Amid a flurry of recent headlines revolving around the city’s top administrative executive, Anaheim councilmembers are scheduled to question City Manager Jim Vanderpool Tuesday night, Jan. 27, behind closed doors.
At the City Council’s last meeting, Mayor Ashleigh Aitken asked for an agenda item to question Vanderpool in closed session about news reports that recently emerged saying he attended in 2020 a days-long retreat at Lake Havasu paid for by the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce.
“As we look at the article that was in the LA Times recently regarding our city manager, I do want the council to look at transparency,” Aitken said at the Jan. 13 council meeting. “We would like to meet in closed session and get more information and speak to both our ethics officer and our city attorney.”
“Earning and keeping the public trust is tantamount to both me and, I know, my colleagues on this dais,” she said, “so I would like to have the opportunity to ask questions of our city manager and let this process play out.”
Vanderpool left the Buena Park manager position in 2020 to assume his role in Anaheim.
Just weeks into his new job, Vanderpool attended a September retreat to Lake Havasu; the trip’s guest list included several of the city’s most-influential, including then chamber CEO Todd Ament.
Ament later became a key figure in the 2022 Anaheim corruption scandal, wearing a wire for the FBI that recorded then-Mayor Harry Sidhu saying he hoped to elicit a $1 million campaign contribution for his reelection from the Angels once the sale of Angel Stadium was complete. FBI investigators alleged Ament was a ringleader of a self-described “cabal” of business and political figures exerting influence at City Hall.
Ament pleaded guilty in July 2022 to several counts of fraud in a deal with federal prosecutors, though his attorneys filed a motion in November to withdraw those pleas, arguing he got bad advice from his prior attorney. The hearing for the motion is scheduled for next month.
Ament was cooperating with federal prosecutors’ investigation into Sidhu, who resigned in May 2022 amid news breaking that he was part of an FBI investigation for corruption, partly in connection with the sale of Angel Stadium to a business partnership of Angels owner Arte Moreno, which the council gave initial approval to in late 2019.
Sidhu would later admit to providing confidential information to a consultant working for the Angels, according to his signed plea agreement, so that the Angels could buy the stadium on favorable terms.
Sidhu was not at the Havasu retreat, Vanderpool said in a Dec. 23 email to councilmembers, which was later released to the media. He added that he was invited by Ament, but “did not engage with any subsequent social or business travel with Todd Ament.”
Vanderpool declined to comment, but had the city release emails he sent to councilmembers about the issue.
Just two days before Aitken called for his questioning, Vanderpool sent the council another email, in which he said he and his husband “stayed for two nights” in a mobile home unit shared with then-Chamber Vice President Laura Cunningham and her husband.
“At no time was I aware that the Chamber of Commerce was paying for the unit,” he said.
“A total of $1,900 was paid in rent for the units,” Vanderpool wrote. He estimated that over his two-night stay, the “potential gift” for he and his husband would have been $190.
Vanderpool told councilmembers he did not report the transaction as a gift in his 2020 annual statement of economic interests. “Food and beverage provided by me would have offset any reporting requirement,” he said.
Councilmember Natalie Rubalcava characterized the situation as a “good learning experience.”
“I think that it is probably a good idea for an ethics officer to provide training on behested payments and reporting,” she said in an interview. “I’m not so much concerned about the integrity of our city manager because I feel like he has proven himself through and through.”
Dara Maleki, founder of The Pizza Press, stepped up last year to lead the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce as its interim president and CEO just as the organization was on the cusp of shuttering.
He said he’s focusing on restoring public trust in the chamber. And that begins, with fulfilling an “obligation prior leadership had to disclose to the public” he said about why he shared more information with the media.
“I’ve looked through the prior actions and timeline for the chamber,” he said. “I think this gives a lot more clarity to what was involved, who was involved, and really an ability to close chapters not only for the organization, but for the city at large.”
Angel Stadium
City staff, during a December public strategic planning session, also asked councilmembers if they could potentially begin speaking to state officials about navigating the Surplus Land Act process in regards to the city-owned stadium.
The Surplus Land Act requires priority be given to affordable housing and open space when a local government is selling excess property, including giving affordable developers the first opportunity to negotiate for the land.
The Anaheim City Council approved in 2020 the final details of the $320 stadium property deal, which included plans for 466 apartments for lower-income families, a flagship 7-acre community park, hotels, shops and restaurants, offices and housing.
But the state notified Anaheim officials in 2021 that the planned sale was in violation of the Surplus Land Act. City officials argued the stadium property was exempt. Anaheim later agreed to pay $96 million from the sale’s proceeds toward building affordable homes around the city.
Going forward, before the 150-acre Angel Stadium site could again be put up for sale, the city would need to through the state process.
“So this is a project that requires a lengthy process and we are seeking council’s direction to engage in some preliminary conversations with the state about the Surplus Land Act process and moving forward,” city spokesperson Esther Kwon said following the December meeting.
The results of a city assessment on Angel Stadium’s condition and structural integrity, expected mid-year, will also inform considerations, city officials said. It’s been 25 years since the stadium was last renovated.
Councilmembers gave staff the greenlight to pursue the surplus land discussions with the state. But those conversations haven’t begun, spokesperson Mike Lyster said.
“We are in the early process of evaluating next steps,” he said. “To even get to a negotiation or discussion about the future of the site, we could be a year or more away from that easily.”
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