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Anaheim to redact report on alleged corruption of Angel Stadium sale
Resident: “We’re going to be getting an abbreviated version – the Cliff Notes.”
The City of Anaheim has reneged on a pledge to provide the full results of an independent investigation into potential corruption surrounding its now defunct sale of Angel Stadium.
A newly elected City Council voted to hire an attorney to black out parts of the investigative report a judge said could violate employee privacy rights and lead to litigation, the Orange County Register reported.
Angry residents complained that the council had reneged on a promise of transparency and was trying to cover up the raw results of the investigation into allegations of pay-for-play at City Hall.
“Who are you protecting and what are you afraid of?” resident and activist Jeanine Robbins told the Register. “I think some people sitting up there, their seats were purchased and the main reason was to stop this investigation.”
“We’re going to be getting an abbreviated version – the Cliff Notes.”
The decision to release only an abridged version of the report was approved 5-1 by the council, with Natalie Rubalcava dissenting and Stephen Faessel abstaining.
The previous City Council ordered the investigation last summer after allegations arose in an FBI probe that former Mayor Harry Sidhu tried to slip confidential information to the Los Angeles Angels to expedite the sale of the city ballpark to owner Arte Moreno for a cut-rate $320 million.
Sidhu, who has not been criminally charged with any wrongdoing, allegedly hoped he would get $1 million to benefit his political campaign in return. The city later killed the stadium deal.
Moreno’s company SRB Management planned to develop more than 5,000 homes plus offices, shops, restaurants and hotels on the 152-acre parcel that hosts Angel Stadium and surrounding parking lots.
An FBI affidavit also alleged that a secret cabal of resort-oriented interests was driving business decisions at City Hall.
The city’s $1.5 million investigation, conducted by the JL Group under the watch of Superior Court Judge Clay Smith, is slated to be completed July 1. But it will take extra time for newly hired attorney Scott Tiedemann, managing partner of Liebert Cassidy Whitmore, to redact the report.
Smith, who is advising investigators, said that releasing the raw report as promised would put the city in legal jeopardy.
Despite the outcry from residents, Mayor Ashleigh Aitken said she doesn’t want to release a watered down report or one that doesn’t tell the whole story.
“I feel this will strike that balance that tells the story without prejudice that will be fair to the employees,” Aitken told the Register.
— Dana Bartholomew
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