[Author’s note: I was originally trying to get the lion’s share of the JL Report of its investigations into Anaheim onto our virtual pages, but unfortunately the PDF does not allow copying and pasting with anything other than Adobe Acrobat Pro. After struggling with it for several days — during which I manually typed in this roster of JL Group’s witnesses and of people who they asked to testify but refused — I was finally able to get a Word copy from an online friend who heard my pleas. But the degree of difficulty reminded me that there is a good reason not to make the full text available: our own Roger Stone equivalents would be able to put out falsely edited copies of the JL Report for them to attack. They could actually do so with our without our publishing the whole thing here — I’m sure that they could buy innumerable copies of the needed program — for now I’d rather not be accused of facilitating such forgeries. The main things I wanted it for was (1) to use for the magic of Control-F and (2) to be able to quote from the report more extensively without having to retype it all (possibly introducing transcription errors myself. I can already search my copy; those deeper-dive summaries and discussions — beyond what we’ve seen published so far — will appear in time. At various points, we may insert some comments in [bracketed bold italic]: that’s how we roll. (“CoA” stands for “City of Anaheim” and I’ve used other abbreviations to titles and affiliations.) I’ve also edited each person’s listing for space.]
[WARNING: Being re-keyed in, this list may contain typos! If an error didn’t lead to red squiggly lines, I likely didn’t notice it! The definitive version is what you see at the linked document!]
We’ll start near the bottom of page 307, Section XVI of the report. This introduces a list of witnesses and their titles or affiliations. We’ll mostly skip or summarize the latter. This list is divided into two parts: (1) witnesses who consented to be interviewed and (2) witnesses who refused to be interviewed. But first, their prefatory remarks:
Our investigation identified many relevant witnesses who might have provided important details to our investigators in order to discover what had occurred related to several events and/or issues. Human sources of information are vital to a fact-finding investigation. We were pleased that the majority of witnesses we contacted were willing to assist our investigation. Their cooperation was vital to our Investigation. We were also disappointed that certain potential key witnesses declined to cooperate with us either directly or through their attorneys. Some never responded to our requests for help. No person was required to speak with us (except City employees) or to provide other assistance, as such cooperation and assistance could not be lawfully compelled.
[N.b. Such cooperation, of course, can be compelled by the OC District Attorney, California Attorney General, and relevant federal agencies, under subpoena, consistent with rights against criminal self-incrimination. The question then becomes: does one want to be among the few who doesn’t get to tell their side of a story?]
So as not to bury the lead, here’s the list (pgs. 314-15) of people/entities who declined interview requests:
- Todd Ament
- Adam Birozy
- Lucy Dunn
- Roger Faubel
- Jeff Flint
- Lisa Hughes
- Jill Kanzler
- Margaret Larson
- Gloria Ma’ae
- Kris Murray
- Carrie Nocella
- Crystal Norman
- Bill O’Connell
- Curt Pringle
- Harry Sidhu
- Ryder Smith
- Leslie Swan
- Angels Staff
- Disney Staff
[N.b. I note the absence of two people’s names from either list: Jordan Brandman and Melahat Rafiei. My guess is the JLG did solicit both, in which case they belong on the above list. We’ll ask JLG soon.]
WITNESSES INTERVIEWED, [SOMETIMES] WITH TITLES AND/OR AFFILIATIONS
From pages 308-315:
- Mindy Abel (Deputy Director, Anaheim Convention Center.)
- Jerry Amante (former Tustin Council; lawyer; FSB Consulting [Fred Brown]; CoA registered lobbyist)
- Linda Andal (former Interim CoA City Manager; Former City Clerk, now Human Resources Director)
- Rafael Anguiano (Code Enforcement)
- John Armstrong (former CoA Planning Commissioner, voted to approve $150MM Stadium sale)
- Shawn Azarhoosh (CoA Principal Civil Engineer)
- May Bahu (Sister of Isa Bahu, owner of land at Imperial & La Palma [developed into ARCO station])
- Denise Barnes (City Councilmember 2016-20)
- Arianna Barrios (CEO, Communications Lab; Orange City Council; Registered CoA lobbyist) [Murray?]
