The Two Faces of Disney: word vs. deed on Anaheim Districting.

From The Orange Juice Blog:

Maybe I was a weird kid, but I never liked or trusted Disney.  Hated Disneyland and the gigantic, grinning, overbearing anthropomorphic animals, and didn’t like Disney’s films or cartoons.  They just gave me the feeling, even as a kid, that they were lying to me, covering up important things about life.  Much preferred Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Wizard of Oz, and the books of Lewis Carroll.

Years later, as a thirty-year old father, I came to appreciate… well, at least Mary Poppins andDumbo.  And as a tolerant American I realize Disney brings joy to millions, employment to thousands, and contributes to Anaheim’s economy although not nearly as much as it could and should.

So maybe I was especially qualified, when Disney released its celebrated August 8 statement last year in support of district elections in Anaheim, to look at it a little skeptically.  The headlines in all the papers read “Disney Comes Out in Support of District Elections!”  But I read the statement closely, and several times.  Here it is, and I’ve taken the liberty of bolding the third paragraph:

Dear Honorable Mayor Tait and Members of the Anaheim City Council:

Anaheim has been the home of the Disneyland Resort for nearly six decades.  As the city’s largest employer and an active community partner, one of our primary areas of focus has always been what is best for the city and its residents.  As communities evolve, so should their policies and structures.  Such is the case in Anaheim, where it is time to consider a change in the way future city leaders are elected.

We believe that city leadership should reflect the diversity of its entire population.  We support a city council elected from districts and encourage the City of Anaheim to move from at-large elections to district voting.  This shift will allow each valued neighborhood to be represented by a local council member of their choosing.  Though there are many ways to accomplish this change, we believe the most responsive way would be to place a charter amendment switching to district elections on an upcoming ballot for the voters of Anaheim to consider.

At the same time, the city could begin an open and transparent, citywide dialogue with an independent, unbiased and equitably distributed group of Anaheim residents to determine the number of seats, district boundaries, and a new governance structure for the city – one that fairly represents residents in every Anaheim neighborhood.

Anaheim is a culturally rich and vibrantly diverse city.  We believe this change would be a step toward an even stronger and more prosperous Anaheim.

Sincerely,
George M. Kalogridis
President
Disneyland Resort.

So.  That hit the world on the morning of August 8, the day that we all knew Mayor Tait was planning to  propose putting the matter on November’s ballot (just as Disney had suggested.)  All the media reported this uncritically as a straightforward endorsement for the reform, but I couldn’t help reading that third paragraph as a blueprint for procrastination and having it both ways:  Disney and its allies could appear to come out on the right, progressive side of history – in favor of democracy and diversity – while still putting off any change for as long as possible (since the status quo is serving them SO damn well) by the mechanism of endless endless study.

Read the full story here:

http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2013/03/the-two-faces-of-disney-word-vs-deed-on-anaheim-districting/

Pringle's Folly

From The OC Politics Blog:

About five years ago when he was the Mayor of Anaheim, Curt Pringle dreamed of a regional transportation center for his city — a place they named ARTIC which would be the Orange County station for the equally dreamy California High-Speed Rail system which would be zipping through town on its way to San Diego, or charging northward to LA’s Union Station (over, under or through some of the densest urban residential housing in California) and onto San Francisco and Sacramento.

Curt Pringle

The Mayor-for-hire, as he was known at Friends for Fullerton Future, or Master of the Universe as he was tagged last year at the union-funded Voice of OC, didn’t stop with just a $184 million train stationthat would partly be paid for by OCTA’s Measure M where Board Member Pringle sat for years.  From concocted ridership projections, he fantasized that Disney patrons would be coming to ARTIC by the millions, but still needed to be transported to the Mouse’s cash registers, miles away from the bullet train, and on the wrong side of the 5 Freeway.  Since Walt Disney already had a world-famous one, Pringle announced in 2007 that he needed aMONORAIL for the Disney visitors.

