Too bad the city of Anaheim has chosen to ignore its better angels
SACRAMENTO » Longtime Anaheim watchers, myself included, need to restrain from our schadenfreude – the German word for “pleasure derived from another person’s misfortune.” We’ve eagerly read the details of a federal-corruption probe into the “cabal” of city insiders who, to paraphrase H.L. Mencken, showed as much public spiritedness as your average streetwalker.
In reality, it’s a sad story that didn’t have to turn out this way. Anaheim could have followed its better angels and pursued the path blazed by its more civic-minded past leaders, who preferred freedom-friendly policies to crony capitalism.
The government hasn’t charged anyone with a crime, but Mayor Harry Sidhu resigned as Anaheim’s mayor last week, after an FBI affidavit alleges that he “shared privileged and confidential information with the Angels during stadium sale negotiations ... and expects to receive campaign contributions as a result.” Sidhu denies any wrongdoing.
I almost wrote “Arizona resident Harry Sidhu” because the FBI also alleges that Sidhu — who presumably lives in Anaheim Hills — registered a helicopter he purchased at a Scottsdale address to avoid paying more than $15,000 in California taxes.
In a separate matter, a federal affidavit details an alleged plot in which former Anaheim Chamber of Commerce CEO Todd Ament and a political consultant “devised a scheme to launder proceeds intended for the Chamber through the PR firm into Ament’s bank account” to help him buy a mountain home, according to the United States Attorney’s Office. We should withhold judgment until it plays out.
But this is what caught my eye. The feds claim that Ament and that consultant were the ringleaders of a small insider group that “allegedly exert(ed)