H/T to TheLiberalOC.com: the Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday that Angels owner Arte Moreno has met with City of Tustin officials about possibly moving his major league baseball to Tustin from Anaheim, where they have been since 1966:
Angels owner Arte Moreno met with officials from the City of Tustin last week to discuss the possibility of building a new baseball stadium, a team spokesman confirmed Saturday.
One potential site would be the decommissioned Marine Corps Air Station, which would be accessible via the 5, 405 and 55 Freeways and is across the street from the Tustin Metrolink train station.
“We did have an initial meeting with Tustin,” said Marie Garvey, a consultant retained by the Angels to handle stadium negotiation issues. “We’re still in discussions with the City of Anaheim, but we have to take a long-term view and explore all of our options to insure we have certainty for the future.”
Moreno said Friday that negotiations for a new lease for Angel Stadium are “at a stalemate.” He is clearly frustrated by Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait’s reluctance to accept a proposal in which the Angels would spend $150 million to renovate the stadium in exchange for a 66-year, $1-a-year lease to develop 155 acres of land in the parking lot.
Garvey would not elaborate on details of the Tustin meeting, and she described talks with the city as being “in the infancy stage.”
Asked if the meeting was a negotiating ploy to put pressure on Anaheim, Garvey said, “Absolutely not. We’re taking a serious look at all of our options. We’ve spent the last three years focusing solely on Anaheim, and we’re entering another season without a deal in a 48-year-old stadium that needs improvement.”
Garvey would not say whether Moreno has met with any other cities to explore stadium construction.
“The important point is that we’re looking at all of our options,” Garvey said. “Our preference is to remain in Orange County, but it’s way too early to get into specifics.”
You can read the rest of the article here.
But wait! How can this be? “The Angels aren’t going to leave Anaheim” brigade has repeatedly claimed the Angels aren’t going to leave Anaheim when deriding the negotiation framework approved by the city council last fall. Maybe they’ll begin to realize what most everyone else had already recognized: yes, they can leave – and they’re starting to look because the city isn’t getting its act together.Â
Call a spade a spade – its Tait who’s preventing the city from getting this deal done and not “the city.” It’s time for residents and the council to come together and override the games he’s playing. I’m still in shock he waxed on and on at the last council meeting about the value of the land if the team leaves. This guy is solely responsible if Anaheim loses the team!
Seriously? One vote out of four is holding this up?
Call a spade a spade indeed.
Yes, Ryan. He’s the mayor. He’s the city’s spokesman. He’s the one who gets quoted in the press. He’s the one running around the city and county publicly denouncing the deal points as a “giveaway.” You and other Tait supporters praise him for stopping this “giveaway” by sounding the alarm, but now you act as if he is powerless. Which is it?
City staff are risk-averse. Tait and his staffer Mishal are at City Hall all the time. Caught between Tait and the council majority, staff tend toward caution or even paralysis. Not an environment conducive to negotiating.
If the mayor would stifle himself until there was actually a deal to discuss, by now we might have a deal to discuss, or be close to one. Instead, the Angels are looking at other sites. If you think this is entirely a negotiating tactic, think again.
How is it that Anaheim cant get a deal done after 3 years? Whats on the table won’t cost Anaheim taxpayers a dime. All the money goes into the stadium.
It’s time for the City Council to approve a long-term agreement with the Angels…no matter how dishonest Mayor Tait is going to be.
It’s no secret that Tom Tait wants the Angels out of Anaheim. He and his developer clients want to build hotels and condos on the site. Once he is out of office he is planning to cash-in. just like he did when he left the City Council last time.
If the Angels stay, Tait’s pot of gold at the end of his term is gone.
“All the money goes into the stadium.” Since the buck-a-year lease idea is with PCI, not the Angels, show me where anything in the MOUs or elsewhere supports that, except in your head. ” Whats on the table won’t cost Anaheim taxpayers a dime.” OK, then will you sign over your house and car to me? Losing the value and future profits of an asset you paid for and own, by that ‘logic’ ,shouldn’t bother you. Anaheim residents know better and feel differently.
Tait is attacking the owner in public and making staff jump through hoops designed to delay delay. He’s using his office to attack his colleagues for just sitting down to negotiate. He’s just one vote but he has used his office effectively to fight the team and delay the negotiations. Not to mention the year delay before the mous – because he wanted to clear up his personal financial conflicts. Wish someone would find out if he actually did clear up those conflicts!
Forget the “visionary” beer gardens, we’ll all be crying in our beers once this one-man wrecking ball is done with out city!
LUCILLE KRING FOR MAYOR 2014!!!!!!!
I really hope she makes it very clear to folks that she took money from the Angels while actively negotiating a new lease.