Read the full story here:

http://ocpoliticsblog.com/pringles-folly/#more-10591

Anaheim Releases Questionable Emails

Anaheim officials Monday released an email chain that has raised questions at City Hall over whether local officials planned to misrepresent information to a federal agency in order to obtain transportation grant funding.

The emails were released following a Voice of OC article published last Friday that quoted Mayor Tom Tait and other City Hall sources saying that on its face the email was “very disturbing.”

Natalie Meeks on the left with Kris Murray

The Feb. 2008 email chain shows Anaheim Public Works Director Natalie Meeks planning to ask for funds for one phase of the then planned monorail project but actually use the money for something else. The project has since been changed to a proposal for a less expensive streetcar system.

According to Tait, who has questioned the cost of the proposed streetcar system, there were two explanations for the email chain. One explanation has it being little more than confused wording, but another indicates a plan to deceive federal officials, Tait said.

City spokeswoman Ruth Ruiz said Monday that it is the former.

Read the full story here:

http://www.voiceofoc.org/oc_north/article_16bd092e-6f5b-11e2-846b-001a4bcf887a.html

Save Anaheim Artwork

Right to left:

Todd Ament, Carrie Nocella, Reed Royalty, Kris Murray, Harry Sidhu, Curt Pringle, Jill Kanzler, Jordan Brandman, and Steve Lodge.

SOAR, Orange County Business Council, OC Taxpayers Association, Anaheim Chamber of Commerce, Disney

Kris Murray

Harry Sidhu

Gail Eastman

Letters to the OC Register

click to enlarge

ANAHEIM, Margaret Hoien:

Victor Andrade’s Oct. 22 letter states that the “gang problem in Anaheim must be addressed.” I could not agree more. I wonder if Andrade and other Anaheim residents know what is looming over the Anaheim City Council elections this Nov. 6 that could severely further disable the Anaheim police and City Council from being able to do anything much to contain the current gang problem, much less keep it from growing into more areas of our city?

Disneyland has funded the election campaigns of two City Council candidates to the tune of about $300,000 through contributions to local political action committees. Disney is supporting Jordan Brandman, a school district board member under investigation by the Orange County district attorney for using district resources for his own benefit. The other council candidate that Disney thinks is appropriate for our city is retired cop Steve Lodge, who lost a federal jury trial where the plaintiff, a jaywalker, was awarded $612,000, because he was thrown to the ground and beaten with a baton.

Disneyland is spending so much of its  hard-earned park admission fees on these two in order to gain control over the Anaheim City Council and continue to divert even more of our tax dollars to their favorite developers to keep building up their empty Resort District, their hip lofts that no one lives in, their hotels no one stays in, their stores no one shops in, so they can maintain that fake “Disneyland” feel all throughout the “Resort” area while the rest of the city has that great “crime-ridden, rundown infrastructure, graffiti-riddled, drug-dealing, crime-spree” feel from the lack of police services and basic city services due to the layoffs required after our tax dollars are all robbed in the name of progress for the Resort District.

All Anaheim voters need to do their research carefully before they cast their ballot for City Council. Look to the people who are not supported by Disney and the developers.

Elect those who will represent the people of the city, not the make-believe land.

Check out the article over at the OC Register's site:

http://letters.ocregister.com/2012/10/31/disney-resort-jockeys-for-power-in-council-race/

Disney vs. Anaheim

by Vern Nelson of the Orange Juice Blog

We broke the news here back in August, in our seminal and controversial piece “Disney’s Incest Problem,” that Disney and the OCEA had a secret gentleman’s agreement in this year’s Anaheim Council race – Disney would refrain from attacking OCEA’s boy John Leos, and OCEA would refrain from attacking Disney’s boy Jordan Brandman.

This was around the same time – could it have been exactly the same time? – as the obvious Faustian bargain OCEA made with the Pringle/resort forces where the union would get that sweetheart deal from the Council majority in return for their yanking funding and support away from the “Let the People Vote” initiative.

