For years now, the Anaheim City Council’s approach to the city’s largest resort-oriented businesses has had a certain stench about it. These businesses and their allies have provided support to a group of politicians who lavish special privileges on favored firms.
These editorial pages have routinely decried these practices – as well as the hypocrisy of local Republican officials who blather about free markets, yet support this tawdry crony capitalist model. Nevertheless, we assumed everyone involved was abiding by the law.
Blockbuster news reports this week have thrown that assumption in doubt. On Monday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta asked the court to put on hold a deal between the state and city settling allegations that Anaheim violated an affordable-housing law by approving the controversial sale of Angel stadium to a group controlled by the Angels’ owner.
Court affidavits confirm federal authorities are investigating whether Mayor Harry Sidhu “shared privileged and confidential information with the Angels during stadium sale negotiations, actively concealed same from a Grand Jury inquiry, and expects to receive campaign contributions as a result.”
These only are allegations, but the ones released so far smack of old-style Chicago politics. As the Register reported based on the affidavit, one witness wore a wire during conversations with the mayor, in which “Sidhu allegedly expressed an expectation of campaign contributions of at least $1 million from an unnamed Angels representative.”
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In reading the reactions from Anaheim’s political establishment, we hear echoes from the movie Casablanca’s Captain Renault, who was shocked to find gambling in a gambling den. We’re not suggesting Sidhu’s allies suspected alleged illegalities, but we’ve all known that Anaheim’s leaders have hardly been beacons of public spiritedness.
This is just the first strand in a giant hairball that will unravel over the coming months. In the meantime, the city needs to cancel the stadium sale and begin the process from scratch – in a transparent manner. Sidhu also needs to resign immediately. The gravity of the allegations make all of his work suspect. He’ll have plenty of other things to do with his time.