Anaheim’s Chamber of Commerce is the latest Disneyland resort interest group to reorganize in recent years following a corruption scandal that rocked OC’s largest city, with two separate investigations showing how those interests wielded outsized influence on city policymaking. 

Nearly three years after revelations of an FBI corruption probe at city hall, leaders with the chamber – an organization that was a central figure in the scandal – announced at the end of last month that new leadership would be taking the reins.

Those leaders are now promising to refocus programs on the needs of local entrepreneurs, particularly small business owners.

“The Anaheim Chamber of Commerce is forging ahead to be a leading Chamber of the 21st century,” said new CEO Dara Maleki in an April 28 news release. “We are entering a period of renewal—rebuilding trust, listening to our community, and creating a Chamber that works for all of Anaheim.”

Maleki did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

He told the OC Register last month that the chamber will cut ties with its political action committee and stay out of politics.

Marisol Ramirez, co-executive director of Orange County Communities Organized for Responsible Development, said that a lot of people still don’t trust entities like the Chamber of Commerce since the FBI Corruption probe.

At the same time, she said she wasn’t surprised to hear they’re rebranding.

“It certainly is good to hear the commitment that they choose to focus more on local, small businesses. However, I don’t necessarily think that will really last,” Ramirez said in a Monday phone interview. 

“The expectation that they will solely focus on really uplifting small business is very slim.”

She adds that residents must continue to keep an eye on Visit Anaheim and the Chamber of Commerce. 

“In order for the chamber to regain public trust, there needs to be a set of transparency standards. I think they should voluntarily disclose financial records, their lobbying efforts, for example, their political affiliation, simply because that’s the only way to truly restore credibility,” Ramirez said.

She also said they have to honor community benefits agreements and invest in residents, not just corporate interests.

The Chamber’s announcement came roughly two weeks after former CEO and President Jerry Jordan notified employees that he was resigning and the chamber will be permanently shutting down at the end of April. 

[Read: Anaheim Chamber of Commerce To Close in Aftermath of Corruption Probes]

The rebranding comes roughly three years after the Chamber’s former CEO Todd Ament pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges, including wire fraud and filing false tax returns. 

In court filings, FBI agents described Ament as the ringleader of a group of powerful insiders who controlled public affairs and policymaking through elected officials at City Hall.

[Read: Anaheim Chamber CEO Todd Ament Pleads Guilty to Fraud Charges, Could Face Decades in Federal Prison]

Mayor Ashleigh Aitken and the rest of the city council did not respond to requests for comment Monday.

City Spokesman Mike Lyster said in a Monday email city officials welcome “normal, healthy relationship” with the chamber and that they have made an effort to move away from the troubling practices of the past.

“As a city, we have supported a reformed chamber — not with funding but rather moral support — at business openings and other events,” Lyster wrote.

“We welcome a chamber working with small businesses and others in our city, just as you see in other cities. Our Economic Development Department does a lot to support and attract business, and a reformed and revitalized chamber would build on that.”

He also said there were no plans to enter agreements or provide the chamber with any city funding at this time.

At the same time, the OC Register reported that city officials are considering taking over the Anaheim Transportation Network – the resort area’s system of buses – amid budget woes and requests by network leaders for more funding. 

Anaheim Transportation Network leaders are asking that tourism dollars be used to help fund the buses. In a report last year, state auditors considered tourism tax funds to be public money. 

In March, a city committee approved a $1.55 million request for funding after the city gave the network $2.7 million last summer. They also approved hiring a consultant to conduct a study on the city leading its own transit agency.

Lyster said the city is still considering all options.

“A city-run transit agency might be better situated to seek state and federal funding and grants, which could bring operational improvements,” he wrote.

“The 1996 development agreement for the expansion of The Anaheim Resort calls for a transportation system. Each year, about 9 million people use the service, including many workers who take ART buses to the resort.”

The tourism dollars come from an additional 2% room tax resort hoteliers charge customers.

