Anaheim Observer Civic affairs in OC's largest city.

Does Councilman Jose F. Moreno really want to get “money out of politics”? Or is his goal to use campaign finance law and moral bluster to paralyze the business community and leave his union and progressive allies as the dominant voices in city elections? Judging from Moreno’s own rhetoric, it’s the latter. He has been demanding that Disney specifically and ...

This evening, the Anaheim City Council will consider Councilman Jose F. Moreno’s idea of campaign finance “reform.” This is virtually the same proposal that the city council rejected in November 2019. The FBI corruption probe into Harry Sidhu that led to his resignation as mayor has sewn confusion and chaos, which Moreno is now exploiting by resurrecting this so-called reform ...

On Tuesday, the Anaheim City Council voted unanimously to void the agreement to sell the Angel Stadium site to team owner Arte Moreno, a deal that would also keep the team in Anaheim until at least 2050 and place the financial responsibility for renovating or building a new stadium solely on Moreno. The vote took place a week after bombshell ...

Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu today submitted his resignation, one week after news broke that he was the subject of a corruption bribe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Sidhu’s terse resignation letter was submitted by his attorney, Paul S. Meyer. “Mayor Harry Sidhu has always, as his foremost priority, acted in the best interests of the City of Anaheim, and ...

Anaheim Mayor Pro Tem Trevor O’Neil, in a letter also signed by Councilmembers Steve Faessel and Jose Diaz, is formally calling upon Mayor Harry Sidhu to resign, following the revelation he is the target of an FBI corruption probe. In an affidavit filed last week, the FBI alleged Sidhu “shared privileged and confidential information with the Angels during stadium sale ...

Citing an FBI corruption probe into Mayor Harry Sidhu, the Orange County Superior Court has agreed to a request from state Attorney General Rob Bonta for a 60-day pause in taking up ratification of the stipulated agreement between the state and the City of Anaheim allowing the Angel Stadium sale agreement to go through. The AG’s office filed the request ...

Former Anaheim Councilmember Lorri Galloway has filed to run for Mayor this year, altering the landscape in what was shaping up as a two-person contest between Mayor Harry Sidhu and OC Fair Board member Ashleigh Aitken. All three were on the ballot in the 2018 mayoral election, in which Sidhu narrowly edged Aitken. “In the last 5 to 6 years, ...

Last night, Anaheim Union High School District Board of Education members outbid each other to give Superintendent Michael Matsuda a 7% salary increase – and then voted to boost their own compensation by 3.5% because they were also giving the AUHSD’s various unions a 3.5% increase. Board Item called 10.12 called for extending Matsuda’s contract for an additional year, to ...

During the Disneyland Resort’s annual “State of the Resort” event last week, President Ken Potrock announced Cal State Fullerton and Fullerton College would be joining the Disney Aspire program, through which the company picks up the entire cost of a college education for its hourly cast members. The announcement marks a historic expansion of the Aspire program:  due to the ...

The Anaheim City Council voted 5-2 on Tuesday to approve an agreement with the state Attorney General that greenlight a modified $320 million deal that keeps the Angels in Anaheim until at least 2050 and sells Angel Stadium and the surrounding acreage to an Arte Moreno-led partnership. Attorney General Rob Bonta and Mayor Harry Sidhu announced the agreement on Monday ...