That’s really quite sad. Depressing in fact. Yet, oddly, not surprising.
Just imagine all the graffiti the gangbangers will spray all over an empty stadium! Someone must stop this from happening!
The reality at the end of the day is that Anaheim needs the Angels more than the Angels need Anaheim. I’m sympathetic to Tom Tait’s criticism of the token lease payment to the city to develop the land, but is that worth losing the team over? I don’t think so when whatever revenue Moreno makes from developing the property basically goes into paying for stadium improvements.
“whatever revenue Moreno makes from developing the property basically goes into paying for stadium improvements.” REALLY? where is that written down anywhere? The parking lot lease goes to PCI, NOT the Angels, HOW does the $150M-$200M repair estimate value compare to the total profits from parking lot development, when NO ONE has produced a credible forecast for EITHER? You seem to have Arte Moreno and Santa Claus confused. Moreno is a shrewd businessman, not known for leaving change on the ‘negotiation’ table. Forgotten the Team naming rights deal already?
BINGO. Well done, BBRW.
There is no guarantee that money goes into the ballpark. Arte can take it all and leave town anyway.
“But it’s just an MOU! We can refine the terms later!” That’s what you’re going to hear in reply.
The best part? Who really thinks that Moreno is ONLY going to make $150m off of 155 acres over 66 years. There’s billions of dollars here. Anaheim is going to give him 10:1 or more just because?
That’s why it’s wrong. There’s no protection for the taxpayer in any of this. No cap on the upper limit of private enrichment using public assets.
It is a crying shame that the majority of elected officials in Anaheim do not care.
Well, now, I guess I’m missing something here, Wordsmith. At the end of August, the Anaheim Council majority (not Tait) gave Moreno another 3 years to make a deal elsewhere and they gave it to him for free; otherwise he’d have to move to Tustin by 2016, a physical impossibility. You couldn’t even finish the CEQA by then, let alone build a stadium. This whole thing is garbage, and anybody not on the payroll will admit it.
So…how’s your $1 million lawsuit against the county going?
Or, alternately, Moreno could have quickly pulled stakes for another locale, perhaps one with more pull with the Legislature – because it’s not like anyone has ever prevailed on the Legislature to pass a special exemption from environmental laws, huh?
Keep closing your eyes, clicking those ruby slippers and telling yourself, “There’s no away the Angels will leave, there’s no way the Angels will leave.”
Matt is correct. And tait is the one who’s run out the clock and insults the teams owner over and over again all the while refusing to negotiate. Who could blame Arte for looking with the delays and negativity coming from Anaheim?
Lie, half truth, distortion, and lie.
Which is it people? Tait is some all powerful super mayor with special powers or he’s exactly like any other council person? Ya’ll have clearly made the case for the later, but now you want to claim the former?
You can’t have it both ways.
I will personally guarantee you that Tom Tait, and I don’t know the man, has never insulted Arte Moreno or “refused” to negotiate. This kind of desperate and absurd ad hominem crap has got. to. stop.
There are four people in favor of this public give away. FOUR. At least one of them is actively accepting campaign donations from the Angels while negotiating a new deal for the city’s largest public asset. (<– Great example of demonstrating "good faith" to the public right there. No conflict of interest here! Look at the mayor! He's being a douche!)
The reality is, Tom Tait can't actually do anything to refuse to negotiate or to delay a deal. That's simply a fact. How sad that we're actually debating something that can't happen.
I just left GOP Central Committee where Tom Tait the wicked, anti-business obstructionist intent on the destruction of Anaheim, baseball, apple pie, and motherhood was awarded the Elected leader of the Year Award, with a standing ovation and all around offers of support that “the party” will be there for him during Anaheim’s controversy. Sandy Day’s candidate of choice sat in the front row, none too happy. So you can dream, but there isn’t a Republican in OC who will give her a nickel if they ever want pull with the party in the future. They sent a message loud and clear, and it was one none of you here want to hear about.
Meanwhile, the Chamber of Commerce names Tom Tait the most powerful man on earth, able to use his one lonely vote to stop the other 4 from moving forward on negotiations. Hmm…you mean like the way he came out publicly against the Gardenwalk deal or the way he singlehandedly stopped the stripping of his staff budget, or agendizing powers, or the way he shoved those nasty old district elections down the throats of staff over the objections of his peers? That guy? What makes his word suddenly so powerful that is stops the almighty negotiations dead in their tracks? Uh…that would be public perception, the public being the folks tired of getting bent over for Pringle’s client roster deal after deal. If there was an ounce of public support for this blatant theft of public resources your majority kleptocracy would be voting their usual 4 to 1 bully tactics as always, but they know if they do it their careers are over. So much easier to blame the Mayor for their lack of political will.