A bulk of that tax revenue – 75% – goes to Visit Anaheim, the city’s tourism bureau. The rest of that money funds the Anaheim Tourism Improvement District.

The Anaheim Transportation Network is funded by fare revenue and dozens of hotels in the resort area.

Visit Anaheim

The chamber is not the only organization to regroup or face change in the years after the corruption scandal first broke.

City officials are on track to implement greater oversight on Visit Anaheim after a 2024 state audit found the city’s tourism bureau was improperly subcontracting with the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce.

Auditors said the Chamber then improperly spent tourism dollars to lobby elected officials and also used the money to support its preferred candidates through the chamber’s political action committee for years because city leaders failed to properly oversee Visit Anaheim’s spending.

The audit was sparked after city-hired investigators alleged that $1.5 million of a $6.5 million bailout to the tourism bureau was improperly diverted by Visit Anaheim to an Anaheim Chamber of Commerce-controlled nonprofit as part of a conspiracy.

Jay Burress, the former CEO of Visit Anaheim, resigned shortly after the city’s corruption probe report was publicly released.

[Read: Visit Anaheim CEO Resigns After Allegations of Rerouting Tax Dollars]

A year later, state auditors would conclude Visit Anaheim never needed the $6.5 million COVID bailout elected officials gave them to market the resort and book conventions when the pandemic first hit in March 2020 when the tourism industry was shut down indefinitely. 

Last month, tourism bureau executives agreed to pay the city $3 million back from the bailout after refusing to do so for years, while still maintaining they used the bailout dollars properly – despite city auditors and independent investigators saying differently.

[Read: Tourism Bureau to Repay Anaheim $3 Million From Controversial Pandemic Bailout]

As part of the state auditors’ recommendations, Anaheim officials created an advisory board to better keep track of Visit Anaheim’s spending after auditors determined that the self-assessed hotel tax are public funds. 

At their first meeting last year, the new CEO of Visit Anaheim Mike Waterman said that he tried to talk city officials out of making the advisory group and later apologized for his comments and was publicly questioned about them by City Councilwoman Natalie Rubalcava.

Tonight, City Council members are expected to consider a new agreement with Visit Anaheim that would implement a host of transparency measures recommended by state auditors including requiring the tourism bureau to show how many hotel rooms and convention center bookings they’ve secured.

[Read: Anaheim on Track to Require Tourism Bureau Show Convention, Hotel Bookings]

It comes as local elected officials have met privately with tourism bureau executives this year to discuss Visit Anaheim and tourism tax dollars.

Support Our Anaheim Resort

Support Our Anaheim Resort (SOAR) – a political action committee that’s historically been funded by Disney – also popped up in sworn FBI affidavits as well as the city-commissioned corruption investigation report.

Independent investigators wrote they found Disney’s spending lined up with that of resort area hoteliers and the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce. 

SOAR was formed as a community group in 2007 with help from Ament and former Mayor and lobbyist Curt Pringle to oppose a housing development project near Disney.

Three years later, the group formed a political action committee and started holding fundraisers.

According to the city commissioned corruption report, one SOAR board described the committee to investigators as a mechanism to “groom” resort-backed candidates and politicians as well as a vehicle to raise money that gave Ament power.

SOAR’s website has since been taken down.

In the 2022 election – months after the sworn FBI affidavits went public – SOAR spent $547,000 in support of current City Councilwoman Natalie Meeks’s campaign and $380,000 in support of Rubalcava’s campaign

The past 2024 election, however, Disney didn’t throw cash at their preferred candidates through SOAR.

Instead, the entertainment juggernaut spent about $1 million across three political action committees in support of Norma Kurtz, Ryan Balius and Kristen Maahs – who went on to win.

Kurtz herself was a member of SOAR’s advisory committee.

Editor’s note: Ashleigh Aitken’s father, Wylie Aitken, chairs Voice of OC’s board of directors.

​​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.