But unlike Menino chief of staff Michael Kineavy, Mark Ciommo says his problem is he has too much e-mail in his inbox.
Alex Selvig, battling again with Ciommo for the Allston/Brighton district council seat (this time along with Abigail Furey and Ben Narodick) said at a candidate's forum tonight he's made a formal request to Ciommo for all e-mail he's sent to or received from Kineavy. Selvig says he's particularly interested in any communications related to the BRA.
Ciommo said he plans to treat Selvig's request like a formal public-records request and that he will hand over copies of any e-mail. But that will take some time, he said. "I have currently over 8,500 e-mails in my computer. It is an arduous task." He said he's asked his staff to find all the relevant e-mail messages, even though that will take "many hours of staff time, which unfortunately will take my staff away from constituent work."
Selvig then asked if there were any computer engineers in the audience. When a couple of people raised their hands, he asked how long it should take to search 8,500 messages for any mentions of "Kineavy." About 30 seconds, one said.
"I have dozens of folders with files in each folder that need to be reviewed accurately," Ciommo said. "I'm going to be thorough and accurate when responding to a legal question."
Selvig then asked the audience again about how long it should take to search messages in several dozen folders on "Kineavy." About 30 seconds was the reply again.
