This video is really kind of dumb and embarrassing, and will require some explanation, especially if you haven’t read this week’s blockbuster LA Times story entitled “Anaheim Police Union Leaders Rack Up Six Figures From Disney Overtime Assignments.” (Sadly behind a paywall, and the Times makes it nearly impossible to pay even if you want to.) Long story short:

• For the last few years, about a dozen cops – apparently mainly union brass with President Jose Duran & then-VP Tony Lee standing out – managed to not only get the coveted Disneyland-cop gig but finagled millions of dollars in overtime from the Mouse without oversight or authorization, some working as many as 24 hours in a day (!) and making as much as a half-million a year.

• Rick Armendariz, chief until late ’25, catching wind of this, put a few trusted officers (led by Lorenzo Glenn and Shane Carringer whom we know) in charge of investigating this racket.

• When Chief Manny Cid came in late last year, the union/resort cops for some reason felt that he would protect them from unwelcome oversight, and they created this video fantasy [based on a scene from some show called “Entourage”] of the new Chief taking PAINTBALL REVENGE on their officious tormentors. Now enjoy, I guess. The Times described this video, but declined to post it:

Well there you have it. The Cid Video. Everybody wanted to see it. It was pretty dumb. But the magisterial Times article is worth a read or three for those interested in recent secret Anaheim history – it fills in several mysteries while raising new fascinating questions. Let’s broach a few of those right now…

1. So THAT’S what the 2025 APA-Disney Feud was about?

We say “APA” rather than “APD” advisedly – the APA is the Police Union, and it looks like the union brass got all or most of those plum resort-district gigs AND controversial overtime. 400-plus Anaheim cops from the Chief on down did not, so why should they care.

We first noticed friction between the union and the Mouse with the 2024 campaign for Council District 5, when Disney-backed Kristen Maahs walloped union-backed former cop Andrew Sarega, whose campaign material name-checked Disney “corruption,” and whose consultant was the disgraced former Cabal-master Jeff Flint, returned from exile in Tennessee. We’d never seen these two Anaheim powerhouses back competing candidates, and after some thought and research we supported Kristen. Don’t think I ever mentioned, but the day after Kristen won, we woke up to a defaced Kristen poster (left) hanging in the Anna Drive alley facing our door – a little creepy!

MORE REVEALING was the TEXT SURVEY put out in August 2025 by (Duane Roberts determined later) the police union, gauging public opinion on things most of us had never thought of before: like “If there is a disagreement over how these officers should enforce the law and public safety at Disney, who should make the decision?” And “Does Disney have too much influence in City Hall?” And whether we would support a GATE TAX to raise more money for the police? A couple of months later in October came that weird quasi-attempt to get a Gate Tax, which we’ll discuss later.

It looks like the union’s Resort-Cop Cartel’s biggest gripe was over wanting to keep getting beaucoup overtime bucks. And relatedly, the Union VP Tony Lee’s contention that Disney had an “arrest quota,” which we’ll also look at momentarily. But I got a bone to pick here with City Spokesman Mike Lyster, who when Gabriel called,

“…declined to answer questions about the overtime controversy and whether the city followed up on the internal review. ‘Out of respect for all involved, we won’t be engaging at this level of detail on matters of staffing, scheduling, operations and personnel,’ he said. He also declined to provide how much Disney spends reimbursing the city for police overtime.“

“Out of respect?” This IS a matter of legitimate public interest! Taxpayers have a right to know how much of this excessive unauthorized overtime may be coming out of OUR pockets! (And nobody has mentioned how these overpayments add to our pension debt!)

2. That Gate Tax Kabuki!

I wrote the longest piece in the world (and you should read every word) after the quick failure of Councilwoman Natalie Rubalcava’s Gate Tax attempt last October. It seemed like SOME kind of theater and a huge waste of everybody’s time – Natalie didn’t get one single vote from her colleagues. Maybe it was intended as a “shot across the bow” from the union to the Mouse. A lot of us who’d been wanting SINCE 1960 for Disney to pay their fair share, and wanted to support Natalie here, had mixed feelings due to clear signals that the police union was behind the proposal and hoped to reap most of the benefits.

But Natalie, who alone among the seven councilmembers seems to prioritize her SECOND largest contributor (police union) over her LARGEST (Disney) does what the union wants. After all, they were really there for her when she was fighting off a recall back in June ’24. And I didn’t see no GOOFY or DONALD DUCK waving signs for her!