Such nauseating secret bargains are never quite proven, they’re known first by rumor and then confirmed by the results we all witness.  We civilians only see the shadows of the miscreants flitting against the wall – inexplicably great deal passed, funding suddenly yanked without explanation, two controversial candidates passing unmolested by the moneyed forces, Brandman even receiving the Labor endorsement for Christ’s sake!

It’s never good for the little people when the most powerful forces make secret pacts with each other.  The simple man on the street – for example you or I – mutters to himself, “Shades of Darkness at Noon,” before remind himself that comparing Disney or OCEA to Stalin and Hitler is a bit of a stretch.   But still visions dance through the man on the street’s head of the final scene in Orwell’s Animal Farm:

“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”

Well, the good news is those days are over – Disney has been busted, by clever internet detectives including Save Anaheim’s Jason Young and Think OC’s Cynthia Ward, funneling money through the fatuous Lucy Dunn’s OC Business Council, which in turn hands it over to a PAC run by Curt Pringle and Councilwoman Kris Murray named “Citizens For Anaheim’s Future”  – who have in turn spent over 30 grand of laundered Disney money SO FAR sending out defamatory hit pieces on Leos and Kring.  (It’ll probably turn out this is also the way uber-hack Matt Cunningham is getting paid to run HIS poisonous little Bandman-Lodge bloglet.)

And this arrangement has not escaped the notice of the OCEA, whose canny general manager Nick Berardino won’t confirm or deny to me the existence of the original truce, but mourns to me with crocodile tears, “We never WANTED to attack Jordan, but seeing Disney’s money trail left us no choice.”  LOL.  Now the natural order is restored, men once again can be men and pigs pigs.  Let’s look at some of the fruits of the new hostilities, shall we?

Read the rest of the story at:

http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2012/10/the-gloves-come-off-in-anaheim-the-blogosphere-salivates/

Disney funding NEGATIVE campaign

The Walt Disney Company is so desperate to retain power over the Anaheim City Council that they have begun funding a negative campaign against John Leos and Lucille Kring.

Here's how they have funneled their money to hit Mayor Tom Tait's reform team:

1. Disney directly gives $100,000 the Orange County Business Council (OCBC) in addition to $15,000 funneled thru SOAR aka Screw Our Anaheim Residents.

2. OCBC turns around and gives $24,000 to a PAC entitled Citizens for Anaheim's Future chaired by Anaheim City council member Kris Murray.

3. Citizens for Anaheim's Future spends the following on anti-Kriing/Leos mailers:

a. $11,1136.60 John Leos

b. $12,331.04 John Leos

c. $11,804.07 Lucille Kring

That's a whole lot of money spent on a negative campaign against candidates endorsed by The OC Register and Mayor Tom Tait.

The big questions is. Why would Disney spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to try and elect Jordan Brandman and Steve Lodge if there wasn't something in it for them? They have already been given $158 million for two luxury hotels they plan to brand/operate at GardenWalk. Puppets Eastman and Murray have green lit the $300+ million streetcar to ferry their guests. What more could Disney want in the next few years?

Where does all the Anaheim Resort revenue go?

TOT, for those first-timers to Save Anaheim, stands for Transient Occupancy Tax. It is charged to each guest who stays in an a resort area hotel. The funds generated are used by the City of Anaheim in various capacities.

At a recent Anaheim City Council candidate debate the idea of setting aside 1% of the TOT for various city services was proposed. I personally think this would be the ideal way to fund a pro-active code enforcement dept., increase graffiti abatement efforts, clean up our parks, and provide for services that directly affects the residents.

Pringle sympathizers have stated that "In fact, what this approach does is compresses elected officials’ room to maneuver when setting budget and policy priorities — which is what we elect them to do."