- Nam Bartash (Sr. Council Aide to Faessel)
- Sarah Bartczak (Sr. Policy Aide to Kring and Diaz); former VP of Anaheim Chamber of Commerce)
- Theresa Bass (CoA, since 2007 as Asst. City Clerk, then City Clerk)
- Kenneth Batiste (Former City Council Candidate vs. Faessel); Anaheim Democrats officer
- David Belmer (Former CoA Deputy City Manager)
- Jay Burress (CEO Visit Anaheim; Anaheim First Board of Directors)
- Alex Burrola (Sr. VP, Presidio Public Affairs; Former Sr. Vice Pres, Public Affairs, FBS [FSB?])
- Brooke Bushart (Former Account Supervisor, FSB Mgmnt [Jeff Flint])
- Jim Cain (Operations Manager, Anaheim Hills Commun. Council; Anaheim Econ Development Corp)
- Sherry Cain (Former Secretary, Anaheim Chamber of Commerce)
- Jorge Cisneros (CoA Police Chief since 2018)
- Kevin Clausen (COA Project Manager, Economic Development)
- Wally Courtney (Kott Real Estate, Commercial Real Estate focus)
- Bill Cunningham (CEO of BERT, whatever BERT is)
- Laura Cunningham (Current ACOC CEO, worked for Chamber of Commerce since 2019)
- Greg Diamond (Former Counsel for CATER (aka “Cynthia Ward’s Group”) and, hey, no OJB??)
- Marcie Edwards (Former CoA City Manager, 2013-14; former GM, Anaheim Public Utilities)
- Rudy Emami (CoA Public Works Director; 20-year CoA employee)
- Rob Fabela (Current Anaheim City Attorney, since 2018)
- Stephen Faessel (Current City Councilmember)
- Melodie Farr (Former ACoC 1099 employee, 2003-2010)
- Daniel Fierro (Former Council aide to Brandman; now CEO of Presidio Public Affairs)
- Lorri Galloway (City Councilmember, 2004-12; Eli Home)
- Greg Garcia (CoA Deputy City Manager since 2012; interim CM after Zapata firing)
- Justin Glover (VP Public Affairs for Communications Lab)
- Ed Grier (Former Disneyland Resort President, 2006-09; Dean of Business School # Santa Clara U)
- Shirley Grindle (Campaign finance watchdog and Sidhu critic)
- John Guastaferro (Dir., Anaheim Community Foundation
- Edgar Hampton (Former President, Anaheim Police Assoc.)
- REDACTED (approx. ten letters in full name, relatively short title)
- Grant Henninger (COA Planning Commission; now Political consultant for Isa Bahu)
- Matt Holder (Campaign Consultant; former Police Aide to Denise Barnes)
- Craig Hunter (Former Anaheim Police Deputy Chief; now president of Veritas Investigative Solutions)
- Jean Ibalio (CoA Deputy Finance Director)
- Susan Kim (CoA employee 1998-2021; CoA Principal Planner 2015-21)
- Scott Koehm (CoA Principal Planner; 22 years with CoA)
- Paul Kott (Owner, Kott Realty; SOAR Board member; Chief’s Advisory Board)
- Lucille Kring (City Councilmember, 2016-20; 12/21 Diaz appointee to Planning Commission)
- Adam Lablounk (Operated Haunted House on Isa Bahu property, Imperial & La Palma)
- Sjany Larson-Cash (CoA Community Services: Mgr 2014-19, Dep. Dir., 2019-21; Director (since 2021)
- Dukku Lee (CoA General Mgr, Anaheim Public Utilities, since 2013)
- John Lewis (Political consultant, incl. to Tait and Barnes; former state legislator)
- Robert Lizano (Retired field consultant, with Arco and BP)
- Chris Lowe (Cal. Pacific Partners; Disney Dir. Govt Relations, 2004-10; former Disney Dir. Global Development & Public Affairs; reportedly Sidhu Finance Chair & on SOAR Board)
- Mike Lyster, (CoA Chief Communication Officer since 2015)
- REDACTED (name length unclear; fairly long title/affiliation)
- Samantha Marquez (Presidio Pub. Affairs, Communs. & Mrk’t’ng, since 2019; fmr BP Strategies 360)
- Natalie Meeks (New on City Council; Planning Comm’r by O’Neil; former CoA Public Works Director)
- Donna Methiason (Former VP, Lennar Development)
- Annie Mezzacappa (Former CoA Chief of Staff to Mayor Sidhu (and his Campaign Manager)
- Lisa Montiero (Enterprise Zone Auditor)
- Mishal Montgomery (Former CoA Executive Assistant to Mayors Daly and Sidhu) [+ Tait Position!]
