Harlem Councilwoman Faces Criticism Over Government Email Containing Campaign Information

Harlem Councilwoman Kristin Richardson Jordan could be in trouble for using public resources to send out a mailing listing her campaign website.

The city council-sealed mailing list offers a rundown of Richardson Jordan’s legislative accomplishments, but also includes a link to her political website, as well as typographical and spelling errors.

“This should not have happened and an individual council member’s newsletter should never have been associated with a political campaign,” a city council spokesman said. “The Council is investigating how this happened and will act quickly to address this issue while taking even stronger precautions to prevent anything like this from happening again in the future.”

According to Council sources, Richardson Jordan provided content and design for the newsletter. Council staff then printed and mailed it.

The Richardson Jordan campaign website, which is featured in the top left corner of the mailing list, contains links to “campaign coverage”, “endorsement” and “volunteering”.

The mailer also contains several bugs. Under the heading ‘Community Engagement’, the mailing list states that ‘Our team is also involved in [sic] founding affairs” and “Our office has [sic] also worked tirelessly…”

While the taunts of the grammar police probably won’t make much of a difference to Richardson Jordan’s future, the potential breach of ethics could pose problems given the main challenges she faces from Assemblyman Ines Dickens, Assemblyman Al Taylor, and Yousef Salam, who is misguided sent to jail and later cleared in the case of Central Park 5.

“Using city resources to promote your campaign is a violation,” said Richard Briffo, former chairman of the city’s Conflicts of Interest Council. “City resources should be used for city purposes, and re-election is not a city goal.”

Richardson Jordan did not immediately respond to questions from the Daily News.