Public records obtained by the Voice of OC show Anaheim City Councilwoman Natalie Rubalcava used a city spokesman, whose salary is paid by taxpayers, to craft a statement about the end of her employment last year as a State Assemblyman’s district director.
Click here to view the text records between Rubalcava and Anaheim’s City Communications Officer, Mike Lyster.
The coordination between Rubalcava and Lyster is prompting questions on whether it’s ethical to have a public employee to respond on behalf of elected officials regarding inquiries about private matters.
According to Transparent California – a statewide database for public pay and pensions, Lyster made almost a quarter of million dollars in total pay and benefits in 2022.
It comes as Rubalcava will likely face a recall election this year after independent investigators in a corruption probe report accused Rubalcava of misconduct – including violating the city charter by allegedly giving operational direction to city staff instead of the city manager.
[Read: Will a Disney-Backed Anaheim City Councilwoman Face a Recall Election?]
Rubalcava has publicly denied those allegations.
In a statement sent through political consultant Derek Humphrey last Thursday, Rubalcava defended her actions, acknowledging Lyster was involved in crafting the previous statement on her previous employment with state Assemblyman Avelino Valencia, a former Anaheim councilman.
“As the city’s public information officer, he’s available to help any councilmember with press inquiries aside from those that are political in nature,” reads the statement.
In a separate statement last Thursday, Lyster said Rubalcava’s employment situation was part of public interest.
“The communications office provides support to Council members as requested or needed when they are speaking as or referenced as Council members,” he wrote in an email.
“Council member biographies and other information we share routinely touch on their employment, family and community involvement. All of this is done to share information of public interest.”
Lyster said when Voice of OC referred to Rubalcava as a councilwoman in their inquiry that opened the door to use the city’s public information office.
“That is clearly demonstrated by your message, ‘Hello Councilwoman Rubalcava,’ the resulting post headline, ‘Anaheim City Councilwoman Natalie Rubalcava …,’ the photo of the Council member on the dias, the lead paragraph ‘Anaheim City Councilwoman Natalie Rubalcava is no longer …’ and several additional references to the Council member in her official capacity throughout the post,” he wrote about the story that was published the day after he answered Voice of OC’s questions on Rubalcava’s employment.
Jodi Balma, a political science professor at Fullerton College, said that city staff should not be doing personal favors for city council members for their outside employment.
“That’s a conflict of interest, because the council in essence employs the (Public Information officer) so it puts the public administrator – Lyster in this case – in a really awkward position,” she said in a Friday interview.
Balma said the city manager should set those boundaries and it raises questions on how much council members are directing staff.
“Ideally, you don’t want all of the individual council members to be giving tasks to your city staff. The staff works for the city,” she said.
Former City Councilman Jose Moreno said in a phone interview last week that elected officials should not use the city’s public information officer to craft statements on private business and called Rubalcava’s actions “highly inappropriate.”
“For tax dollars to go to help a council member prepare a statement for her own private employment decisions serves as more of a promotional campaign tool,” he said.
“The (public information) office should not be a part of that and if the councilwoman wanted to put a statement through her office, then that should’ve been done through her office with her staff she funded.”
Moreno said all requests from council members to staff – including the city spokesperson – should go through the city manager.
“It looks like Natalie Rubalcava once again violated the city charter by directing the (public information officer) to do something without going through the city manager,” he said.
Rubalcava and Lyster did not answer if the city manager gave approval for Lyster to work with the councilwoman on her statement.
Public records received by Voice of OC don’t show the city manager involved in the communications.
Balma questions if this type of behavior is part of the culture left behind by previous administrations and said former Mayor Harry Sidhu – who is prominent in the corruption scandal in Anaheim – had an expectation that city staff worked for him.
“It seems those lines have been blurred for a while now,” she said.
Sidhu pleaded guilty last year to a series of federal charges, including obstruction of justice for lying to investigators about trying to ram through the Angel Stadium deal for $1 million in campaign backing.
