So much hope lost…at St. Hope Academy in Sacramento.

The political futures of Mayor Kevin Johnson have been severely damaged by the miscues. It seems like it never ends with KJ; you grow to really like him and then another scandal creeps to the forefront.

So much hope – dashed – in such a short amount of time.  

Today, the Sacramento Bee leads with the story that the Sacramento FBI Division, this time under the immediate direction of US Attorney Lawrence Brown, is opening up another investigation at Mayor Johnson’s St. Hope Academy, following new reports of document tampering during the previous investigation. With Inspector Walpin out of the way, one is left to wonder if these results will be more favorable for St. Hope, and any hope Jonson has for future political office.

The latest round of concern features the man picked to follow Johnson (when Johnson left to be mayor) as the Executive Director at St. Hope. Rick Maya resigned with a 9-page resignation letter released to the media earlier this year. In that letter, now the former Executive Director makes the claim that during the federal investigation by Inspector General Gerald Walpin in 2008, ‘sensitive emails’ were delete by a loyal St. Hope board member.

Upon making the statement in the resignation letter, Maya was then offered a severence pay of nearly $100,000; since that time Maya has had nothing further to say about the ordeal. Kevin Johnson’s spokesperson, Steve Maviglio, has stated that it (the email tamerping alligations) was a simple matter of separating emails for the investigation and that everything was back-up during the process.

Today, Johnson’s hope – as in St. Hope Academy – is being investigated ‘again’ by the FBI, as the city continues to sratch its collective heads surrounding the ordeal. Whenever you think this story is behind the mayor, someone, or something jumps out and adds more time to the game clock, forcing more speculation in the day’s news.

Yesterday, Mayor Johnson made a few comments about the allegations that President Obama fired Inspector General Gerald Walpin on his behalf. Johnson, in a mayoral press conference, said the decision to remove Walpin was “100-percent within the purview of the (Obama) administration. Obviously, I was not consulted in that decision.”

So here is Kevin Johnson, his St. Hope Academy investigation re-opened upon reports of documentation tamering during a federal investigation, and his ‘rising star status’ assumed to be part, or parcel, for the Obama Administration’s termination of an Inspector General. One is left to ask, what has Kevin Johnson gotten himself into? And if it isn’t the mayor himself, who is pulling the strings to save him…and why?

Maybe it’s answered by embracing the fact that Chicago-styled politics have arrived in Sacramento. A president who cut his political teeth in Illinois, along side of numerous gubernatorial scandals and impeachments represented by the latest muscle-game displayed by former Governor Rod Blagojevich. No good deed goes unrewarded; ignore federal laws and you are protected. Expose abuse, misuse, fraud, extortion, and you’ll be silenced quickly.

Is Sacramento the new Chicago?

Some are now stating that with Rick Maya’s resignation and hefty severence package, along with Gerald Walpin’s firing, the players who held any ounce of ethical integrity have been removed from the scene. With Walpin’s loudest critic, US Attorney Lawrence Brown, taking over the re-opened FBI dig at St. Hope, only Johnson loyalists remain. The situation is ripe for a final “clearing” of St. Hope Academy, Mayor Kevin Johnson and Sacramento, a city that is salivating over the Obama stimulus funding.

In addition, on June 22, Michelle Obama’s former chief of staff, Jackie Norris, is expected to join the Corporation for National and Community Services (the committee that ordered the initial investigation of the AmeriCorp funds at St. Hope) as senior adviser. And the newly appointed director of the Corporation is Alan Solomont, a philanthropist and Democrat fundraiser recently appointed by Barack Obama himself. More loyalists in place to help kill the clock on St. Hope Academy and its handling of federal funds.

The only question that remains; is all of this effort for Kevin Johnson, or is it for someone else?

Does Kevin Johnson merit two terminations, and two weak investigations of St. Hope Academy and heavy manueverng by the Obama Administration in Wshington DC?

Is Johnson that valuable for the Obama Administration and the DNC?

Or is there another player who wants the St. Hope Scandal to be resolved?

Is it Kevin Johnson, or is it the stimulus money…it is obviously not about ethics and integrity.