johnson then formed a new group, the African American Mayors’ Association.Once Muhammad files a claim, the city will have 45 days to respond.