Good luck with that angle. Y’all have a nice evening.
CW
Don’t be too proud, Cynthia. The county GOP also gave the same award to Janet Nguyen, who’s a real ethical gem. So they put Tait on a par with her. This is just election/incumbent protection party politics
What a joke. The OC GOP carries no weight in Anaheim or Orange County anymore.
Just ask Anaheim Council members John Leos and Brian Chuchuca.
Or maybe ask Orange Mayor John Dimitru.
And if you aren’t convinced, ask Fullerton Councilman Travis Kiger or Buena Park Councilman Baron Knight.
At the end of the day, Tait has to try and sell his story of gang riots, cussing at city council meetings, his Secretary being paid $100,000, and opposing construction jobs in Anaheim so they will go to Garden Grove where his Dad’s company is one of the largest sub-contractors.
I am not sure Republican Voters are going to like what he will be trying to sell. And if he thinks the OC GOP is going to carry him across the line – well good luck with that.
Where is the theft of public funds – key word being funds? Using vacant land to create private funding to improve the city’s stadium sounds smart. You and Tait make this up as you go. Under your logic, Tait has no trouble “with theft of public funds in Garden Grove” to line his pockets. He’s the only one personally profiting from these type of government programs.
And Barack Obama won a Nobel Peace Prize…. Whoopie fricken doo.
Anaheim needs the real and bold leadership of Lucille Kring who actually gets the BIG picture and embraces all facets of our diverse and intricately woven city.
Tait is better suited for a Mayberry type city or perhaps pushing it, maybe a town as large as say Surpise, AZ… In fact, if I am not mistaken, I think he may have connections there.
Real and bold leadership means taking a campaign check from the person you’re negotiating a public contract with?
Yeah . . . in Chicago.
And what about Taits contributions from MCWhinney the developer in Garden Grove who directly benefits from Taits exploits to stop high end hotel development in Anaheim – and who uses Tait as a subcontractor in Garden Grove and other projects around the country? That’s crony capitalism at its finest and every one of his supporters turns a blind eye. Lucille is not personally profiting from GardenWalk.
Oh BS it is. At its finest indeed.
I’m done with my delicious egg salad sandwich, so this is the last you get from me today– but Tait hasn’t done anything– NOT A DAMN THING– to stop high end hotel development in Anaheim. Nothing.
What he has done is oppose $158,000,000 worth of public tax dollar gifts to support a project, whose sole justification for the gift, is a loan from the bank that has nearly double the interest rate of going commercial real estate development loans.
That’s just smart. Its a bad project with a bad loan.
Since you bring it up, how’s Lucy’s store in Gardenwalk doing?
Well it certainly does not mean cashing in checks from Garden Grove developers or attempting to hide assets within “the family” so this mayor can interject himself in negotiations with the Angels.
Yeah… in Anaheim.
So you’re going to excuse Kring getting CASH IN HAND while dolling out $1b+ in public aid for private enrichment with what now?
Sandy, you’re better than that. At least, that’s what I hear.
If you really want to claim that Tom Tait or the Tait family stands to enrich themselves from this deal, go right out there and make the claim. Don’t beat around the bush.
Taking money from a person you’re negotiating a public contract with is wrong. Kring is not fit to be Mayor of anything, let alone Anaheim.
Ryan – I also hear your better than the blind defense you put up for Tait. He would not turn down contributions from anyone that was doing business with the city not has he ever. Did he turn them down from the GardenWalk developer the last time he ran even though he voted for a 50 percent tax subsidy on those hotels as a member of the council? If you are putting in place metrics to judge people by then apply them equally.
Here’s your metric. Given the severity of the impact of this election, I think confining it to this year is sufficient.
CANDIDATES FOR MAYOR WHO HAVE TAKEN MONEY FROM THE ANGELS:
1.
CANDIDATES FOR MAYOR WHO SUPPORT GIVING OVER ONE BILLION DOLLARS IN TAX PAYER AID TO THE ANGELS:
1.
That’ll do.
–RC
Well that’s simply not true. Look at Tait’s financial forms from 1/1/13-6/30/13. It clearly shows he got money from Angels people.
If we want to talk about inappropriate dealings and conflicts of interest, lets flip on over to the Voice of OC and check out their coverage (finally) of Tait on the OCTA board. Shout out to Matt for breaking the story months ago.
What am I, blind? WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?
Ah, I got it now. You want to go way back to March of 2013. You know, before the whole MOU business. (Also of note, Galloway is on there. That’s an interesting nugget.)
So let me get this straight. Tait gets money pre-MoU vote. Tait votes against the MoU, and now Kring gets the Halo’s money instead.
Alright. I guess I hung myself on my own timeline there. I suppose the point is fair. Am I missing anyone other than Denis?