- John Moorlach (Former OC Treasurer, Supervisor, and State Senator)
- Sandy Morales (Ex-wife of Todd Ament; Event Director for Anaheim CoC (2005-15)
- Deborah Moreno (CoA Finance Director)
- Jose Moreno (CoA Councilmember, 2016-22; CSU Long Beach professor)
- Eric Morgan (Works at DLS and Path Labs (Firas & Mo Tamary)
- Tom Morton (Exec. Director, Convention, Sports, & Entertainment; appointed in 2009 under Pringle)
- Leonie Mulvihill (CoA Deputy City Attorney, Civil Division, 2017-present)
- Donna Nelson (Wife of owner of OJB; mother of son killed by APD; former Council candidate)
- Vern Nelson (Owner of Orange Juice Blog; greatest pianist in Orange County [according to him])
- Linda Newby (Anaheim First Chair)
- Andy Nogal (CoA Deputy Director Community Services * Eonomic Development; former CoA Community Investment Manager, 2018-2022)
- Stan Oftelie (Library Board Comm’nr, Tait appt, 2017-2021; OC Business Council 1997-2005)
- Keith Olesen (Member, Anaheim Charter Committee)
- Trevor O’Neil (CoA Council 2018-2022; Mayor Pro-Tem 2022, Mayoral Candidate 2022)
- Julie Parker (CoA Sr. Administrative Analyst, with CoA for 23 years)
- Larry Pasco (Former CoA Community Services Director, retired 2020)
- Kristin Pelletier (Sr. Assistant City Attorney, Civil Division)
- Abel Perez (Rents Asa Bahu’s property at Imperial and La Palma)
- Pete Pirzadeh (Represented unnamed client what wanted to develop joint project with CoA)
- Todd Priest (CEO, Todd Priest & Associates; previously, Curt Pringle & Assocs., registered CoA lobbyist)
- Sergio Ramirez (CoA Director of Economic Development)
- Mike Robbins (President, People’s Homeless Task Force, which sued CoA; husband of Jeanine R.)
- Duane Roberts (Editor/Publisher, Anaheim Investigator; former Council candidate)
- Natalie Rubalcava (New on Council; fmr COO, OC Business Council; Housing & Commun. Dev. C.)
- Shaheen Sadeghi (LAB Holdings/Developer)
- Joel Saldivar (Possible Policy Aide to Faessel)
- George Skiles (Performed independent audit of Enterprise Zones)
- Joanne Sosa (Former Anaheim Chamber of Commerce Membership Services Director)
- Adam Spiker (Cannabis lobbyist; Spiker Rendon Consulting)
- Grace Stepter (CoA Director of Community & Econ. Development, 9 years)
- Lisa Stipkovich (Frmr CoA Redevelopment, Housing Authority Mgr & Comm. Development Dir.)
- Leslie Swan (Director, Anaheim First (sole employee per OC Weekly article)
- Tom Tait (Former CoA Mayor (2010-2018))
- Cristina Talley (Former CoA City Attorney (2009-2013))
- Firas Tamary (Co-partner, Diagnostic Laboratory. Services. and Path Lab. Svcs.)
- Mo Tamary (Co-partner, Diagnostic Laboratory. Services. and Path Lab. Svcs.)
- Bill Taormina (CEO, Clean City Inc.); Founded CoA Commun. Found.; Member Chief’s Advisory Bd.)
- Kristine Thalman (Frmr CoS Intergovt. Relations Ofcr. (1985-2000); Fmr. Exec. Dir. Lag. Bch. CoC)
- Lauren Torres (Former CoA Sr. Secretary (2016-2021); CoA Council Svcs. Coordinator (2021-now))
- Holly Unruh (City Contractor)
- George Urch (Registered Lobbyist w/ CoA; Founder, George Urch & Associates)
- Avelino Valencia (Former CoA Council; Asmb. Daly District Director; Now Calif. Assemblymember)
- Sheri VanderDussen (Fmr: CoA Plan’g Mgr, CoA/OC Visitors Cncl Bd.; Act’g Dep. CoA Mgr., 2009-10)
- James Vanderpool (CoA City Atty. since Sept. ’20); Visit Anaheim Bd. member)
- Jennifer Vaughn (Fmr Public Policy Mgr & Public Affairs Mgr. SoCalGas (18 years); now Tripepi Smith)
- Former: CATER [President]; Ran for 2018 CoA Mayor (vs. Sidhu); Policy Aide to CoA’s Denise Barnes)
- Niki Wetzel (CoA Director of Planning & Building)
- Steve White (CoA Planning Comm’r. Moreno 2019; Founding member Anaheim HOME)
- Ted White (CoA Director of Planning & Building, 2014-present)
- Peter Whittingham (with Pringle & Associates, 2001-17; Reg. CoA Lobbyist, now Whitt. Public Affairs)
- John Woodhead (Former Exec. Director, CoA Community & Economic Development)
- Dan Zaharoni (Santa Ana Cannabis CEO “From the Earth”; gave ACoC Cannabis Task Force $225K)
- Chris Zapata (Former CoA City Manager (2018-2020); Current CM for Sausalito)
- REDACTED (we can make no assumptions about this name, not even that it begins with a “Z”)
Those that declined had no obligation to participate in a fishing expedition. And those that did participate had no legal obligation to tell the truth.
