Garcetti: Using city email to send Clinton endorsement was “a mistake”

Mayor Eric Garcetti, members of the Los Angeles City Council and general managers from various city departments gathered at the Emergency Operations Center just east of downtown Friday to talk to reporters about the importance of preparing for the upcoming winter storms. But when it came time for questions, the first question had nothing to do with floods or mudslides.

One day after the embarrassing roll out of the mayor’s endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, reporters wanted to know: “What does it say about the competency of your staff?”

The mayor’s endorsement was initially sent from a city of Los Angeles email account. The release included links to the Mayor’s Office social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and listed the Mayor’s Communications Office as a contact for further questions. An hour later, a second email was sent to reporters that read “Today’s statement on Hillary Clinton was sent in error.”

“It was a mistake. It was completely righted,” Garcetti said Friday. “The email was rescinded, though the endorsement was not and I’m very proud to have endorsed Hillary Clinton.”

“I think everybody has pressed the send button by mistake before,” the mayor said.

The problem was that city resources cannot be used for political purposes. A press release was sent out to reporters from the mayor’s political consultant, Bill Carrick.

“It was supposed to go out from me, and someone in the [mayor’s] office inadvertently sent it out from the — I don’t really know what the explanation is,” Carrick told The Times on Thursday. “They obviously know that was a no-no, so somebody decided to send out a thing saying it was an error.”

Though the mayor declined to specify what actions his office had taken to prevent a similar mishap in the future, Garcetti acknowledged he and his staff appeared to have learned a lesson.

“Just to make sure you know that you send everything out that has to do with non-city business from a non-city email address,” he said.

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