What do the city records show about the alleged bribe in the Sacramento mayor’s race?
Three weeks before allegedly offering a bribe to Sacramento mayoral candidate Flojaune Cofer, California Black Chamber of Commerce President Jay King had a previously undisclosed 90-minute lunch meeting with then-City Manager Howard Chan and developer Paul Petrovich.
During a September phone call, Cofer said she was asked by King to extend Chan’s contract. If she did, she said, King promised that Petrovich would make a substantial campaign contribution.
The Aug. 19, 2024 lunch meeting with King, Chan and Petrovich also occurred prior to Chan and the city manager’s office approving a $10,000 contract to sponsor an October CBCC luncheon where he was given the CBCC’s “President’s Award.” The award was promoted on the city’s website as Chan’s job hung in the balance.
The lunch meeting held at Bennett’s American Cooking on Fair Oaks Boulevard between Chan, King and Petrovich are among several revelations contained in dozens of emails between King and Chan obtained by The Bee through a public records request. The 70 pages of emails along with several dozen documents, many of them proposals for programs to fund, covered the four-year span when the CBCC had 19 contracts with the city and King’s organization was paid $1.2 million dollars.
Among the revelations is that King lobbied the city manager to raise the salary of the person who supervised many of his contracts. A leading ethics expert sharply criticized what they called a “serious ethical lapse.”
Lunch meeting topic is a mystery
City spokeswoman Jennifer Singer said she was unable to provide information about what was discussed at the lunch.
King and Petrovich have responded to the allegations, but Chan has been quiet, only offering a “no comment” through the city.
Shan Wu, a former federal prosecutor who served as counsel to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, called the lunch meeting between the three key principals connected to Cofer’s bribe allegation “a significant data point. “
“As a former white collar prosecutor, if I were investigating this, we would ask all the people at the meeting to be interviewed and I’d spend a lot of time sort of breaking down the meeting.,” he said. “Why did it happen? What was the purpose? What was discussed? You would really want to kind compare, triangulate each person’s testimony against the others.”
During the campaign, Cofer said she had been pressured for months to agree to extend Chan’s contract. King had arranged a lunch to introduce Chan and Cofer at Seasons 52. At the time of the meeting, the city had a $15,000 contract with the CBCC to support a monthly small business mixer. The contract, which included $1,200 per month for “venue rental” at Seasons 52, expired at the end of October. Cofer said that she thought that “Jay just loved the restaurant,” and had no idea about the city contract.
Cofer described the lunch meeting as a “get-to-know-you” lunch. Subsequently, she said she received more pressure from King to agree to extend Chan’s contract, culminating in what she said was the bribe call. Cofer also had a private call with Chan in which he shared his frustration that the City Council had not extended his contract. He received more than $500,000 in total pay in 2023.
Cofer said in an interview Wednesday said she spoke out because the call upset her. “I was disturbed that this kind of thing goes on in our city,” she said. “What happened wasn’t cool. I suspect I’m not the only one this kind of thing has happened to. The mayor, Kevin (McCarty), says something similar happened to him but he hasn’t provided details.”
The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office has not reached out to her.
“It is what it is,” she said. “Bringing transparency to this city is a process. I do think that someone should be asking questions about this beyond The Sacramento Bee.”
King and Chan, a close relationship
The emails obtained through a public records requests also reveal a close relationship between King and Chan. The records show King sought the city manager’s attention on a number of items, from a nightclub that wanted to extend its hours, to pitching the CBCC as an organization that could educate minorities about cannabis production and sales through a partnership with Kolas, the city’s biggest cannabis conglomerate.
The cannabis proposal from King said that KDEE, the non-profit radio station the CBCC owns, would promote the partnership and that “with the power of radio (97.5 KDEE) we will reach targeted demographics and maintain a sustained dialogue in the region through interviews with industry experts and other key constituencies and the deployment of live mentions and prerecorded ads...”
Singer said CBCC’s cannabis proposal did not result in any action.
Although KDEE has a non-profit low-power license with the FCC, the station has had hundreds of thousands of dollars in underwriting, much of it from the Highland Community Charter School which is currently being audited by the California State Auditor. The underwriting announcements are often promotional, resembling ads.
Another November email, obtained by The Bee from another source, came from King to a contract officer at Sacramento’s police department. The email states that King had a conversation with Police Chief Kathy Lester, who agreed to revise a contract with King to pay the CBCC 50% up-front, a $64,000 payment. “On November 1st, I discussed the chamber’s payout with Chief Lester, who agreed to a 50% payout of the grant total. Please update the payment terms,” the email said.
The contract, originally approved last June, calls for King and the chamber to advise other non-profits who contract with the police department about best financial practices. The police department approved the initial contract despite CBCC’s official status with the California Attorney General Registry of Charities, which is “delinquent.” The CBCC has not filed required non-profit taxes since 2022.
Lester received an award from King in 2023 at an annual luncheon the police department sponsored. Lester also was on stage as King received a lifetime award achievement last June at another awards ceremony the city sponsored.
Sgt. Dan Wiseman, police department spokesman, said that the chief isn’t denying the conversation with King or that she agreed to the 50% up front payment. “She is a straight shooter, it happened, and she is not hiding it,” he said.
But Wiseman said that after initially stating the contract was being “reworked,” he said the contract was no longer moving forward. “It’s no longer in play,” he said. “It’s not being executed.” He did not explain what had happened. Lester, Wiseman said, declined to comment further.
King has worked with the Office of Innovation and Economic Development, a division of the city that expanded dramatically under Chan.
The OIED, which promotes ”economic mobility and opportunity for all businesses and residents,” had a budget of $3.4 million in 2019. By 2024 that budget swelled to more than $15 million with 34 positions. The OIED played a role in many of the CBCC’s contracts.