Technically, legally, maybe. And your next sentence is the voters have no right to know what their leaders are doing with the voters’ money. You are embarrassing.
I think that we’ve learned something today about Tardif’s relationship to the truth. Ethical and moral obligations not to lie don’t occur to him.
Of course the truth, ethics & morality are important. I am just saying that without a legal obligation, like subpoenas, you are not going to get the cooperation you are looking for. But of course there is the prooof not want to incriminate yourself. Why would you say anything if you are not required to do so?
Of course I believe that taxpayers have the right to know what their elected representatives are doing with public money. The problem seems to be that there was no requirement to account for how those monies are spent. That needs to come on the front end.
Noticeably absent from either list is a member of the Aitken klan.
Yeah, you’re right… That is strange.
What could the explanation be?
Not calling Ashleigh isn’t a surprise; she wasn’t involved in any of this during this time. Her father could testify about the stadium negotiations, I suppose — but they were fruitless anyway. (And I don’t know whether he has any confidentiality obligations towards the city.)
Find “Ashleigh aitken” in the report. The investigators spent an inordinate amount of time investigating the political speech/campaign sign issue re Ashleigh’s mayoral run in ‘18. What criminal charges did the investigators suggest were likely from that issue? Like absolutely NONE?
Did they tie any specific actions to any specific crimes? They have a matrix of potentially applicable crimes, which coincidentally I’m publishing today, but I believe that they leave the mix-and-match responsibilities to any future prosecutors.
(By the way: you’re right about Dershowitz, so at least we agree on something.)
Let me jog your memory counselor, who was Former Federal Prosecutor’s campaign manager up until it was disclosed said campaign manager was a rata?! Search the report for “Melahat Rafiei”’ conversations between Ashleigh and rata would seem to be relevant especially if said conversations involved areas which were within the scope of the investigation.
I don’t recall whether Melahat was Ashleigh’s campaign manager. Could have been — and also could have been her fundraiser — but I think that she was simply a political consultant.
In any event, the only relevant information Ashleigh would likely have about Melahat is why she fired her — but I think that she already addressed that in writing.
Again, Counselor, you are all torqued up for no good reason (other than perhaps your apparent desire to criticize people who have not just killed their spouses.)
She was not her campaign manager; some other thing like consultant till February of that year when Melahat privately told each of her clients about the coming shit storm.
Most of them parted ways with her then. Not Farrah.
Do you normally spell “clan” with a “k”, Kounselor?
Last redaction – Zenger! Keeps the alphabetical order anyway.
Nope. My experiences with the kleptocracy remain my own.
Interestingly, Shawn Nelson could have thrown a monkey wrench into ARTIC – an old County easement passed through the site – but he really wanted to be pals with the Pringle-Campbell Smash ‘N Grab club.
P.S. I was interviewed by the Grand Jury and the FBI in 2013 about monkey business at the County. In the latter the agent was accompanied by…one of Tony Racetrack investigator goons which indicates how that went. Should have just left.
Consultant. Yeah, Ashleigh hired Progressive Solutions Consulting. It was related to her campaign. But, they also sat on the OC Fair Board. And, then, there is the tickets issue and the pot deal issue.
“The political ramifications of this ‘secret’ are political dynamite. For example, during last year’s election, in order to win the endorsement of the Orange County Register, then-candidate Aitken told the editors ‘the former mayor and his tightly knit ‘cabal’ were allowed to run roughshod at City Hall, and created a culture of intimidation for staff, management, concerned residents, and the smaller business community.’