The problem is, the priorities of this current council majority have not been focused on the needs of the residents. Instead they have focused on spending millions on the Anaheim Resort area. That is why the idea of a gate tax or setting aside 1% of the TOT revenue has been proposed. If we don't set aside funds specifically for residential services the council majority will simply continue to giveaway vital TOT revenue to Anaheim Resort causes.

Did you know that 50% of the TOT revenue generated goes right back to the resort area to pay off debt (according to City of Anaheim spokesperson Ruth Ruiz)? Debt the city incurred that directly benefits the Disneyland Resort. Such as new landscaping, road improvements, custom street lighting, fencing, etc. . .  

So out of $90 million collected only $45 million remains in the City of Anaheim's general fund. Asking for a mere 1% to be diverted to fund services that directly benefits the residents doesn't seem like a whole lot to ask for.

Disney lobbyist Carrie Nocella, Councilwoman Kris Murray, and their puppet candidate Jordan Brandman.

Disney wants more Anaheim tax $$$$$

It isn't enough that Disney and their minions at SOAR, OCTAX, OCBC, and The Anaheim Chamber of Commerce pushed thru the GIVEAWAY of $158 million in future tax revenue to build 2 luxury hotels at the GardenWalk Ghost Town. Hotels that were, and I believe still are, slated to be operated and branded as Disney properties. 

Disney President George Kalogridis and Jordan Brandman.

To jog your memory, read this portion of a City of Anaheim staff report and then watch SOAR aka Disney members vocally supporting the $158 million giveaway:

click to enlarge

Now Disney wants Anaheim and federal/state tax dollars to fund a ridiculous rail system to shuttle its guests between ARTIC, their future 4 star Disney branded and operated GardenWalk hotels, and the Anaheim Convention Center.

Disney's business model is absolutely genius. Here's how, I believe, they pulled off the $158 million GardenWalk Hotel deal:

Step 1: Mayor Curt Pringle begins subsidizing hotel development under his administration. GardenWalk Hotel developer and Pringle pal Bill O'Connell applies for the subsidy. The City of Anaheim hires Keyser Marston and Assoc. to determine how much subsidy is needed. O'Connell receives a $40 million subsidy and Disney gets on board to operate and brand the hotels once built. GardenWalk fails and goes bankrupt before the hotels are built.

Step 2: Disney spends hundreds of thousands of dollars in 2010 to elect a puppet council consisting of Eastman, Murray, and Tait. All backed by Disney, SOAR, OCBC, OCTAX, and the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce. Unfortunately for them, Tom Tait can't be bought but that's no problem  cause they still have Sidhu when it comes to voting to increase the subsidy.

Step 3: O'Connell comes back to the council (with Pringle now his paid lobbyist) and asks for an increase of $118 million (80% of the TOT for 15 years) due to the current market conditions. Without any study whatsoever to determine if this amount is reasonable (as they had done in 2009), Kris Murray, Gail Eastman, and Harry Sidhu vote to giveaway $158 million in future tax revenue. Mayor Tom Tait, Lorri Galloway, and our current City Manager and former finance director Bob Wigenroth OPPOSE the plan. Subsequently a lawsuit is filed against the City of Anaheim and a drive to allow voters to  approve future subsidies is set in motion. 

Step 4: The Anaheim City Clerk gives incorrect information to the group trying to get a ballot measure passed to allow voters to approve future subsidies. Signature drive fails. Mayor Tait brings forward a motion to put ballot initiative on the ballot and it is voted down by the Disney majority. Murray, Eastman, and Sidhu claim it's all about jobs when the reality is there is no agreement that calls for anyone local to be hired, to pay prevailing wages, or hire union labor. In addition there is no community benefit (ie. parks, affordable housing, etc. .) like there was for LA Live in downtown LA (which was heavily subsidized). LA residents received the following community benefits in relation to the LA LIVE Project:

$1,000,000 for the creation or improvement of parks and recreational facilities.

