Jim Vanderpool, Anaheim’s city manager for the past five years, is expected to face tough questioning from councilmembers about a Lake Havasu retreat he attended as a guest of the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce in 2020, but did not disclose as required.
A confidential city manager performance evaluation is scheduled for Tuesday’s Anaheim City Council meeting. A closed session discussion about a public employee’s potential departure also appears on the agenda.
The agenda items follow an investigation earlier this month by TimesOC that reported the local chamber paid for lakeside lodging during the September retreat he participated in more than five years ago.
Vanderpool did not list the travel payment as a gift in his 2020 statement of economic interests.

Documents about the retreat, which included a birthday celebration for former chamber chief executive Todd Ament, listed lobbyists, chamber officials and consultants as invitees.
During a Jan. 13 council meeting, Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken referenced reporting about the retreat and called for Tuesday’s closed session discussion to question Vanderpool about it with City Atty. Rob Fabela and ethics officer Artin Berjikly on hand.
“Earning and keeping the public trust is [paramount] to both me … and my colleagues on this dais,” Aitken said. “I would like for us to have the opportunity to ask questions of our city manager and let this process play out.”
Vanderpool did not address the Havasu retreat at the council meeting.
He did send an email to Aitken and other members of the council in December, in which he claimed the trip was a “social gathering,” one that political consultant Jeff Flint and former Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu were invited to, but did not attend.
“You have my 100% support,” Councilmember Natalie Meeks wrote back in an email obtained by TimesOC. “You are doing amazing work for Anaheim.”
“I can’t believe the story is going to surface five years later. Ridiculous,” Vanderpool responded. “I’m very concerned that certain people are trying to sabotage any Angels deal. It won’t stop me.” (The City Council has authorized city staff to start preliminary discussions with state housing officials regarding a surplus land law that governs the property around Angel Stadium.)
Anaheim spokesperson Mike Lyster previously dismissed the Havasu accommodations provided to Vanderpool as a “non-issue” that the city manager did not need to report.
“If a former chamber executive turned around and later billed the organization for any cost — unbeknownst to Vanderpool — then that’s on them and a matter for the current chamber administration,” Lyster said.
Dates and memos on the chamber checks, including those marked for a mobile home unit assigned to Vanderpool, show that Havasu rentals were secured after his appointment as city manager that summer and weeks before the retreat.

During the Jan. 13 council meeting, several residents called on the panel to terminate Vanderpool’s employment.
“If the city manager doesn’t understand the concept behind reporting gifts, then how can he manage the council and the city?” said Jeanine Robbins, a resident and former council candidate. “He needs to resign immediately, or be fired.”
Aitken, who touted a series of reforms passed since she won election as mayor in 2022, pleaded for patience from those in the audience and said she hoped to have an answer soon.
A Fair Political Practices Commission fact sheet on gift reporting from 2024 details rules for travel payments.
“Generally, when an official receives a payment for their travel, that payment is a reportable gift or income,” it states.
Travel payments, advances or reimbursements for lodging are considered gifts with few exceptions under the Political Reform Act.
The FPPC has a general five-year statute of limitations from the date of the violation to commence an investigation.