Menino Staff Computers Being Seized to find Deleted Emails

We could see it coming. The Secretary of State has ordered the seizure of city computers due to suspicion that Menino aide Michael Kineavy has been deleting emails in violation of public records law. The state has ordered the city to attempt to recover the emails. The administration was able to locate just 18 e-mails to or from Kineavy in the period from Oct. 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009. Considering we get that many emails an hour, something seems sketchy.

In an interesting twist in the scandal, Kineavy was apparently the main contact for Dianne Wilkerson in her liquor license scandal that broke last fall, meaning that many related emails (which were subpoenaed in the Wilkerson investigation) may be missing.

Menino's office is currently cooperating with the investigation, calling any deletion "an honest mistake," but Kineavy's lawyer also said that his client has been routinely deleting emails for the past five years. This shows either major ignorance or major defiance of the records law—or an obsession with both physical and digital cleanliness (a spokesperson notes Kineavy "cleans his desk every night with Windex").

All of this comes at an amazingly convenient time for Menino's opponents (who have turned over emails they've exchanged with Kineavy) in the mayoral preliminary election on September 22. Will it help or hurt the Menino machine? Is this going to change your vote?