$25,000 per year for a term of five years for the creation of a residential parking permit program.

An agreement to comply with the city’s living wage ordinance and to make all reasonable efforts to reach the goal of ensuring that 70% of the jobs created by the project pay a living wage.

An agreement to give priority hiring to persons displaced by the project and to low income individuals residing within three miles of the project.

Job training programs to be coordinated with community groups.

$100,000 in seed money for a first source (i.e. local) hiring program.

A requirement that 20% of the residential units in the project be affordable.

$650,000 in interest-free loans to non-profit housing developers for the creation of additional affordable housing.

An agreement to cooperate with the coalition to establish an advisory committee to assist with the implementation and enforcement of the agreement.

Step 5: The heavily Disney funded groups (OCBC, SOAR, OCTAX, Chamber of Commerce) work to elect new puppets to replace Galloway and Sidhu. Choosing to run Jordan Brandman and Steve " Chavez" Lodge. Apparently they didn't vet Lodge cause it turns out he was found liable for using excessive force against a jaywalker and cost the City of Santa Ana hundreds of the thousand of dollars. Documents from the case, obtained by our sources, show that the federal judge called Lodge a liar.

click to enlarge

Then we have Jordan Brandman who:

a. Vocally supported the giveaway of $158 million in future tax revenue at two city council meetings.

b. Takes credit for Oxford Academy for which he had nothing to do with.

c. Is being investigated by the DA for wrongdoing at AUHSD.

d. Opposed the Let the People vote initiative that would have put future giveaway decisions in the hands of Anaheim voters.

e. Supported by SOAR, OCBC, OCTAX, and The Anaheim Chamber of Commerce. The four entities that could care less about our community and who's sole purpose is to line their own pocketbooks.

Jordan Brandman with Disney lobbyist Carrie Nocella inside Disneyland.

Step 6 (the future): Brandman gets elected, cause we all know Lodge is toast, and continues the master plans of Eastman/Murray/Pringle/Disney. Which would include:

1. Expanding the Anaheim Convention Center by using the nonexistent additional TOT revenue that they gave away to the GardenWalk Hotel developer for 15 years.

2. Pushing forward Disney's taxpayer funded rail system to shuttle their guests. to their new GardenWalk Hotels and theme parks.

3. Use the failed ARCTIC transportation hubs massive parking garage to house Disney's 3rd gate parking lot. Why build it themselves when they can have one built on someone else's dime and reap all the benefits?

4. Grant more and more extensions to the GardenWalk hotel developer and maybe even approve a larger more outrageous TOT subsidy. Cause we all know it's really about jobs not corporate welfare to the elite of OC.

Curt Pringle enjoying an event thrown by OCBC.

Mr. Pringle, do you realize that I would never have created this blog, spent money promoting candidates and opposing yours, spoken out at council meetings, commented on articles online, distributed lawn signs, filed public records requests, etc. . if you and your council majority simply took care of the basics:

1. A pro-active code enforcement department to keep property owners accountable for maintaining their properties. I shouldn't have to call the city to come out and force my neighbors to simply mow their lawn, paint their house, pick-up trash, etc. . .

2. A graffiti abatement program staffed by full time employees not the part time folks we have working on it now. A full time problem needs a full time staff. Funny how I never see graffiti in the Disneyland Resort area.

3. Curbing the swap meets that take place on my neighbors lawns on a weekly basis. Garage sales are for getting rid of unwanted junk once a year not to supplement ones income.

4. Limiting the amount of ice cream trucks who annoy me and my neighbors on a daily basis. We are up to 4 right now. One plays Christmas music year round. :(

5. Cleaning up our parks, expanding library hours, replacing retired police office etc. . .

It's all about balance really. All of Anaheim needs to be supported not just the Anaheim resort. That's where you made your biggest mistake Mr. Pringle.

Curt Pringle giving his orders to Disney lobbyist Carrie Nocella.