After years of negotiations, the Anaheim city council is set to debate and vote on the plan to sell the Los Angeles Angels stadium and its surrounding parking lots to team owner Arte Moreno for development in just a single hearing, held naturally enough on the afternoon of the Friday before Christmas. I’m going to start by heading over to Twitter to do the play-by-play, so meet me over there, and open up your streaming video of the hearing if you want to watch along.
Going to re-paste the Twitter thread here as we go, because this hearing is dirt-boring (sorry: spoilers!) and I need to keep myself busy:
We start with Meet The Appraisers! If anyone in the room hasn't fallen asleep already, my kudos to them.
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes) December 20, 2019
From the sound of it, either Anaheim or the Angels can back out of the deal after today if they don't like how the environmental review or site plan is going. Still, a council vote is usually seen as a fait accompli — it's hard to picture the city scrapping the deal later.
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes) December 20, 2019
"This decision to buy the land has not been rushed," says an Angels rep, no doubt thinking of all the behind-closed-doors meetings he's been to. But I think the question is whether the city's decision to *sell* the land is being rushed, which is slightly different.
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes) December 20, 2019
So far five straight Angels reps and partners have given testimony before councilmembers can even speak. Is this how things normally work in Southern California?
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes) December 20, 2019
Okay, apparently this is just going to be members of the public declaring which side they're on, without anyone from the city having to answer any questions. This is what governments do these days in lieu of actual democracy: Put up a live-action comments board.
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes) December 20, 2019
The scoring so far: "The Angels are just that, angels!" vs. "Arte should be paying us for the privilege of playing in our city!"
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes) December 20, 2019
Then his time ran out, and he was followed by a guy talking about how great construction worker jobs are. Democracy!
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes) December 20, 2019
And someone just quoted me as saying "Voting on this deal today would be like voting on the Oscars after just watching the trailers." I don't even remember who I said that to, but I'll stand behind it.
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes) December 20, 2019
It looks like there's a couple of hours of public testimony to go before councilmembers get to ask questions, so you may want to go get some dinner or do holiday shopping and tune back in then. Unless you're just in it for the Jim Fregosi references, in which case stay tuned in!
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes) December 20, 2019
Councilmember Denise Barnes, sounding wiped after 5+ hours of meeting, calls on the council to "postpone the vote until we have a complete proposal."
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes) December 21, 2019
Councilmember Moreno, the other main critic of the stadium land sale, seconds Barnes' motion, asks city manager Zapata to answer questions raised by Toms Daly and Umberg in their open letter.
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes) December 21, 2019
2) If property values rise between now and 2025, how do we know it won’t be worth more then? Zapata: Maybe we can negotiate that later.
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes) December 21, 2019
Sorry, Anaheim planning director David Belmer has been providing answers, not Zapata.
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes) December 21, 2019
5. How do we know this is the top price the city can get? Belmer: "I think the answer is, coming soon to a theater near you."
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes) December 21, 2019
(I’m leaving out the part where Moreno got interrupted by a virus warning on his computer screen, because that was just too bizarre.)
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes) December 21, 2019
(If anyone is holding their breath waiting to see how the council votes on the land sale itself, you really can stop now.)
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes) December 21, 2019
Too much experience in this area.
This is a done deal.
Moreno gets what he wants. Anaheim residents, you get the Los Angeles Angels.
God bless Councilwoman Barnes and Councilman Moreno. You have, or maybe you do, no idea of the pressure to be a publicly elected official representing the best interests of your city and constituents, to be in a public setting when the deck is stacked against you, to maintain your calm, cool and poise, when opposing Council-members want nothing better than to shut you down so they may push through their deal as quickly as possible.