“What Aitken neglected to mention is UFCW Local 324, a major union of whom she has had close ties to since 2018, was involved in a “pot deal” with the same “former mayor and his tightly knit ‘cabal.’” Though there is no evidence of any criminal wrongdoing, it does vastly complicate things. Maybe she didn’t know about it, but giving $350 worth of city-owned tickets to Smith, their political director, won’t help her in any pleas of innocence.
“To further understand the magnitude of her quandary, the very same political director Aitken rewarded with tickets was also the treasurer of an independent expenditure committee which spent $138,155–most of it being UFCW cash–to help her become mayor. The only other group in town that invested almost as heavily in her campaign was the Anaheim Police Officers Association, and they came in a distant second at $92,556.
“For matter of record, The Investigator asked for interviews or sent questions out to Belal Dalati, Harry Sidhu, Derek Smith, Stacy Silva, Adam Spiker and others we believed had knowledge about this matter. Most didn’t answer our emails or reply to voice messages. One person declined to speak citing ongoing ‘local and federal investigations.’ Ashleigh Aitken ignored our request for comment on the Anaheim Ducks tickets she gave to Smith.”
https://anaheiminvestigator.com/tag/melahat-rafiei/
https://anaheiminvestigator.com/2022/05/20/democratic-mayoral-candidate-says-campaign-ended-ties-with-consultant-under-fbi-scrutiny-for-alleged-bribes/
https://voiceofoc.org/2022/05/oc-fair-feels-echoes-of-anaheim-fbi-corruption-probe/
Well, that IS Duane Roberts’ overwrought writing, and he’s very predisposed to make Democrats into the antichrist. “Political dynamite” is a pretty big hyperbole. Or “hyburpole” as Mitch McConnell pronounces it.
Umm, AI was ahead of other reporting re ticket scandal.
https://voiceofoc.org/2023/06/anaheims-ticket-to-ride-city-leaders-hand-out-thousands-of-free-tickets-every-year/
Yes, Duane was all over the tickets, that’s for sure.
That was going on 15 years ago. Cunningham once bragged about getting comped like it was a repuglican coming of age ritual. Spitzer was neck deep in that shit.
I’m trying to be a little polite to Duane, but I can’t help but see ticket giveaways as one of Anaheim’s smaller problems.
It’s all part of the grift regardless of the gravity to apportion to it. And, I’m talking about reporting that immediately preceded the “report”. And, it may have been going on for years, but it wasn’t part of the public lexicon until recently. It may have be been discussed privately but no one shined a light on it until recently. And, the investigators seemed to spend a good portion of time on an issue you consider to be on of Anaheim’s smaller problems (i.e. like the Bahu political speech/campaign sign matter).
So what you are saying is the VOC took an ant hill and turned it into a mountain with the ticket issue.
They seemed to think it was journalistic “dynamite” or “gold”.
You’ve got a few things mixed up. Yeah I know Duane has been investigating tickets for years before the Voice got interested, I said so. What he said was “political dynamite” was Ashleigh’s brief involvement in cannabis, and I think that’s a bit of an exaggeration but whatever.
I think the Bahu story is beautiful and illustrative of many aspects of what’s been wrong with Anaheim, and I’m making a magnum opus out of it right now.
JL did spend an inordinate amount of time on a sort of epilogue to the Bahu story regarding the giant Ashleigh campaign sign, which seems silly but I didn’t mind because it’s hilarious. I think they were not concerned so much about Bahu’s political speech as Trevor’s inappropriate access to code enforcement info thru Ted White.
But I love that part because Donna and I can fill in the blanks of who mysteriously and violently ripped the sign down destroying the vinyl and grommets after his former-councilwoman wife shrieked at the poor Halloween workers – he did the exact same thing four years earlier to a Lucille Kring sign the previous time his wife ran for Mayor!
I was speaking about tickets generically. The original scandal was about the OC County Fair. The ticket issue is soooooo easy to solve. Cash out the benefit from the operators. Problem (small) resolved.
Vern,
You are oversimplifying the alleged political dynamite. The tickets were part and parcel of her brief dalliance into the pot industry. Or, the timing of them and the individual who received them, give rise to an appearance of impropriety. As an attorney, Former Federal Prosecutor has an obligation to avoid appearances of impropriety. Grease much?
Well sure. But… There is dynamite, and there are lil cherry bombs.
Ok you got me there. But AI foreshadowed some bad press for Former Federal Prosecutor. Ah yes the “fair” tickets.
https://youtu.be/_EBvXpjudf8