The Alameda County District Attorney’s office has been asked to review hundreds of e-mails that Mayor Jennifer Hosterman exchanged on the city’s e-mail system over the last 12 months with others, including recent messages soliciting campaign funds and endorsements in possible violation of state law.
The Pleasanton Weekly obtained e-mails sent and received by Hosterman under the state’s Public Records Act, which, like the federal Freedom of Information Act, makes written and e-mail communications on government-run systems available for public inspection.
Although most of the e-mails dealt with routine city issues, such as the City Council agenda and traffic issues, Hosterman’s rapid-fire responses occasionally drifted to election issues. In one, she thanks Charles Clark of Creekside Properties for a $1,000 contribution to her current re-election campaign:
“Jeeees, Charles, I’m overwhelmed,” Hosterman wrote on Oct. 5. “Should I come by and pick it (the check) up? Either that, or you could send it to my campaign address.”
Another e-mail went to Union City Mayor Mark Green at his own city’s e-mail address of markg@unioncity.org:
Hi Mark!” Hosterman wrote. “I’m getting beat up. Can I use your name as an endorsement for my campaign for re-election to Mayor of Pleasanton?”
Other e-mails also discuss her languishing and cash-short campaign against better financed Councilman Steve Brozosky, whose contributions are outpacing Hosterman’s by more than 3 to 1. She noted in one of her e-mails that he has picked up endorsements from three of the five Tri-Valley mayors, including Karen Stepper of Danville, H. Abram Wilson of San Ramon and Marshall Kamena of Livermore, as well as Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty. She told Green that endorsement was because Brozosky keeps lambs and pigs raised by Haggerty’s children on his Vineyard Avenue ranch.
The e-mails surfaced as a result of a query by Dan Carl, who is treasurer of Steve Brozosky’s campaign team. Carl said that he initially sought the Hosterman e-mails because of “some very nasty, foul-worded responses” in e-mails he had received from Hosterman.
“This was not about the (Brozosky) campaign but about me being very upset personally with the mayor,” he said. “This is something that I am doing. I’ll have to think about how I will use this information. Personally, it’s an integrity and character issue as far as I’m concerned with the mayor.”
Once he read some of the e-mails, Carl sent them to City Manager Nelson Fialho, City Attorney Michael Roush and members of the City Council. He said he thought the e-mails violated California State Government Code 8314. That law states that government e-mails cannot be used for political campaigning.
“There is no doubt that Mayor Hosterman was repeatedly campaigning from her city e-mail system, even after she was warned by city staff to stop such activity this summer,” Carl said.
“The number of instances where the mayor was found to be using city e-mail for campaign purposes (legally equivalent to using city letterhead and city equipment for campaign purposes) was in excess of 30-40 different events on many different dates,” he added.
Roush, in consultation with Fialho, said they have forwarded the year’s worth of e-mails to Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff’s office for review.
Deputy District Attorney Trevor White said that although he has yet to receive the material, his office deals with city election legal questions and will analyze the materials.
“This will be a review to see what’s in the e-mails and how the content relates to the state law,” White said. “Even though some in the media say this is an investigation, let me emphasize that I am not conducting an investigation. It’s a review of the material, a review only.”
White added that he couldn’t commit to a time when his review would be concluded. As of Wednesday, more than a week after Carl sent his request to Roush for a legal opinion, the district attorney’s office still did not have the material.
Penalties for violations of State Code 8314 can amount to $1,000 a day for each day on which a violation occurs.
Hosterman said she stopped using the city e-mail system for any personal use as soon as the violation was pointed out.
“I’ve apologized,” she said. “I made a mistake. I’m human and I will make darn sure it doesn’t happen again.”
She said the publicity about her e-mails has had a negative impact on both her campaign and Brozosky’s, and on the municipal election itself.
“I think it’s unfortunate,” she said. “I think Pleasanton deserves better.”
She also has asked Fialho and Roush to make sure others don’t face the same consequences by inadvertently responding to e-mail messages with comments that stray from official city business. She also is passing along to them one call from a constituent who asked if candidates and their campaign teams will be able to use their laptops for election purposes once the city sets up its municipally-owner and operated Wi-Fi system downtown later this year.
Besides e-mails asking for cash contributions and endorsements, Hosterman’s messages also disclosed her future agenda if re-elected. For one, she plans to intensify her efforts to gain council approval to advance more global issues, including setting up a study group to formulate city policy on climate change, as suggested by writer Dan Sapone.
“I am most interested in formulating a new Commission on Energy and the Environment,” Hosterman replied. “I don’t yet have support from my council. Apparently, ‘we don’t want to look like Berkeley,’ so that’s the mentality I’m dealing with from some fellow council members.
Hosterman also wrote that she is supporting Jerry McNerney for Congress over U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo (R-11th).
“But if he doesn’t (win), I have had discussion with Nancy Pelosi…If Jerry doesn’t beat Richard, I plan to seriously consider running against Mr. P in ’08.”
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