With Anaheim’s mayor seat now open and the deal to sell Angel Stadium dead amid allegations of corruption, some public officials and activists are hoping to seize the moment to push for lasting changes in what they’ve considered to be a “company town” essentially run by big business interests.
Mayor Harry Sidhu resigned Tuesday, about a week after an FBI investigation targeting him came to light. Also fresh is the arrest of former Anaheim Chamber of Commerce CEO Todd Ament, charged with mortgage fraud.
Allegations made in documents from the investigations of the two men – Sidhu has not been charged with a crime – paint a picture of a mayor hoping to use his position to get a deal to sell the stadium and reap campaign contributions and a city run by a self-described “cabal” of influential business and political figures who steered decisions at City Hall, in part by pouring money into local elections.
Anaheim Councilman Jose Moreno is taking the opening to revive a campaign finance reform package that was squelched in 2019, and state legislators for Orange County are considering bills to address some of the alleged abuses of power now playing out in the city.
Moreno said his proposal has three parts: prospective candidates for mayor or City Council wouldn’t be able to form campaign finance committees – a necessary step to start raising money – until a year before the election; elected city officials wouldn’t be able to vote on contracts or projects that would benefit someone who donated to the official or to a political action committee that supported them; and the window for fundraising to pay off campaign debt would be six months after the election – there’s currently no cutoff.
“Everything’s about regulating the behavior of the council member or the mayor,” Moreno said. “Just know that if you have business with the city, you’re not buying them.”
He has also called for an audit of any contributors to Sidhu’s campaign that have current contracts with the city; City Manager James Vanderpool told the council Tuesday that review is underway.
State Sen. Tom Umberg said Friday that he’s working with Assemblyman Tom Daly on a bill to clarify that a city council or other government body can void a contract if its negotiator acted outside the scope of their authority.
For example, if a lawyer is working out a deal and “telling the other side, ‘Oh by the way, I know my client’s offering a million and I know we could really go to $2 million,’ and we strike a deal for $2 million,” the client could object that the lawyer wasn’t authorized to give that information, Umberg said.
He thinks the ability to void a contract in those circumstances is in existing law, but the new bill “will make it crystal clear,” he said.
In court documents, FBI investigators allege that while the city was negotiating to sell Angel Stadium to Angels owner Arte Moreno’s company, SRB Management, Sidhu sought to pass along confidential information, including the city’s appraisal. The Anaheim City Council voted on Tuesday to void the sale.
Anaheim resident Carlos Leon, who plans to run for City Council in November, told the council on Tuesday they should consider revising the city charter. In a phone interview, he said that could take the form of an independent ethics commission to watch over the council, or the city could switch from a city attorney who’s hired by the council to one elected by voters, which might make them more responsive to the community.
“It’s gone on for far too long that folks on the City Council are able to do business without really being accountable to the residents,” Leon said.
Political experts said if Anaheim residents are embarrassed or unhappy with how their city is being run, they should channel that into action, and soon.
“About the only time you see successful reform efforts is when you have a scandal like this,” said Bob Stern, who helped write the 1974 law that created California’s Fair Political Practices Commission. “This is the time to act.”
A major complaint of local activists is the big money in Anaheim elections, and that much of it comes from the city’s biggest employer, Disney. A 2021 campaign finance report from the Support Our Anaheim Resort political action committee showed Disney gave the PAC $1.3 million last year; that money typically goes to support candidates for council and mayor.
Councilman Moreno on Tuesday implored big campaign contributors to stop pumping money into the city’s elections. Community activist Jeanine Robbins said Friday that with the spotlight on the city, “perhaps under pressure, the corporations in Anaheim will stop donating to the candidates’ campaigns, and for the first time we’ll have a council that will truly represent the people.”
SOAR PAC Executive Director Jill Kanzler couldn’t be reached for comment Friday. A Disney spokesperson did not have an immediate comment.
Chapman University political science professor Fred Smoller predicted angry Anaheim voters may throw out incumbents this fall, but he doesn’t expect a sea change in local politics.
“When you have these two factors of politicians who need money and corporate interests who want to give money, they’ll find each other,” he said.
Still, some small changes have already come about. Running Tuesday’s council meeting, Mayor Pro Tem Trevor O’Neil said he’d do away with a Sidhu rule that council members need agreement from two colleagues to place an item on the agenda, and he lifted a time limit on council members’ comments and questions.
“I think it’s great,” Moreno said Friday of the rule changes. With the “cabal” seemingly losing its alleged influence over council members, “left to their own devices, I actually do think that there are opportunities to build that trust” with the community, he said.
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