The largest contract the CBCC received was in 2022 for $500,000 to aid minority small businesses during COVID. A review of it shows the money the chamber received was documented appropriately in some instances, and in others many key details were lacking.
Monthly progress reports and financial reports the CBCC provided the city show that Kay Powell, the owner of Speedy Tax Services, provided tax advice for small businesses as part of the program. “It was a good program,” she said in a phone interview. “The people we were helping were behind on their taxes because they didn’t know how to navigate the system. Several of them are still my clients.”
Ethical questions
The relationship between King and the city has been ethically “troubling” according to one ethics expert. John Pelissero, director of government ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, expressed concern about Chan’s involvement in a substantial raise that one city official received.
Records show that in 2022, shortly after the chamber received the $500,000 contract, Lynette Hall, the city’s director of Outreach and Engagement, a department that works as part of OIED, reached out to King to ask him to assist her with a dispute she had about her job classification and salary. Hall was being paid $122,000 at the time.
Singer said that Hall was not available for an interview. Those familiar with Hall’s work underscored that she is talented in the outreach she performs and that her Sacramento roots make her an authentic voice working for the city.
Hall’s principal contention to King was that she had been wronged by the union that represents exempt city employees.
At the same time, Hall played a role in supervising multiple contracts with the CBCC, including a 2021-2022 contract she directly supervised that paid the station $4,000 per month to conduct two 30-minute interviews with city officials, often with Hall, to promote city manager-sponsored initiatives. The city has a similar contract with the CBCC that is active now, which Hall also supervises.
In her email to King, Hall said: “I am reaching out to key leaders in the community for assistance. As you can see from the email below, I have been waiting for the City to right a wrong to no avail with regards to the salary range for the community engagement position.”
In a lengthy 2021 letter to the union, Hall wrote that, among her many accomplishments, she had co-managed with the City Manager’s Information Office “the CARES Act and ARPA funding Marketing and Outreach contract that consisted of promoting programs, services and funding for over 200 million federal dollars.”
She continued: “Even as I fight for the Community Engagement position, I am also fighting for my colleagues and community who also deserve better. I fight for them, but who is fighting for me? Make this make sense!”
Jason Jasmine, an attorney for the Sacramento City Exempt Employees Association, responded to Hall in 2021 that “we take considerable issue with any suggestion that the outcome was motivated or influenced in any way by your sex or race. SCXEA’s leadership is majority female and has strong minority representation. But even if that were not the case, SCXEA would never advocate for or condone any decision that would negatively impact any employee it represents based on sex, race, or any other protected characteristic.”
More than a year later, Hall reached out to King. King forwarded Hall’s account as to why her $122,000 salary was unjustly low to Chan, the one person who could determine a different level of compensation.
“Howard, can we discuss this?”
Chan wrote back: “Yes of course,” adding, “can I share this email chain with my team.”
An ethics regulation in California — Government Code Section 1090 — “prohibits an officer, employee, or agency from participating in making government contracts in which the official or employee within the agency has a financial interest.”
Hall had made contracting decisions about the CBCC. Hall was also also involved in helping to arrange the city’s sponsorship of a June 2024 lifetime achievement award ceremony for King. Documents released Monday show a March email from the CBCC to Hall and Chan suggesting the event could raise funds.
“This honor is bestowed upon him on behalf of the Certifying Organization, the AmeriCorps, Points of Light, the 46th President of the United States, Joseph R. Biden Jr., and Vice President Kamala Harris,” it states. “It is indeed a testament to Jay’s unwavering commitment to making a difference in the lives of others and his exceptional impact on our community and beyond. To make this ceremony a reality, we aim to raise $50,000.”
The award is, in fact, self-certifying, ordered by mail by thousands of organizations every year with no involvement of the White House.
Records show Hall responded:“As you know we are having some challenging fiscal times; however, I will talk with my leadership to determine what we can do. Both Howard and I are big fans of Jay and the Chamber and want to be involved in some capacity.”
Hall followed up that email in May telling King’s executive assistant: “I wanted to follow up on the sponsorship. I haven’t received an invoice yet. Can we talk tomorrow, so we can come up with an amount? I would like to be able to host a table. Also, let me know if you would like Howard to provide any remarks. Definitely think Jay would appreciate having Howard say a few words.”
Hall’s salary is now $166,417, having grown $44,000 since she reached out to King about it. Her total compensation well above $200,000.
City says no conflict exists
Singer said that no conflict of interest had occurred in the salary issue. “Any City Manager has the authority to determine appropriate compensation for their employees,” she said in an email.
Singer said they did not violate section 1090 because the salary adjustment, included in a staff report, was voted on by the City Council. The staff report was one of dozens of items on the consent calendar, meaning it was passed unanimously without debate.
Singer added: The discussion regarding the Community Engagement Manager’s salary had been ongoing since the position was created in the 2019/2020 fiscal year. The Office of Innovation and Economic Development management believed the position was initially improperly salaried and had been working to adjust the salary accordingly. As the role evolved, it grew in scope and prominence, OIED analyzed the position and ultimately determined a salary adjustment was warranted.”
Pelissero said what happened was “unusual and problematic.”
Pelissero faulted both Hall and King for their ethical judgment. He thought Chan exercised poor judgment to engage with the lobbying effort.
“I see an unfair level of advocacy when the city manager allows a contractor with the city to come and make the case for a city employee to get a salary increase,” he said. “That just creates unfairness to other city employees who don’t have the same, let’s say, connections, to people who can get an audience with the city manager.”
This story was originally published March 25, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
CORRECTION: This story was updated to correct the figure for the 2019 budget for the city’s Office of Innovation and Economic Development. The story also was changed to clarify the nature of the contract with the California Black Chamber of Commerce for monthly mixers.
