Last week, the City Council voted 4-3  to approve a proposal by Mayor Harry Sidh requiring confirmation of commission appointments by a majority vote of the council. Sidhu, Mayor Pro Tem Lucille Kring and Councilmembers Steve Faessel and Trevor O’Neil voted “yes” while Councilmembers Denise Barnes, Jordan Brandman and Jose F. Moreno were opposed. Two years ago, the Tait-Moreno council ...

The National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Show is the single biggest show that comes to the Anaheim Convention Center. This year, 115,000 people will attend the show next week (January 24-27), which has a hugely positive economic impact on Anaheim’s economy – estimated at $100 million for this year’s show. NAMM has held in Anaheim for decades, and is ...

Looking For A Win, Win, Win In Angels Negotiations Last night, my council colleagues and I voted to allow a 14-month lease extension to Angels Baseball, keeping the team in Angel Stadium through the 2020 season and allowing both sides to work together on a new long-term agreement. I give credit to Mayor Harry Sidhu for reaching out to the ...

Another item on this evening’s council agenda is a reform of how the council makes appointments to city commissions. When the Tait-Moreno majority took control of the council following the November 2016 election, it undertook a radical restructuring of city commissions: forcing a mass resignation of all commissioners and changing the appointment process to reflect district-based council elections. Commissioners would ...

One of Mayor Harry Sidhu’s priorities has been making council meetings operate in a more efficient, productive manner that is respectful of the people’s time, not to mention staff time and resources. During the Tait-Moreno majority era, council meetings turned into fatiguing marathons. At a previous council meeting, Sidhu tasked staff with developing recommendations to streamline council meetings. Those recommendations ...

As predictably as night follows day, an outbreak of hysteria has followed news of a proposed 1-year extension of the Angels’ stadium lease to facilitate negotiations to keep them in Anaheim (which is something even critics claim to want). The common thread is a freak-out over a “deal” that doesn’t exist. Giving a north county report to his Chicano Latino ...

The City of Anaheim and the Angels are hitting the re-set button in an effort to forge a mutually-beneficial agreement to keep the baseball team in Anaheim. As a first-step toward re-starting negotiations with the Angels, newly-elected Mayor Harry Sidhu is asking the city council on January 15 to extend the team’s stadium lease from October 2019 to the end ...

Ada Briceno, the jefa of UNITE-HERE Local 11 and now also chair of the Democratic Party of Orange County, has been publishing Facebook posts asking people to come join her union in picketing and noise-making in front of the Anaheim Hilton – most recently earlier today: A few hours later, Briceno published another Facebook post urging support for the Access ...

New 4th District Supervisor Doug Chaffee has hired Al Jabbar, a leading Anaheim progressive activist, as his deputy chief of staff. The 4th Supervisor District includes all of the Anaheim flatlands. Jabbar is member of the Anaheim Union High School District (AUHSD) Governing Board. Under the leadership of Jabbar and fellow progressive activist Superintendent Michael Matsuda, the AUHSD has become increasingly ...

3rd District Supervisor Todd Spitzer will step down from the Board and be sworn in as Orange County District Attorney next week, creating a vacancy to be filled by a special election on either this March 5 or 12 (the Board of Supervisors will make that decision at their January 8 meeting). Since it is a special election, there will ...