“CONFIDENTIAL,” the tantalizing document begins. “ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGED ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT…. INVESTIGATION REPORT OF FINDINGS.”
The independent probe the city of Anaheim commissioned into rot in its ranks reads like a tawdry soap opera: “Fraud, helicopters, cannabis, cabals,” Sen. Tom Umberg quipped, with example after example of hardball bully influence peddling, gifting of millions of public dollars to private interests, revealing city secrets for personal gain, pay-to-play and so much more, which should make eager prosecutors foam at the mouth.
On and on it goes for more than 350 pages, illuminating the puppet strings allegedly rigged to some Anaheim City Councilmembers, expertly pulled by the likes of Disney and the Angels and a shadowy army of lobbyists and political consultants who actually ran the show. I mean, we knew this part, but it’s stunning to see it in black and white in a document paid for by the city.
Perhaps the strangest outcome of this scandal would be lower gasoline prices in Anaheim Hills. Please. Stay with us here.
My colleagues are bringing you the big picture news on the city’s $1.5 million corruption investigation , launched after the FBI’s corruption investigations into former Mayor Harry Sidhu and former Anaheim Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Todd Ament became public (Sidhu said he wanted big money from the Angels for helping it buy the city-owned Angels Stadium in what many called a sweetheart deal; Angels reps have repeatedly said they knew nothing about Sidhu’s intentions).
Here, though, we’ll narrow our focus to a tragically banal slice of small-time powerbroking, the kind you find in so many cities and agencies. Yes, Anaheim’s situation may be extreme — what other city has Disneyland and a Major League Baseball team to “partner” with? — but the game is played, more or less, everywhere. It’s called “local politics,” and it can read like a bad dime store novel.
Fill ‘er…
Read the full article here