(pics from Duane’s Anaheim Investigator)

Union involvement aside, the arguments against a Gate Tax (or “Entertainment” or “Tourist” Tax) are stale and bogus. One of them was trotted out that night by Disney’s FAVORITEST Councilwoman Natalie Meeks: “Disney might decide not to invest in Anaheim if we pass this tax, they might invest somewhere else instead.” I ridiculed that at the time: Why would Disney back off its hard-won $1.9 BILLION DISNEYLAND FORWARD plan just because their customers have to pay an extra 2 or 3% to help out their host city? And why the hell would they invest in some other town when ALL other tourist towns have a Gate Tax? Sounded like some BS Meeks pulled out of her backside.

Pero, this passage made its way into Gabriel’s story:

In an Oct. 28 policy briefing, Anaheim Councilmember Natalie Rubalcava told city employee union leaders, including Duran, that “Disney’s president let city staff know Disney will stop development presumably as a punishment if this initiative were approved by council to go to the voters.”

So, serio, they really DID say that? Also, Natalie passed this on in “an Oct. 28 policy briefing?” Which woulda had to-a been BEFORE the kabuki of the all-night meeting where the proposal was rejected. But, what total bullshit. THIS is exactly how Disney got us to take out a huge bond in the 90’s that we are still paying off, to build their Mickey & Friends Garage – by threatening to not build California Adventure if we didn’t!

IS A COUNCIL THAT CALLS DISNEY’S BLUFF GOING TO ALWAYS BE THE STUFF OF SCIENCE FICTION!?!?

Oh but “Disneyland officials said they have no record supporting Rubalcava’s allegations.” Yeah, Disney says that.

3. The Querulous Tony Lee

Querulous. That’s a good word. Because people have to look it up. I’m not gonna call some local cop a “whiney-ass so-and-so” in print – that’d be unprofessional, and hurtful, and possibly risky. But still, what else do you call someone who COMPLAINS NO MATTER WHAT?

Here’s Tony arguing for the Gate Tax in October, describing having to work overtime as a huge “sacrifice”

“We’re dedicating a staggering portion of our staff into the resort area. Anaheim police officers willingly make sacrifices to keep this city safe. But when an understaffed department must continuously cover resort demands through mandatory overtime, those sacrifices multiply.”

And YET. And yet. When Tony had this overtime unkindly snatched away from him, starting last December, he howled at the injustice! Behold the heights he was yanked from: “a lifelong [SIC] appointment, highly sought after within the department, [which] greatly increases an officer’s earning potential as it grants preferential access to overtime while working at the Disney Resort.”

And in May he filed a claim against the city, for “halving” his take-home pay in “retaliation.” Retaliation for what? Cannily he fails to mention the Glenn-Carringer internal review of unauthorized excessive overtime, and instead accuses Disney of enforcing “arrest quotas” which he failed or refused to meet.

Tony’s evidence of “arrest quotas?” First, a Disney manager complained to him about Tony’s cops not arresting enough park visitors for trying to bring in banned items. And later, Carringer allegedly told Tony to “limit overtime for under-performing officers,” whatever that means. And THEN (allegedly as punishment for not disciplining those officers) Tony was transferred from supervising the Resort Policing Team, and his “earning potential decreased dramatically.” Cuzza no more overtime.

Does Disneyland REALLY have arrest quotas they demand from the officers they use? The Times: “Disneyland officials denied the existence of arrest quotas and noted that officers are under the command of the APD, not the resort.” Of course though, that is what Disney says.

4. Vanderpool Vamooses

And here’s another little thread to pull on:

“[Investigator Lorenzo] Glenn asserted that former City Manager Jim Vanderpool was ‘aware of and involved in the wrongful conduct.’ Vanderpool [natch] did not respond to requests for comment.”

Remember City Manager Jim Vanderpool? Not to spend too much time reminiscing, but just this past February, after five-and-a-half years in his post, he startled EVERYBODY by suddenly resigning, and we are still making do with an interim. It was unexpected because – even though Mayor Ashleigh clearly disliked and distrusted him – he had just weathered a fairly major storm when it was revealed that he had attended a 2020 “retreat” with Cabal leaders at Lake Havasu, right in the middle of Stadium negotiations, and kinda never thought of mentioning that fact to anyone.

But all the other six members of Council, ESPECIALLY THE NATALIES, expressed GREAT CONFIDENCE in him. Seriously they sounded like they LOVED the guy. He had just hired Chief Cid (against the Mayor’s preferences) at the breathtaking salary of $436k – higher than what Jim himself was making – and he was fully expected to demand something higher than that for himself in the near future, and then retire later in the year.

