四 川 铁 FourRiverIron

I was planning on filing a lawsuit demanding that he remove my name from his junk mail list, but I just keep putting it off.

DiCiccio has become well-known for his e-mail blasts, which reach anywhere from 26,000 to 100,000 addresses.

Source

DiCiccio e-mail probe forwarded

Attorney general to review whether use violated law

by Lynh Bui - Aug. 4, 2011 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

An investigation into the way a Phoenix City Council member used his city e-mail account has been forwarded to the Arizona Attorney General's Office for review, after the city Law Department cited a conflict of interest in the matter.

The Phoenix Law Department has been looking into complaints that District 6 Councilman Sal DiCiccio misused city resources by sending out an electronic newsletter from his district e-mail account that links to a political committee he's been using to fight a possible recall election. The e-mails were sent on June 1.

City code and state law prohibit city employees from using public resources to influence elections.

As a result of the investigation, two employees from DiCiccio's office were found in violation of city administrative regulations and received "supervisory counseling" or a written reprimand. But questions of whether any state laws were violated have been left to the Arizona Attorney General's Office.

The referral to the state attorney general comes just days before Friday's deadline for those seeking to recall DiCiccio to submit the 9,000-plus signatures needed to trigger an election.

DiCiccio said he's happy the complaint is going to an outside, unbiased party.

"This is clearly a witch hunt from city staff because we're uncovering all this nonsense at City Hall," said DiCiccio, who has been vocal about his desire to reform City Hall and privatize as many city services as possible.

DiCiccio's chief of staff, Hal DeKeyser, received a written reprimand from the city for reviewing a draft of the newsletter that was linked to DiCiccio's anti-recall campaign.

The reprimand prohibited DeKeyser from "any involvement in the anti-recall effort or any other political activity." It also said he was not allowed to use his personal laptop to create city documents "to ensure transparency and compliance" with public-records law.

DeKeyser said the city's actions are political and that the reprimand was issued the same day DiCiccio complained about a firefighter involved in political activity.

"This written reprimand is full of uncertain language like 'appeared to originate' and 'apparently linked' that shows the person who produced it isn't sure," DeKeyser said in a response to the city. "This has all the markings of an attempt to neutralize my experience and value and to make Sal less effective."

An aide from DiCiccio's office received "supervisory counseling" for deleting e-mails in violation of the city's requirement that messages be retained for at least 30 days.

When the complaints first arose, DiCiccio said it was a mistake to have his official city e-mail address on the newsletter but that the message was not sent from his office or city computers.

DiCiccio said he has a private company handle his political communications. He has asked the city to review e-mail headers to show that the newsletter wasn't sent from city servers, which, DiCiccio said, the city hasn't done.

DiCiccio expects the city and the Arizona Attorney General's Office to receive countercomplaints soon, asking the entities to review whether city employees who sent e-mails asking the city to investigate DiCiccio's office violated similar laws.

The city received more than 240 complaints asking Phoenix to investigate DiCiccio's newsletter.

DiCiccio has become well-known for his e-mail blasts, which reach anywhere from 26,000 to 100,000 addresses. The messages are often followed by notes of praise from residents who agree, demands to be taken off the mailing lists by those who don't, and counter e-mails from Mayor Phil Gordon disputing DiCiccio's messages.