Nonetheless, thanks for proving the broader point. Kring is getting money from the Angels while actively negotiating a new contract for the city’s largest asset. Those who aren’t voting to giveaway a billion dollars of public aide aren’t seeing a dime.
Tait is on a Board that directly pays his company/family/himself hundreds of thousands of dollars. If there is a story of dirty dealing to uncover in Anaheim, its not with Kring.
OCTA? Yeah, Adam at the Voice posted that today. You can remove the “/” from that comment and keep that to “his company”. I don’t think his take home share of that deal is going to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, but perhaps it is.
I doubt it, but perhaps.
If this is your metric, you may want to take a look at Tait’s recently filed 460 forms.
CANDIDATES FOR MAYOR WHO HAVE TAKEN MONEY FROM THE ANGELS: 2
OK, I’ll admit that made me sit up pretty straight in my chair.
There’s no one on his most recent 460 that identifies themselves with the Halos. Enlighten me on who exactly that is, please.
1. $1000 Dennis Kuhl, Chairman Angel’s Baseball
2. $250 Todd Theodora, Esq. (Attorney for the Angel’s)
And don’t even get me started on the campaign contributions from Garden Grove developers or the hundreds of families that were displaced and some even left homeless via the eminent domain mandated for the McWhinney Great Wolf project he profited from.
The mayor you continuously defend is unfortunately a figment of your imagination.
Pre-MOU. Thanks.
We’ll save the 0.0001% of the GG contract for a separate thread.
While perhaps a figment, I’ll take that over the current alternative.
When I vote for someone or against a candidate its based on the totality of their record. You wanting to carve out 6 or 12 months because it puts Tait in a better light is disingenuous and deceptive. You are all hypocrites and all deserve each other. And on the OCTA issues – he OWNS the company! He’s not just an employee. If it were Kris Murray the VOC and Tait hyenas would have lynched her – and you would likely be the one holding the rope. You make light of several hundred thousand dollars in OCTA contracts, state contracts in hundreds of thousands, TOT and redevelopment funds from Garden Grove and then assault the council who have nothing financial to gain. And above you say he’s done nothing to stop hotel development – Are you kidding? He ran a ballot initiative to stop ALL hotel development without a vote of the people – which would have guaranteed his project in Garden Grove Anaheim tourism dollars for decades.
Glad to hear you vote your conscience. Everyone should.
I’ll pass on the majority of that comment and just address the last bit.
If the policy decisions of the council majority would not be approved by the public, then those policy decisions should NOT BE THE POLICY OF THE CITY.
Irrespective of that truth, Tait didn’t put out an initiative to stop all hotel development. He put out an initiative to stop unprecedented tax payer giveaways to stupid projects that don’t need the benefit of corporate welfare.
Big difference.
Finally, he doesn’t have a project in Garden Grove. Someone else does. What your claiming isn’t even a half truth, but I’ll give you the benefit of ignorance.
But hey– I’m not here to promote anyone. I’m just here to mock the absurdity that the Angel deal is being held up because of ONE vote on the council. As they say, stupid is as stupid does– which I’m guilty of from time to time as well.
You are a piece of work. Tait’s initiative didn’t qualify for the ballot for lack of signatures, let alone represent the people of Anaheim by passing at the polls. Tait and his forces threw this issue at Jordan Brandman to the point that Tait paid with family money for hit pieces on Brandman and he still came in first place on the ballot. Clearly the residents are not alarmed by this city policy – which is also why Tait was elected Mayor overwhelmingly given his previous voting record on economic development. And Tait is a major contractor on that hotel development in Garden Grove – for the city and the developer being paid with redevelopment funds and city TOT rebates. This is verifiable fact and you should learn facts before engaging in this discussion.
Piece of work. Well, I’ve been called worse. Huzzah for progress.
You’re not characterizing the initiative correctly, not to be confused with not characterizing how it evolved correctly. It was about tax payer funded subsidies, not construction as you state.
What I’ve seen regarding GG is a demo contract with the city and some EIR work for the bigger private construction project. I’ve seen nothing regarding being a principle or the EPC firm assigned to the work . . . but hey, maybe my ignorance is just blissful . . . but that’d be from lack of effort.
But hey, let’s see it. You show it, I’ll read it, then we’ll talk.
Why does anyone pay any attention to Ryan “Baghdad Anaheim Bob” Cantor? It’s not like you’re going to convince this knee-jerk, the Mayor can do no wrong, propoganda artist. Just ignore him. All this reaction is making him think he has some influence in this town.
“If there was an ounce of public support for this .. (they) would be voting their usual 4 to 1 .. tactics as always, but they know if they do it their careers are over.”
How do you figure their careers would be over CW?