A majority of Anaheim officials say they are not ready to pull the trigger on a proposed law that would ban them from accepting gifts worth more than $50 per year from a lobbyist or contractor in the aftermath of one of Orange County’s largest corruption scandals.
The proposed gift ban follows a series of reforms that city officials implemented after FBI agents and independent investigators concluded that Disneyland Resort interests held outsized influence over policy making at city hall.
The scandal also saw former Mayor Harry Sidhu plead guilty to obstruction of justice charges for lying to federal agents about trying to ram through the now-canned Angel Stadium land sale for a $1 million in campaign finance.
Last Wednesday, city officials narrowly voted 4-3 to kick the discussion to implement the gift ban to an undetermined date following hypothetical situation based questions about the proposal from Councilwoman Norma Campos Kurtz and concerns from officials.
“Since there seems to be still a lot of unanswered questions that still need to be addressed, I’m going to make a suggestion that we table this,” said Councilman Stephen Faessel during Wednesday’s meeting.
Mayor Ashleigh Aitken, who attended the meeting through teleconference, agreed with Faessel on postponing the vote.
“It’s always important to make sure we don’t need to get it fast. We need to get it right,” she said.
Councilmembers Jose Diaz and Carlos Leon – who both helped craft the proposed law – along with Councilwoman Natalie Rubalcava were the dissenting votes.
Leon said he did not want to postpone approving the ordinance about a month before a few new council members would take office and that the ordinance would help maintain public trust and protect officials from ethical dilemmas.
“It really is about taking a powerful step towards a government built on transparency, accountability and public trust,” he said. “There’s always a hypothetical that we can throw out there that would support our argument to either not do something like this or to oppose something like this.”
Diaz, who is also ending his term soon, said the ordinance is not complicated.
“There is nothing hidden here. There are no tricks behind this. It’s actually very, very simple,” he said.
Anaheim’s newly hired ethics officer, Artin Berjikly, also said he supports the ordinance as best practice for the city.
“It’s just limiting a gift from certain individuals which are deemed by many localities to have the most potential of undue influence upon an official,” he said at the Nov. 13 meeting.
Other council members raised a series of questions about the proposal.
Faessel, who attended the meeting through teleconference and is terming out of office, called on officials to bump up the limit to $100, arguing that the $50 limit was too tight for some city council members to manage.
“From time to time, a lot of our colleagues attend various receptions and I’m afraid at $50 we’re literally going to have to count the pieces of shrimp we eat to make sure that we stay under the $50 limit,” he said.
Rubalcava called for behested payments – when an official solicits money from one individual or group to be given to another individual or group – not to be included in the ban.
Ultimately, Rubalcava said she supported the ordinance and voted against the continuation of the item, adding that she just wanted clarification on behested payments.
Kurtz asked whether a nonprofit giving council members a free admission to participate in a parade, giving out pumpkins from a county supervisor to constituents, or attending union events would constitute as gifts.
Berjikly said participating in the parade would not be considered a gift, noting exceptions in state law – including case by case analysis.
He also said behested payments don’t generally fall under a gift in state law.
Kurtz said the law was complicated and also had concerns about behested payments.
“We all have Christmas programs, we have turkey programs, we have senior events, we have all kinds of events that we’re asking businesses to support, and I want to make sure we can continue that work,” she said.
The meeting comes after watchdog Shirley Grindle, a resident who helped author the County of Orange’s own gift ban in 1993, called on the city to enact a gift ban of up to $10 from anyone doing business in the city in the aftermath of the corruption scandal.
Anaheim’s Proposed Gift Ban
Under the state Political Reform Act, officials are currently limited to receiving gifts worth up to $590 annually from a single source and the amount is adjusted based on consumer index prices.
Local officials in California also have to report gifts worth $50 or more in what is called a Statement of Economic Interests or Form 700.
Anaheim’s proposed ban would limit gifts to up to $50 a year from restricted sources which include lobbyists, contractors and people who have city contracts in the past year, and people who have applied or received a city license, permit or easement in the last 12 months.
It would apply to city council members and officials like the city manager.
Click here to read the proposed ordinance.
Under the proposed ban, officials could still receive gifts worth up to $590 from other sources and still receive free tickets to Angels games, Duck games and concerts at city owned venues like the convention center.
If an official violates the proposed gift ban they will have 30 days to return the gift, donate it to charity or reimburse the gift value to the sender.
Not doing so could result in the city council member receiving a censure or an infraction.
It could also mean termination for city officials who violate the proposed gift ban.
Editor’s note: Ashleigh Aitken’s father, Wylie Aitken, chairs Voice of OC’s board of directors.
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.
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