Anaheim officials are beginning to implement a host of reforms in the wake of one of the largest public corruption scandals to rock Orange County.
The changes come after FBI agents in sworn affidavits and independent investigators in a 353-page scathing corruption report alleged Disneyland resort interests and lobbyists exert mammoth influence on city policy making.
In their report released in July, independent investigators with decades of law enforcement experience painted a picture of loose oversight on lobbyists, developer favoritism, influence peddling by Disneyland Resort interests through the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce and a disregard for California’s open meeting and public record laws.
Their findings led Mayor Ashleigh Aitken and City Councilwoman Natalie Rubalcava – who is likely to face a recall election this year – to call for a series of reform proposals to be developed and debated last fall.
It also inspired officials in other cities in the region to look at making changes of their own – reaching as far as San Diego.
[Read: Is Anaheim’s Corruption Scandal a Conduit For Reforms Across Southern California]
Anaheim officials are also expected to discuss more reforms after a California State Auditor’s report last month alleged the city poorly oversaw the use of public tourism dollars and the chamber of commerce spent some of that money to improperly lobby elected officials.
Anaheim officials say they will follow the auditors recommendations for reforms this year and intend to bolster the oversight of those funds and review certain contracts given to the chamber.
Campaign Finance Reforms Expected in Anaheim
Earlier this week, city council members voted unanimously to require candidates to repay their debt within a year from the election as well as limit personal campaign loans to $100,000 per election.
[Read: Anaheim Officials Change How Political Candidates Fundraise in Wake of Corruption Scandal]
The change still needs another vote by council members to be finalized and will go into effect 30 days after the final vote.
Disney Has to Register Lobbyists
One of the biggest reforms Anaheim officials have made in the fallout of the corruption scandal is changing their lobbyist registration ordinance to include in-house lobbyists to register with the city.
The change means employees like Disney’s Director of External Affairs Carrie Nocella will have to for the first time ever register with the city as a lobbyist.
Nocella is currently registered on the city’s website as a lobbyist.
Anaheim City Council members in December finalized changes to their lobbyist ordinance that also included an annual audit of at least 20% of the lobbying activity in the city.
It also bans former lobbyists from working as council aides within a year after working as a lobbyist.
To view the lobbyist ordinance, click here.
[Read: Disney’s Representative Could Soon be Considered a Lobbyist at Anaheim City Hall]
Anaheim Officials Have to Use Government Phones
In response to the independent corruption investigation findings last year, city council members and top city officials will be required to use government phones to conduct public business.
[Read: Anaheim Tightens Electronic Device Policy After Probe Finds Disregard for Records Law]
They are also requiring city council members, top officials and aids to retain emails for two years as opposed to 90 days.
City council members unanimously finalized those changes in January.
It came after independent investigators alleged they could not access city spokesman Mike Lyster’s cell phone records because he used a private phone for city business.
Who Will Be Anaheim’s Ethics Officer?
Anaheim is expected to hire an ethics officer in the city attorney’s office to oversee expected campaign finance changes, adherence to the state’s chief government open meeting law, lobbyist laws and public records requests.
The ethics officer will also be responsible for developing an ethics training and program for officials.
[Read: Anaheim Considers an Ethics Officer in Fallout of City Hall Corruption Scandal]
While city council members unanimously finalized the creation of the position in January, no one has been hired to fill the role yet.
City Attorney Rob Fabela will be in charge of hiring the ethics officer.
At the Jan. 23 city council meeting, Fabela said he expects to do a first round of interviews within 30 days and hire an attorney within 60 to 90 days to serve in the role.
City spokesman Mike Lyster said in a Tuesday email that the city has to put out a request for a recruiting firm and that the interview process won’t take place publicly.
“We will follow best recruiting practices, including respecting the privacy of working applicants. We would expect to see candidates apply who hold current positions, and their employers may not know that they are applying. Holding interviews in public would impact candidates and create concerns for them in their current positions,” he wrote.
It is expected to cost the city about $350,000 a year to create the position and the ethics officer is expected to have a salary range of $156,264 to $234,396, according to a city staff report.
Anaheim Officials Start Posting Their Meeting Calendars
Among a host of proposed reforms brought forth by Aitken and Rubalcava last fall was a proposal to have city officials post their calendars online – listing meetings with lobbyists, developers, union representatives as well as residents.
[Read: Anaheim Officials to Publicly Post Online Who They Meet With]
The change started on Wednesday when elected officials posted their meeting calendars from January of this year. The calendars can be found on each city council member’s biography on the city website.
Councilmembers Jose Diaz and Natalie Meeks only posted one meeting each in their calendar for January.
Councilman Carlos Leon met with Disney President Ken Potrock, Disney Consultant Joe Haupt and Kara Lee Darnell – who is registered with the city as a lobbyist for Disney about the Disneyland Forward project on January 18.
He also met with former Mayor Tom Tait on Jan. 31 to also discuss the Disney theme park expansion project.
Aitken attended a 2028 Olympic meeting at the convention center on Jan. 30. City staff, Visit Anaheim staff members and Disney lobbyists like Nocella and Darnell were also in attendance.
Last year, Aitken was the only one to post a summary of who she was meeting with on the city website – a change she highlighted in her 2023 state of the city address.
Her 2023 updates went until October – the same month she lists a lunch with Laura Cunningham, the CEO of the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce which is at the center of a scathing state audit that says the nonprofit improperly lobbied people using tourism dollars.
The mayor’s 2023 calendar didn’t list any meetings with Angel President John Carpino despite public record requests by the Voice of OC and the Anaheim Investigator blog that show text messages between the two planning meetings in 2023.
When asked last year if she reported a planned meeting with Carpino on her public calendar, Aitken said the meeting was disclosed in a public records request.
Anaheim Makes it Easier to Review Ticket Disclosures
City officials also implemented a system so the public could better track who is getting free tickets to concerts, hockey and baseball games at city owned venues like the convention center, Honda Center and Angel Stadium from elected officials.
Lyster said the change was instituted in December.
Officials promised the change after Voice of OC published an investigative series last summer that found Anaheim loosely tracks who gets the free tickets and that most tickets were going to city staff and a mixture of the city council’s friends and political allies.
A month after the series ran, independent investigators concluded that city officials failed to oversee where hundreds of free tickets go each year and there is no penalty for anyone who breaks Anaheim’s ticket policy.
To view the city’s new ticket disclosure database, click here.
The city’s new database is very similar to the one created by the Voice of OC last summer.
Editor’s note: Ashleigh Aitken’s father, Wylie Aitken, chairs Voice of OC’s board of directors.
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.
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