Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken on Thursday called for the resignation of any City Hall leaders involved in planning a mock council meeting to polish their pitch for a development agreement in the now-defunct sale of the city’s stadium to the Angels baseball organization.
Other former and current Anaheim officials agreed with Aitken that a rehearsal meeting would have been very unusual and highly unethical.
“As a council we are supposed to be a deliberative body, coming to council with opinions, but also an open ear to the public and colleagues,” Aitken said. “To have elected officials and city staff preparing a rehearsed council meeting makes a mockery of our democracy and, if true, those leaders should resign.”
An email about planning for mock council meeting sessions to be held in September 2020 was among the details in an agreement former Mayor Harry Sidhu signed with the United States Attorney’s Office this week to plead guilty to four federal charges: obstruction of justice, wire fraud, making a false statement to the Federal Aviation Administration and false statement to the FBI.
Sidhu is anticipated to appear before a judge in early September, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice said.
The email was sent, according to the plea agreement, to Sidhu, two city council members, two city employees, including the city’s chief communication officer, and Angels representatives and others on Sept. 20, 2020 by an Angels consultant, using personal email addresses for the city people.
Proposed to attend were Sidhu, the then-mayor pro tem and another council member as well as “two city employees” — no details were given on the employees in the plea agreement — and Angels representatives, who would all rehearse their talking points for an upcoming public meeting. In September 2020 the council was considering the development agreement that outlined what could be built on the stadium property the council had already agreed to sell for…
Read the full article here
