Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu resigns amid federal investigation

Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu, who is under federal investigation for alleged corruption in the sale of Angel Stadium, resigned effective Tuesday, May 24, according to a statement from his attorney Monday.

“Mayor Sidhu has always, as his foremost priority, acted in the best interests of the city of Anaheim,” attorney Paul S. Meyer said in a statement. “In order to continue to act in the best interests of Anaheim and to allow this great city to move forward without distraction, Harry Sidhu has resigned from his post as mayor effective May 24, 2022.

“Meeting the needs of the community has been, and will always be, Harry Sidhu’s top priority.”

All members of the Anaheim City Council last week called for Sidhu’s resignation after federal investigators revealed allegations against him in an affidavit in support of a search warrant.

Sidhu has not been charged. The city’s charter requires a vacated seat be filled by appointment; if the council members can’t reach a decision within 60 days, it goes to a special election.

But city spokesman Mike Lyster said “we are in a unique situation where we sit now,” because the 60 days would land within just a few months of the November election, after the window opens for candidates to file.

“We’ve not fully done due diligence on this yet,” Lyster said. “We believe our charter will allow council to just put this before our voters in November.”

City staffers will be researching the options available to the council, he said.

Unless a council member requests an emergency addition to the council’s Tuesday meeting, they will not be allowed to discuss the opening until a meeting can be noticed to the public for the required amount of time, Lyster said.

“I think it’s the appropriate thing to do,” said state Sen. Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana, of Sidhu’s resignation, reached between votes on the Senate floor.

Before Sidhu’s announcement, Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley added her voice Monday to the chorus asking Sidhu to resign, with the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday morning gearing up to vote on a resolution also requesting his resignation.

Foley on Monday called for an audit of all active contracts Orange County and the Orange County Transportation Authority have with Angels Baseball and the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce.

Anaheim Councilman Jose Moreno shared his thoughts on Twitter and suggested an all-purpose cleaner be used in the city.

“The resignation of Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu is a necessary, but not sufficient step. The corrosive effects of money in elections pervades our city. Bring out the ‘Fabuloso’ and let’s clean this up Anaheim,” he tweeted.

Sidhu so far hasn’t responded to the investigation. He skipped last week’s Anaheim City Council meeting and his seat would have been declared vacant if he missed the council’s Tuesday meeting.

Sidhu’s attorney insisted in his statement that Sidhu will be cleared.

“A fair and thorough investigation will prove that Mayor Harry Sidhu did not leak secret information in the hopes of a later political campaign contribution,” Meyer said.

He later addressed a specific allegation that Sidhu gave a political consultant information to pass on to the Angels in the negotiations for the stadium’s sale.

“No closed session material, no secret information, was disclosed by Mayor Sidhu,” Meyer said.

Sidhu’s resignation comes a few days after the Angels and SRB Management (formed by Angels owner Arte Moreno for the transaction) sent Anaheim a letter late Friday demanding the city approve the Angel Stadium sale by June 14, saying it “was the result of an honest arms-length negotiations with city staff and its advisors, and has been thoroughly analyzed and debated.”

The City Council is set Tuesday night to get a briefing on and discuss the stadium deal in light of the news of the federal investigations. In recent days, some council members have expressed reservations about proceeding; Mayor Pro Tem Trevor O’Neil has publicly said he doesn’t support going ahead.

Sidhu was among the strongest supporters of the sale’s terms, which have been derided by many critics as too favorable to the Angels and not beneficial enough to Anaheim. The $320 million deal has been touted by its supporters for its ability to create a vibrant entertainment district with restaurants, shops, thousands of apartments and condos and 45,000 jobs.

Sen. Umberg joined Assemblyman Tom Daly and Congressman Lou Correa in writing a letter Monday to Anaheim council members arguing “as new information continues to come to light” the sale of the stadium “must be cancelled.”

They also suggest any council member identified by investigators — all names in the publicly released affidavits have been redacted — should recuse themselves from negotiations until the investigations are concluded, and the city should use an independent professional negotiator.

They also call for a new appraisal of the stadium property.

Sidhu’s resignation will also remove him from agencies, such as the Orange County Transportation Authority and Orange County Water District, that he represented for the city. A new city representative will need to be selected.

This is the second resignation in recent days tied to the investigation.

Melahat Rafiei on Sunday night resigned from her elected leadership roles as a state representative for the Democratic National Committee and as secretary for the California Democratic Party.

She told the Southern California News Group that she also resigned Saturday from her appointed roles on the OC Fair Board and on Anaheim’s Cultural and Heritage Commission, saying the investigation had “become a distraction” from the important work all of these groups need to do.