Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/denise-barnes/)
The Anaheim City Council is moving forward with selling the Angel Stadium land, despite calls from state lawmakers and two councilmembers to postpone the process until a final price tag is hashed out.
Anaheim City Councilmembers voted late Friday to begin selling Angel Stadium, despite an unknown final price, to a company whose only known member is Angels owner Arte Moreno.
As time runs out on a controversial lease extension deadline on Dec. 31, Anaheim city council members have one regularly scheduled public meeting to hash out the details of a potential billion dollar deal revolving around 155 acres of public land in the city’s core.
Anaheim city officials are fine with allowing a dense housing development in a poor neighborhood, but reject a less dense housing development in the rich Anaheim Hills area.
Anaheim officials will apparently work off a stadium proposal from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim when private negotiations begin on Friday.
The Anaheim City Council minority members will now have a tougher time putting their policy proposals before the full Council after majority members decide they don’t want to hear minority-faction proposals more than once in any six-month period.
The Anaheim City Council on Tuesday night could further restrict a Councilmember’s ability to speak out on public policy issues by making it tougher to put items on the public agenda. The move comes in the wake of Councilmembers Jose Moreno and Denise Barnes fighting for months to schedule a vote on releasing the Angel Stadium appraisal and along with efforts to create rent control for seniors, both of which were ultimately cut off by the majority.
Despite nearly eight months of seniors lobbying the Anaheim City Council for help, councilmembers this week shelved discussion of a rent control ordinance that could help seniors living at Rancho La Paz Mobile Home Park, who face looming rent increases.
The Anaheim City Council refused to release the Angel Stadium appraisal and a potential public review period of a final deal Tuesday, when Mayor Harry Sidhu terminated any discussion with a procedural move.
The Anaheim City Council could decide to release the stadium appraisal after residents have been in the dark for months on the value of the land and the status of negotiations between the Angels and the city for the public 155-acre stadium. Council members also may consider sunlighting any proposal submitted by the Angels.