Using Public Dollars to Address a Private Issue
Voice of OC reached out to Rubalcava on Dec. 14 asking if she was still employed as State Assemblyman Avelino Valencia’s district director – months after an independent investigator alleged misconduct by the councilwoman in a 353-page corruption probe report.
About five hours later, Voice of OC received an email from City Spokesman Mike Lyster on behalf of Rubalcava with a statement that said the councilwoman no longer works for Valencia.
[Read: Anaheim City Councilwoman Natalie Rubalcava Quietly Out as State Assemblyman’s District Director]
The records show Rubalcava forwarded Lyster the text message request for comment from Voice of OC just a couple minutes after the reporter reached out to her.
Lyster responded to Rubalcava’s text saying “I can call you shortly.”
“No worries about calling me back today. I forgot about the visit anaheim event. I’m not responding. I don’t care what anyone thinks they know!” Rubalcava wrote back.
Visit Anaheim is also wrapped up in the corruption scandal, with investigators alleging officials there improperly diverted COVID bailout money – an allegation the state auditor’s office is examining.
The next message was redacted from the text records released, but the following message shows Lyster responding to Rubalcava with the exact same statement that he sent over to the Voice of OC.
“I love how neutral it is,” Rubalcava texted Lyster about the statement he crafted for her.
Lyster sent over the statement he wrote to Voice of OC at around 8 p.m. that night.
A Potential Recall & A Corruption Scandal
The records come months after investigators alleged that a chamber of commerce-created resident advisory group, Anaheim First, is a political data mining operation that among other things helped get Rubalcava elected.
They said the group gave her a list of names and contact information taken down when the group was conducting its community outreach meetings.
[Read: Was an Anaheim City Hall-Funded Nonprofit Used as a Political Data Mining Operation?]
Rubalcava publicly pushed back on those findings in August and called on residents to resist rushed reactions to the findings of the report.
That same month, efforts to recall the councilwoman kicked off and this month proponents of the recall sponsored by Unite Here Local 11, a labor union representing hotel workers, said they submitted over 9,000 signatures on a petition to recall Rubalcava from office.
That’s nearly twice the amount of signatures needed to force a recall election and also about double the amount of votes that got Rubalcava elected in 2022.
Rubalcava wasn’t the only one named in the corruption report last year.
Lyster was too.
In their report, investigators say Lyster failed to turn over public records on his private cell phone for them to review.
[Read: Anaheim’s Chief Spokesman is Detailed in the Corruption Scandal; Now What?]
Given that lack of ability to track public business on staff cell phones, last Fall, Anaheim City Council members directed staff to require the use of government phones to conduct city business.
It is unclear if Lyster used his personal cell phone to respond to Rubalcava but he did release text records when requested through a public records request from Voice of OC.
Lyster refers press inquiries from the Voice of OC to his city email.
A Christmas Card For Constituents
The records obtained by Voice of OC also show Rubalcava asking Lyster about having her photo taken at city hall for a Christmas card to send to constituents.
“Let me know if there is a conflict with that,” Rubalcava texted Lyster.
“No issue at all. Just let us know when,” Lyster responded, adding he’ll check with the city attorney as well.
“We are doing very similar end of year type of things for other council members.”
Lyster said the request for the photo was vetted by the city attorney’s office.
“The request was vetted through usual checks and balances with the city attorney’s office,” he wrote. “Given it could be mailed out, there was no staff participation and any suggestion otherwise is incorrect.”
It’s unclear if other council members got help with Christmas cards or other “end of the year type things” from Lyster.
Rubalcava said in her Thursday statement her holiday card was produced by a political consultant and paid for by campaign money.
“Mike did not have a role in any of that.”
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.
•••
Can you support Voice of OC with a donation?
You obviously care about local news and value good journalism here in Orange County. With your support, we can bring you more stories like these.