What do you make of this? It looks like at least one City employee worked in the mayor’s office and on his re-election campaign simultaneously–drawing paychecks from the City and from the campaign at the same time.
Jennifer Berbower was a paid intern in Mayor Kevin Johnson’s office from May 4, 2009 to January 19, 2012. See the document below, which I got from the city.
Problem is, she was also a paid staff member on Kevin Johnson’s re-election campaign, at the same time she was drawing a city paycheck. See the next document, from the City clerk’s elections website. This is the record of campaign contributions for the re-election campaign from July to December of last year.
Then there’s Berbower’s resume on Linked in. This contradicts the City info somewhat. Here she says she left the City in November. But she still lists her campaign gig as starting in September. So all these documents point to at least some overlap.
I contacted the City Manager’s office about this last week asking for some explanation. No response yet. It seems like double-dipping and getting a paycheck from the City and the campaign at the same time ought to be illegal. And it’s another example of how the Mayor’s office tends to blend the public and private spheres, blurring the line between City business and the KJ’s political operation. Isaac and I talk more about this later in the week, in a special bonus podcast.
There’s probably some perfectly complicated explanation about why these documents don’t show what they seem to show and that everything is on the up and up. If not, I’m sure the Mayor’s office will have no trouble reimbursing the money.