Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/jose-moreno/)
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.
The starting price tag for Angel Stadium, $325 million, could be much lower when the city finalizes agreements next spring, but a comparison to nearby land sales shows the starting price could already be low.
Anaheim released a proposal overview Wednesday morning to sell Angel Stadium to the team owner for $325 million after months of silence on the issue. One Councilman suspects a secret deal was negotiated months ago.
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 Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the City of Anaheim officially start stadium talks on Nov. 15. It’s the first meeting this year, despite a team request earlier this year to extend a lease out clause to the end of the year to allow for calm deliberations. Councilmembers have three public meetings left this year to consider any stadium proposal before an out-clause trigger extension expires at the end of the year.
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.