Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/tom-tait/)
The Anaheim Chamber of Commerce got a $425,000 no-bid contract from the city, but it isn’t a gift of public funds, according to a government ethics expert. Mayor Harry Sidhu, who pushed the contract, answered no questions about it from Councilwoman Denise Barnes.
The changes apply to the way agendas are set, board appointments are made by the Council, and public comments and audience decorum are maintained.
Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu is proposing this Tuesday to let the Los Angeles Angels out of a bad move this past November when owner Arte Moreno opted out of his stadium lease with nowhere to go. As a result, by this October, taxpayers will be sitting on a $1 billion asset with no restrictions on developing the 150-acre parking lot area around the stadium. Yet a proposal this Tuesday before the Anaheim city council would erase that potential and lock taxpayers into another lopsided, long-term negotiation with the Angels – who are probably leaving for Los Angeles anyway as their recent controversial renaming clearly implies.
The election results determine the balance of the Anaheim City Council majority in a year where the Disneyland Resort, hotel industry and unions have spent a record amount on the election.
On Nov. 6, voters will select a new city council majority and vote on a controversial minimum wage initiative requiring taxpayer-subsidized businesses to pay their workers more.
The Angels, Anaheim’s baseball team may be looking to leave, but the city’s hockey team, the Anaheim Ducks, are negotiating a new 25-year lease and development project around the Honda Center.
Public commenters told the Anaheim City Council and its city attorney Tuesday that big hotels aren’t the only businesses affected by a proposed $18-an-hour minimum wage initiative on the Nov. 6 ballot.
OCTA officials ended discussion in June of a Harbor Boulevard streetcar after cities couldn’t agree on the project. Meanwhile, an existing streetcar plan to connect Santa Ana and Garden Grove will cost far more than originally expected.
Anaheim city officials say they want to hit the “reset” button on a contentious political relationship with the Disneyland Resort, after voting unanimously Tuesday to rescind two major tax subsidy deals benefiting the corporation.
The Disneyland Resort is asking Anaheim officials to cancel two major tax subsidy deals, saying the deals have become “a flashpoint for controversy and dissention [sic] in our community.”
