The aftershock of an explosive 353-page corruption investigation report detailing alleged influence peddling by resort interests, developer favoritism, a blatant disregard for state’s open meeting laws and loose oversight on lobbyists is still rocking OC’s largest city.
It’s a report that Anaheim officials last year almost didn’t let see the light of day – one that echoes and adds to sworn FBI affidavits that surfaced in 2022 alleging Disneyland resort interests hold undue influence over city hall.
When the report came out in late July 2023, residents got an inside look at the inner workings of city hall and with it the story of a man who for years tried to rebuild his family gas station in a town allegedly run on pay-to-play politics.
That man is Isa Bahu, a 51-year-old Palestinian American Christian who is now taking the city of Anaheim to federal court in a lawsuit alleging corruption at city hall cost him millions in lost income and kept the gas station his family ran for decades closed.
For Isa, the lawsuit filed on April 26, is about more than lost income.
“This is where my father started in this country. This is his legacy,” Bahu said in a phone interview Tuesday.
“The reason my dad left the Middle East was because of corruption. You get here and you live the American dream and corruption again.”
In an email Monday, City Spokesman Mike Lyster said the city was aware of the lawsuit but have not been served with it yet.
“Once we formally receive it, we will turn our attention to reviewing it. Beyond that, any additional comment at this time would be premature,” he wrote.
In 1967, Bahu’s father, Albert, an immigrant from Palestine, who came to Anaheim with five kids, not knowing the language and a few dollars in his pocket started running a gas station on La Palma Avenue and Imperial Highway in Anaheim Hills.
Isa said once the 91 freeway was built, the business took off and soon enough people like Carl Karcher, founder of the Carl’s Jr. fast food, were coming by the store and hanging out with his dad.
But in the mid-90s, the city widened the street and expropriated the property, leading to a lawsuit and lost business for the Bahus, who eventually regained control of the property in 2003. But on site soil contamination required the station be removed.
In 2015, Bahu started the process to get a permit to rebuild the gas station and by 2019 city planning commissioners greenlit the project.
Then a competing gas station owner across the street that donated to the mayoral campaigns of former Mayor Harry Sidhu – who is at the center of the corruption probe – filed an appeal.
Sidhu’s council majority went on to deny Bahu’s project.
Voice of OC was unable to reach Navaz Malik, the competing gas station owner, for comment.
The former mayor would go on to plead guilty to public corruption charges in fall of 2023 months after the release of the corruption investigation report.
Steve Baric, Bahu’s attorney, said in a phone interview that they hope to get fair compensation for Bahu and the lost income his family would have made but gave no specific number.
“Political corruption put him out of business and the quintessential reason why we filed this suit is that he’s seeking justice,” Baric said.
“He wants to build on the property that he rightfully owns,” he continued, adding with inflation it is more expensive now to build than it was back then.
Isa is hopeful the family gas station will be back and that it will benefit more than just the Bahus.
“It’s going to generate $4 to $5 million in taxes for the city,” he said “And it’s going to drop the gas price 20-50 cents in Anaheim Hills.”
Did Pay to Play Politics Keep a Gas Station in the Hills From Being Rebuilt?
Independent investigators – with decades of law enforcement experience – wrote in their report that political favoritism kept Bahu’s family from rebuilding a gas station while a competitor, who donated to Sidhu’s campaign, was allowed to run a Shell gas station across the street and dictate prices.
“It is our belief that then-Mayor Sidhu, considering these political contributions and using his power over the majority of the city council, went about wrongfully denying Bahu his development plans due to the competing gas station owner’s political contributions to Sidhu’s campaign,” reads the report.
To read the full corruption report, click here.
Investigators point to $8,600 in financial contributions Navaz Malik, the competing gas station owner, and his family made to Sidhu’s mayoral campaigns between September 2017 and November 2021.
“The facts speak for themselves,” Baric said. “The competing gas station across the street – the owner – appealed it and the result was changed.”
Voice of OC tried to reach out to Malik through the number listed online for his gas station but it was disconnected or out of service.
When Bahu applied for a permit to rebuild his family’s gas station, he hired Grant Henniger, now a current planning commissioner, to help get the project through.
Henniger told Anaheim’s city-hired independent investigators there was no question that the relationship between Sidhu and Malik would impact the outcome of the gas station’s approval.
“Harry will always vote for whoever gives him the most money for his campaign. Is that illegal, probably not. Is it corrupt, certainly,” he told investigators.
Henniger also told investigators that he and Bahu met with council members at the time including Jordan Brandman, who Henniger said refused to vote for the project unless Sidhu did.
Brandman, who often voted alongside Sidhu, died of a meth overdose last year.
Meanwhile, Bahu’s sister, May, was receiving text messages from Todd Ament, the former CEO of the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce offering to help them get their project through city approval.
“I realized that he was trying to get us to pay him to get it through the city,” she told investigators. “He was hinting to me that ‘you need help’ not ‘do you want help.’”
Bahu told investigators Ament wanted $50,000 to get the city to approve the gas station.
Ament, a key figure in the corruption scandal, is also a defendant in Bahu’s lawsuit.
Voice of OC reached out to Ament through his public relations representative who didn’t respond to emailed questions.
The former chamber CEO is currently awaiting sentencing for federal fraud and could face decades in federal prison.
In April 2019, the planning commission ended up approving Bahu’s project to rebuild the gas station.
Malik filed an appeal.
Peter Mitchell, a lobbyist for the police officer’s association, Fred Whitaker, Chairman of the Republican Party of OC and Malik’s lawyer at the time, and Edgar Hampton, former head of the Anaheim Police Association, all came out publicly and testified in planning commission hearings against Bahu’s proposal citing traffic safety concerns.
[Read: Did the Anaheim Police Go to Bat for Disgraced Former Mayor?]
On June 4, 2019, Sidhu and his council majority, including Stephen Faessal who still sits on the city council, voted to overturn the planning commission decision and deny Bahu’s project.
“Safety comes before pro-business on this item,” Sidhu said at the June 4, 2019 city council meeting. “I cannot support this project. I urge the applicant to find another use for the remnant property that does not raise such safety concerns.”
A handful of former and current city staff members noted to investigators that the involvement of the police union in a planning issue was odd and that it was rare for elected officials’ to overturn a planning commission decision.
“I was aghast,” Linda Andal, Human Resources director for the city, told investigators.
“It was very dirty, in my opinion.”
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.
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