A state audit released Tuesday found that millions of Anaheim public dollars were routed with little oversight to tourism promotion groups. Some of those funds were improperly used for political lobbying and to support candidates friendly to Disneyland resort-area businesses.
The audit of city contracts with Visit Anaheim and the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce is the latest in a series of damning investigations and reports on potentially illegal and unethical activities among some former Anaheim leaders, and the extent of the tourism industry’s grip on city affairs and funds.
Former Mayor Harry Sidhu and former Anaheim Chamber of Commerce President Todd Ament were both charged in 2022 with corruption-related federal crimes and later pleaded guilty. Both are awaiting sentencing.
Last year, a city-commissioned investigation found a “potential criminal conspiracy” to divert $1.5 million in federal COVID recovery funds through Visit Anaheim to a nonprofit controlled by the chamber.
The 51-page audit found that over $111 million collected from a 2% city assessment on hotel stays in the city’s resort district have been provided to Visit Anaheim since 2010, of which $4.4 million was passed to the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce with little regard for how the public money would be spent and whether it was needed.
“Neither the city’s tourism director nor current Visit Anaheim staff believed that the tourism district assessment subcontract with the Chamber was necessary,” auditors reported.
Specifically, auditors found:
- The local tourism bureau, Visit Anaheim, failed to get approval from the city, as required in their contract, to subcontract with the chamber. The…
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