Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken has announced her plans for the City Council to start discussing several new reforms in the wake of the release of an independent investigation into City Hall, including some changes focused on transparency.
“The release of last week’s independent report confirmed the wrongdoing that many suspected was going on for years,” Aitken said in a news release. “It showed rampant corruption in the former mayor’s office, and it appears to have been carried out in collusion with groups that are supposed to be our city’s community partners. Restoring transparency and public confidence will take time, and reforms will likely come in stages.”
Aitken, according to a news release, has instructed city staffers to place a slew of items on the Aug. 15 council agenda. Included will be discussing stronger lobbying ordinances after investigators alleged lobbyists in the city skirted reporting meetings they should have and consideration into conducting an audit into $6.5 million sent to Visit Anaheim in 2020, which investigators from the JL Group said passed $1.5 million of that to an Anaheim Chamber of Commerce nonprofit.
In a statement released Monday, Visit Anaheim denied “any wrong doing or insinuations made by the JL Group” and said its president and CEO Jay Burress fully cooperated with investigators. The JL Group investigators said in their report they could not determine how the money was used.
Aitken also wants the City Council to discuss how Anaheim can best cooperate with state and federal partners on any external audits. Assemblymember Avelino Valencia, a former Anaheim councilmember, has requested a state audit of public money received by the Chamber of Commerce and Visit Anaheim.
The council will also have items to discuss related to whistleblower protections, making councilmembers’ calendars more public, lowering the city manager’s authority to sign contracts from $250,000 to $100,000 and posting contracts on the city’s website, according to Aitken’s announcement.
Aitken said on Tuesday that the items the council will discuss next week can have policy changes implemented right away, but there will be more reforms that her new mayor’s advisory council will discuss in the coming months.
“We’ve got some systematic problems in the city,” Aitken said, “both with our elections, with campaigns and with transparency and interactions with our lobbyists. So, I want to make sure, as part of my mayor’s advisory council, we are not necessarily just doing things quickly, we are doing things thoughtfully.”
The council meets at 5 p.m. on Tuesday at City Hall.
