So much for the detente between the city of Anaheim and the state of California over the Los Angeles Angels stadium land sale and whether it violated the state’s Surplus Land Act, which requires public land to be offered up for affordable housing before it’s sold for other development. The two parties came to a Rube Goldberg-y solution last month that involved Angels owner Arte Moreno taking money he’d been given in exchange for promising to build affordable housing and putting it in an affordable housing fund, but now the California Department of Housing and Community Development is saying that the city’s actual plan is some bullshit:
In a statement, the agency said the revised agreement — which cut the promised number of affordable housing units in the proposed Angel Stadium development by about 80% — shows the city and the Angels owner Arte Moreno’s development company “don’t take our enforcement and affordable housing seriously.”…
“The revised DDA is evidence the city and SRB don’t take our enforcement and affordable housing seriously. HCD will exercise everything in our power to hold them accountable.
“It is difficult to see how the DDA aligns with the stipulated judgment. We encourage the city council to reject the revised DDA.”
The state’s objection appears to be that the city’s plan allows Moreno to build less affordable housing on the stadium site, though the money he got from the city to build the city-required affordable housing on the site he was buying from the city — hey, I did say Rube Goldberg-y — would be available to build affordable housing elsewhere. As for what exactly the state is seeking here, The Los Angeles Times story eventually threw up its hands and said: “It is unclear how HCD believes the city might have violated the judgment, or what provisions of the judgment HCD might be seeking to enforce,” after HCD refused to elaborate.
What happens next is … okay, it doesn’t appear anyone knows what happens next. The Anaheim council almost certainly isn’t going to vote to reject the deal that it made in the first place, so unless by “everything in our power” the state agency means it’s threatening to actually pull out of the agreement, this likely goes nowhere. But maybe not! News stories that break on Fridays are the absolute worst, man.
Former Mayor Tom Tait seemed to have a pretty good handle on the economics of the situation, and what Moreno was trying to do. It just goes to show that waiting for dumber officials to be elected is usually a good strategy.
It sure is.
Ho Ho, the feds are in on it now: https://www.ocregister.com/2022/05/16/feds-investigating-anaheim-mayor-harry-sidhu-over-angel-stadium-sale/
I’ll start the popcorn.
This is going to be good: http://www.latimes.com/sports/angels/story/2022-05-16/angel-stadium-land-sale-anaheim-mayor-corruption-investigation
Let’s hope so, Drew. Unfortunately these things sometimes end with the investigative body concluding that the subject of the investigation “may not have acted entirely within a manner consistent with accepted standards”.
The subject then issues a statement saying “I am pleased that the investigation has cleared me of all wrong doing. I apologize for any minor and unintentional errors I may have made during this lengthy and complex process”, and refuses to explain where he or she got the money to buy the new $30m boat, or why s/he is now living in a secure luxury compound in which the market rent is $50k/month etc.
I genuinely hope it will be different this time.
Yes, true, but did you read the articles? Pretty strong statements from the Feds.
“In an affidavit, FBI special agent Brian Adkins stated Sidhu “has attempted to obstruct an Orange County grand jury inquiry into the Angel Stadium deal.” The agent also said he believed there was probable cause that Sidhu “may have engaged in criminal offenses,” including fraud, theft or bribery, making false statements, obstruction of justice and witness tampering.
The agent said he also found probable cause to believe that Sidhu shared confidential information about sale negotiations with the Angels “with the expectation of receiving a sizeable contribution to his reelection campaign from a prominent Angels representative.”
The agent also said Sidhu had taken actions that led to “the withholding of information from an Orange County grand jury and an Orange County Superior Court judge in a civil matter” related to the sale.”
Yes. And I also read the Mueller report, which if anything was even more clear that crimes had been committed.
Mr. Musk called someone a “Paedo” in writing.
And yet…