The city council majority of Anaheim typically uses its power a lot against dissident members with hardly any mercy when it comes to disputes, even regarding how meetings proceed. Which is why it came as a huge relief last week when all of the passive aggressive back-and-forth was set aside in favor of deciding the privileges council members would have when it came to tickets to specific upcoming events. The council has united on deciding that each would get free tickets to events to be held at Angel Stadium and Honda Center, which they can also pass on to others.
A cover story exposé by LA Weekly in August spoke of a political patronage system using which council members could reward allies, campaign contributors, and even friends by giving the latter access to city suites at entertainment and sports events, at both of the venues mentioned above. Pro activist Duane Roberts placed a challenge before the council to discuss the policy on the agenda during a council meeting to be held that month.
Councilman Jose F. Moreno had a response to that, in which he asked to place the review on one of the future agendas so that matters could be “clarified”.
Mayor Harry Sidhu refrained from tabling the discussion without a vote, at the time that it finally came up last week. It was already clear that there would be no contentious debate happening. Moreno said, “Certainly, politics may always be at play. But I feel pretty confident with the policy that we have.”
According to a review by Ticket Masters of a whole year’s ticket disclosure information, the following things were found:
- Anaheim First members have gotten tickets to events that were worth $33,630. Many of these were from the same members who earlier voted to contribute $250,000 for contracting a survey that was held citywide.
- Two of the council members who reported receiving gifts from Disney have given free Angels game tickets to the husband of a Disney lobbyist named Carrie Nocella.
- Over half of all tickets given away by council members have been intended to “attract or reward” the volunteer services which they received. Ernesto Medrano, a trades labor boss who sits on Anaheim First, was able to collect 36 tickets worth roughly $7,000 in a single year under this exception.
- Matt Cunningham, who practically built the Anaheim Blog, has gotten tickets during all these years from council members about whom he has written favorably, including mayor Harry Sidhu.
- Progressive Democrat Jose F. Moreno, much like others seated on the dais, has directed tickets into the hands of people who have donated to his election campaigns.
Subsequent to “Ticket Masters”, members of Anaheim First kept on receiving suite tickets to Angel Games for free. Councilman Jordan Brandman provided tickets to an Elton John concert at Honda Center to lobbyist Peter Mitchell in September, although not by name. This was given under the NP exception set up for the Anaheim police association. The city has even moved in violation of its own policy, by failing to post disclosure forms (detailing the distribution of tickets) inside 30 days from an event taking place.
At last week’s meeting though, none of that seemed to pose a problem. The main issue instead, was what was to be done with the leftovers. “Some tickets may go unused,” held Moreno. “I think it’s a shame that we have these tickets and sometimes they don’t get used. These are the people’s tickets. It’s their stadium, their venue. We get the privilege of being able to be the first among equals, as they say, to utilize the tickets.”
Moreno suggested figuring out a way to put up unused tickets in such a way that any resident could try and claim them. Councilwoman Lucille Kring offered up a solution: use her practice where she gave tickets to staff via a ticket administrator. Brandman opined that this was a “gosh darn good idea”, adding a suggestion of employing Nextdoor to find takers for tickets. Meanwhile, Councilman Trevor O’Neil, who had taken 17 event tickets under his own name while in his first months in office, was conspicuously silent.
There are curious ticket filings which still remain unexplained. Former councilwoman Kris Murray, on February 5, 2016, gave out four tickets to an Anaheim Ducks game to Wildan Group. The latter has its HQ in Anaheim, and she listed it on previous forms of Statement of Economic Interest as substantial income sources while serving on the council. Wildan appeared under the section typically meant for NP groups, although the disclosure form listed the exception meant for individuals.
“Last that I heard, the Willdan Group is a for-profit company whose stock is publicly traded on NASDAQ exchange,” stated Roberts. “It earned about $272 million in revenue in 2018. Murray’s questionable 802 filings are symptomatic of how many members of the council see tickets–like candy to be freely given away to their wealthy friends.”
Mark Richard Daniels, one of the Cultural Heritage Commissioners of Anaheim, said that he saw Councilwoman Lucille Kring at one of the city suites for the Ducks playoff game with San Jose Sharks in April last year. He said former councilman James Vanderbilt was the one who gave him tickets to the same game.
Looking inside the city’s website, however, ticket disclosures for April 2018 are unavailable, which not only apparently violates the 30-day policy of the city, but also the 45-day benchmark set by the Fair Political Practices Commission.
Apparently, where it concerns Anaheim’s ticket policy, more needs to be discussed about discarding scraps after allies, contributors, and political friends have had their first share. However, this would require the council members starting to check their privileges, and then deciding what to do with them.