But then suddenly with NO explanation he decided to retire in February. Natalie Rubalcava seemed the saddest of all, and spoke like he’d endured great injustice. What did THIS insightful blog write? We wrote:

“OCCAM’S RAZOR SAYS: There is probably something much worse than the Havasu Retreat about to come out, and Jim knows it’s about to come out.”

And maybe that is this. “Vanderpool was aware of and INVOLVED IN the wrongful conduct” of the Resort-Cop Cartel. Or, likely, there’s even more.

5. Who is Captain Lorenzo Glenn?

We know a little about two of the cops assigned by Chief Armendariz to investigate the Resort Cops’ overtime abuse, the two mentioned in the Times. We remember Shane Carringer was spokesman for a while, and he was never real friendly to me but that’s okay. Mostly I’ll talk about Captain Lorenzo Glenn, who seems by all accounts to be a really decent guy.

I mentioned him in my 2017 account of the killing of Monique Deckard and subsequent wrongful death trial. Because Glenn was one of the ten-or-so cops surrounding the barricaded and mentally ill Monique, and he was the highest-ranking guy there, a sergeant at the time. And he came in for a lot of criticism for not exercising more leadership over that ragtag group, three of whom turned out to be trigger-happy and blew Monique to shreds.

Well, ten years later Lorenzo is a Captain. He does podcasts like this 2024 one about Derek Trusk, a cop who Donna knew and who later tragically committed suicide, and whom I’ve been intending to write about. And Lorenzo was someone Chief Armendariz trusted to investigate the overtime-abusing Resort-Cop Cartel. And they didn’t like that, and “retaliated” like a buncha mean girls, partly with that silly video above.

Earlier that month [August ’24] a union leadership assessment included comments from rank-and-file members who wanted a chief that wouldn’t put “Disney before the department.” It also criticized some command staff, including Glenn, who is Black, and got “poor” rankings for killing morale, having a “progressive agenda,” being “too focused on DEI” and catering to Disney executives. City officials knew about the video and other alleged harassment but a human resources complaint went nowhere, Glenn claimed. “The city failed to take corrective or preventative action,” the claim read.

Huh. “DEI.” That used to mean Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (which I thought were good things) but in the Age of Trump it means “Having a good job while black.” Well whatever. Keep up the good work Captain Glenn, I think you’ll survive.

6. Who is Chief Manny Cid?

Yeah, who IS this new Chief of ours, this well-compensated Cuban-American Manny Cid? Clearly the union brass, the Resort-Cop Cartel, had high hopes for him standing up for them against Disney, standing up for them against any reform and accountability. Maybe the strong support of their trusted City Manager Vanderpool led them to expect that, to expect he would stomp into headquarters and blast paintballs at Glenn and Carringer. Maybe they were wrong.

We know that Manny loves his social media, fully as much as our social media-loving City Council! We know that he films himself taking helicopter trips over the coastline as he gets to know Anaheim. My wife lampoons him plenty, I don’t need to pile on.

I know that Jose Moreno has sent him 5 or 6 e-mails inviting him to attend a Los Amigos meeting. I ran into Chief Manny last week at Varsity, he says he never got those e-mails, his secretary must not have gotten them to him, he will “circle back” which is what folks say these days, he’s not even sure what Los Amigos is. (Los Amigos began in the late 70’s mainly as a way for the community to communicate better with the police in the wake of the Little Peoples Park Beatdown, and every Chief since has met with them regularly. Cid.)

It must have been dismaying to walk into this post in the middle of this Resort-Cop Cartel Overtime Abuse Morass, AND on the very day Officer Nathan Garcia murdered Albert Arzola. And then the City Manager who hired you scurries off with his tail between his legs! But that’s why you get the big bucks! We are still waiting to LEARN, who is Chief Manny Cid?

7. The Rubalcava Enigma Continues

We have never – no, rarely – no, never – seen Natalie Rubalcava as sheepish and subdued as she appeared at the last Council meeting, the day the Times story hit the screens. Many commenters excoriated her for enabling the abuses. Because, you know, she is SO damn close to those police union leaders. And she behaved like that was true too, like she was guilty somehow.

And the next day (Donna follows her social media) she was all, “Thank you to everybody in town, including those who comment at council…” She took a walk around her neighborhood and shared photos of everything – St Boniface, the Untold Story Bookstore, Varsity – and wrote rhapsodically of her love of District 3.

She seems shaken.

And I have written enough for today. Let’s just end as I so often do, with a beautiful SONG!

“Oh, power, passion,
plays a double hand.
I say, he’s my Union City Man!”