The Anaheim Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections and Community Involvement meets again this Thursday, March 14 at 6:30 p.m. at the Anaheim Central Library, 500 West Broadway. On the agenda: an overview of the cost of Anaheim elections and the size of the city council, plus a staff update on the ACLU lawsuit against city.
If past CAC meetings are any guide, Orange County Labor Federation Political Director Julio Perez will be there as part of the ongoing union effort to drives bodies to the meetings to call for single-member districts during public comments, in order to create the impression of overwhelming public support for this scheme.
Readers may remember Perez, a liberal Democrat, was the union candidate in last year’s 69th Assembly District primary. At his campaign kick-off, Perez said, “There’s not less money in the economy, there’s just less money in government coffers.” Jeepers.
Perez and other union staffers want Anaheim carved up into single-member council districts because it would make it easier to elect liberal and union-supported candidates to the Anaheim City Council, where they can push for left-wing policies like the “living wage” and a gate-tax and oppose any efforts to outsource city services to private sector providers.
Chairing the Citizens Advisory Committee will be Vivian Pham, a political supporter of Julio Perez. Last year, Pham (who was appointed to the CAC by Mayor Tom Tait) contributed $100 to Perez’s Assembly campaign:
In a Voice of OC article last week, Pham expressed her desire to just get down to council districts:
“I feel that the presentations we have had are more fluff. I feel like they’re distracting us from the real issue of districting,” Pham said. “We can’t make an informative decision because they won’t give us the information.”
Coincidentally, Julio Perez and the rest of the union crowd want to get down to “the real issue of districting,” as well.
Mayor Tait appointed this woman and no one had ever heard of her – now we know, clearly someone affiliated with OCEA who fought like the devil to elect Julio Perez over former Anaheim Mayor Tom Daly. Ms. Pham and some of her colleagues on the committee keep saying this committee has no purpose, they want the city to settle the lawsuit in favor of Moreno and the ACLU and they consistently resist giving residents a voice in the discussion about whether to district or not. They have had a clear mandate from the beginning.
Isn’t the Mayor supposed to put the interests of Anaheim residents over those of special interests?
Great post, Matt. Keep digging. Vivian Pham has other ties to the political coalition advocating for council districts. She’s on the board of the Orange Community Housing Corporation, which is a funder of OCCORD, which was been helping lead the charge for single-member districts and cheerleading the ACLU lawsuit.
So because she gave a mere $100 she is a union tool? Now that’s a stretch Matt.
You might have a point…if I actually claimed as much, which I didn’t.
You support Steve Perez’s (idiotic) contention that Sandy Day shouldn’t be on the CAC given her mainstream opinion that we shouldn’t be basing our politics on race, and her opposition to single-member districts. Given that, you aren’t in a position dismiss the fact that the CAC Chairwoman has clear and documented ties to the coalition lobbying the CAC for single-member districts.