Reading Matt Cunningham’s coverage of the Anaheim Citizens Advisory Committee process ought to be an eye-opener for anyone concerned about the future of our city. It has put all other media coverage combined to shame.
Sad to say, it has largely been hijacked by a confederacy of highly-organized and well-funded liberal pressure groups with direct representation on the CAC, courtesy of Mayor Tom Tait and former Councilwoman Lorri Galloway.
Take a look at the CAC Chair, Vivian Pham. When Tom Tait appointed her, she had only lived in Anaheim for two years, according to voter records sent to me.
Two years! Anaheim is more than a century-and-a-half old. The CAC is making recommendations to the City Council about how our city will be governed for the next century. And the Mayor appoints a new arrival with no understanding of the history, culture or political landscape of Anaheim? Shouldn’t that make Cynthia Ward go into “tilt” mode?
Pham is a liberal Democrat who, in her day job as a “community development officer” for Wells Fargo Bank, has shoveled almost one hundred thousand dollars into the coffers of OCCORD, the group leading the lobbying effort targeting the CAC.
Conflict, anyone?
I’m told that when the odious, unbalanced William Fitzgerald spoke during public comments at a CAC meeting last month, Pham put him on the agenda for the next CAC meeting because she ignorantly thought his Anaheim HOME “organization” was a legitimate organization that would support single-member council districts.
Obviously, Pham has never attended or even watched an Anaheim City Council meeting!
And this is who our conservative Republican mayor appoints to the Citizens Advisory Committee? He couldn’t find someone who actually has roots in Anaheim? Who wasn’t completely entangled with the pro-council district advocates?
Speaking of conflicts, there is Martin Lopez, a member of the executive board of UNITE-HERE Local 11, which was relentlessly lobbied the CAC throughout the process. If it were a Disney executive on the CAC and Disney were mounting a full-court press on the committee, VOC’s Adam Elmharek would be pumping out an article every day.
Lopez was appointed by the liberal Galloway, which we’d expect; we didn’t expect Tait to appoint TWO liberal Democrats (the other being Bill Dalati).
As I wrote, Anaheim Blog’s publisher has covered this process in far greater depth than either the Orange County Register or the Voice of OC. The latter, predictably, completely ignores the lefty/union campaign to game the process and restricted its coverage to Kris Murray appointing two replacements when her original ones resigned. But the Voice’s coverage is so obviously biased and agenda-driven that it can’t attempt to deny it.
The hope is the Anaheim City Council is wise to these shenanigans and refuses to be taken in by the OCCORD/UNITE-HERE astro-turf campaign. And at some point, Anaheim residents deserve an answer as to why Mayor Tait would appoint a recent transplant with an agenda and no roots in Anaheim to such a critical role in shaping the city’s future. Did he know about her close ties to OCCORD? Did he know she had only lived here for two years and knew little of our city?
Transparency is a good thing, right?
We expect liberal pressure groups like OCCORD to try to game the process. It’s a shame Mayor Tait gave them an assist, and the Register and Voice of OC turned a blind eye to it.
9 comments
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April 22, 2013 at 6:44 pm
Anna
I was at the CAC when Mr. Lopez nominated Ms. Pham who wasn’t even in attendance – she was 20 minutes late arriving and I believe he asked the question “is it okay to nominate someone who’s not present’? It was the strangest thing to me how important role was orchestrated !
April 22, 2013 at 7:30 pm
Credo
That doesn’t surprise me Anna. My wife was at the workshop on July 11th of last year at City Hall and Martin Lopez actually goes on record during public comments and states that he hopes that this issue does NOT go to a vote before the people of Anaheim but instead that a judge would just force single-member districts upon the city. It was an appaulling revelation of how desparately committed these left wing liberal coalitions are to taking over Anaheim.
April 22, 2013 at 7:49 pm
Mr. Phelps
Exactly! Liberal Democrats? Lefty newbies who’ve barely lived here? What’s the deal with Tait these days?
April 22, 2013 at 9:45 pm
Anaheim Avenger
Fingers crossed that Council member Kring will announce her candidacy for mayor soon so we can all start the drum beat behind her.
I can’t see any reason imaginable that Scott Baugh could give for continuing to stand behind Tait after appointing liberal dems to such an important committee. Solid republicans across the county have been vilified by the OCGOP for much much less.
April 23, 2013 at 8:20 am
RMN in Anaheim
Good point about Cynthia Ward. If Murray or Eastman had appointed someone who’d just moved to Anaheim, she would have been all over them. Or if SOAR and the Chamber of Commerce had run the same kind of lobbying drill. Tait does it and she keeps her mouth shut.
April 23, 2013 at 9:55 am
ReasonableGuy2
Tom Tait being re-elected as Mayor in Anaheim will never happen. Besides gang members, who will support this guy?
ABT – Anybody But Tait….He should just go away and keep building hotels in Garden Grove, and keep spending his Dad’s money.
April 23, 2013 at 10:40 am
Stand for Anaheim
Good point reasonableguy2! Can anyone look to see who the environmental firm is getting at the Garden Grove hotel business? You know, the ones all getting TOT rebates and land? Yeah, that is Tait & Associates.
April 23, 2013 at 2:19 pm
Anaheim714
With the OC economy recovering and business ready to reinvest in communities, it’s a very scary though that we would have Tait in office. A great leader could harness this time to create Anaheim’s greatest growth period in decades. With Tait we will get the Los Angeles-ification of our city.
April 26, 2013 at 4:10 pm
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[…] or not, switching to single-member council districts). Mayor Tom Tait and the councilmembers each appointed two members to the […]