Anaheim’s elected officials continue a slow rollout of reform proposals, but it’s still unclear how many overhauls will be made to a city hall hit with one of the biggest corruption scandals in Orange County History.
Corruption probes in Anaheim are triggering tough ethics discussions across OC and Southern California. Will reform follow?
It comes as some Disney-backed city council members question if reforms are needed – like bolstering whistleblower protections, consequences for misconduct by elected officials, decreasing the city manager’s purchasing power and overhauling lobbyist rules.
The discussions come months after independent investigators, with decades of law enforcement experience, alleged in a 353-page report that city hall was essentially controlled by lobbyists and Disneyland resort interests.
[Read: Will Mickey Mouse Continue to Cast a Big Shadow Over Anaheim’s Election Campaigns?]
It’s the same conclusion federal agents reached in sworn FBI affidavits last year.
Some of the findings in Anaheim’s own probe were echoed in former Mayor Harry Sidhu’s guilty public corruption plea last month.
On Tuesday, city council members – a majority of whom are backed by resort interests – voted 5-2 to continue a discussion on changing their definition of what a lobbyist is to include in-house lobbyists at businesses and establish an annual audit process for the city’s lobbyist registration.
The change could mean people like Carrie Nocella, Disneyland’s...
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