Questions are surfacing in Anaheim after a local Republican group seemingly leaked a failed attempt by Mayor Ashleigh Aitken to nix City Manager Jim Vanderpool behind closed doors this week.
Aitken spearheaded the closed session meeting to question Vanderpool about why he didn’t disclose a retreat to Lake Havasu paid by the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce on the verge of officials finalizing the chamber-backed Angel Stadium sale in 2020.
[Read: Is Anaheim’s City Manager on the Chopping Block?]
Near the tail end of Tuesday’s regular meeting, City Attorney Rob Fabela reported no action was taken by the city council in the closed door meeting and no information was disclosed.
Yet, the Log Cabin Republicans of Orange County, an organization representing LGBT Republicans, seemingly leaked the vote in a post published online at 8:24 p.m. while the regular portion of the council meeting was still in session.
“Tonight the Democrat Mayor of Anaheim, Ashleigh Aitken, placed an item on the city council agenda to fire the City Manager. Jim Vanderpool, a longtime and respected public servant, was targeted for purely political reasons,” reads the post.
“Even her fellow Democrats on the council joined the two Republican members and rebuked the Mayor. We are hearing her motion failed 6-1.”
Jesse Bluma, a board member at-large for the group, did not respond to emailed questions on the issue Wednesday. Questions sent to the group’s general email also went unanswered.
Most elected officials are staying quiet about the leak and most have not responded to questions about Vanderpool
Except for Aitken.
Mayor Ashleigh Aitken at the Anaheim City Council meeting on Jan. 13, 2026. Credit: ERIKA TAYLOR, Voice of OC
After the meeting she posted a screenshot of the Log Cabin post on her Instagram story writing on it “You couldn’t wait 24 hours before breaking ANOTHER law?”
Aitken said she doesn’t know who leaked the information and is calling on the city attorney to explore ways for officials to regulate themselves including turning over emails and texts disclosing closed session information and potentially referring the issue to the District Attorney.
“I know there were seven people in the room and so obvious conversations were had either by city staff that were aware of closed session discussions, or an elected official themselves violated the Brown Act, which is a misdemeanor,” she said in a Wednesday phone interview.
Under the Brown Act – the state’s open meeting law, elected officials can hold closed door meetings to discuss certain things like lawsuits and personnel matters.
The law also prohibits officials in those meetings from disclosing any information from closed session discussions outside of those meetings.
Under the Brown Act, officials also have to report out any action taken to appoint, dismiss, hire or accept the resignation of an employee as well as any action that affects their employment status like suspending them or demoting them.
Fabela reaffirmed that no reportable action was taken on Tuesday.
“The Brown Act has detailed rules about what has to be reported out after a closed session takes place. As I stated last night on the record, no reportable action took place on any of the matters that were considered in closed session yesterday,” he said in a Wednesday email.
Aitken said the leak harms a city hall struggling to restore public trust in the wake of a corruption scandal which ultimately imploded the Angel Stadium deal and saw her predecessor, former Mayor Harry Sidhu, go to prison last year for lying to federal investigators about the sale.
“I mean violating the public trust in such a flagrant and obvious manner is unacceptable in today’s day, and Anaheim is never going to be able to turn the page and look the voters honestly in the eye and say, we have your best interests at heart if we’re not willing to follow the rules ourselves,” she said.
The rest of the city council members did not respond to requests for comment about the leak Wednesday.
At the Tuesday regular council meeting, Disneyland resort-backed Councilmembers Natalie Rubalcava and Ryan Balius publicly praised Vanderpool.
City Spokesman Mike Lyster said the city was aware of the Log Cabin Republicans of OC’s post but didn’t comment further.
“We cannot speak to any outside post and are not privy to details of closed session,” he wrote in a Wednesday email. “We do not have anything else to share on this at this time.”
Lyster himself was called out by independent investigators in 2023 in a corruption probe report for not turning over public records on his private phone for them to review.
Meanwhile, the Fair Political Practices Commission, the state’s campaign finance watchdog, is investigating Vanderpool for potential violations to the economic interests disclosure clause of the Political Reform Act.
Shery Yang, a spokeswoman for the FPPC, did not comment on the ongoing investigation but shared the complaint against Vanderpool received last week and the letter to the city manager informing him of the probe.
“This letter is to notify you that the Enforcement Division of the Fair Political Practices
Commission has commenced a commission-initiated investigation regarding potential violations of the economic interests disclosure provisions of the Political Reform Act,” wrote Kendall Bonebrake, the commission’s enforcement chief in a Jan. 22 letter.
“At this time, we have not made any determination about the possible violations.”
Hours after Tuesday’s closed session meeting, Aitken said publicly in the open portion of the meeting she wants to work with the city’s Ethics Officer Artin Berjilky to examine Vanderpool’s unreported paid trip and create a disclosable report to the public.
[Read: Where’s Anaheim’s Ethics Officer?]
“I put an agenda item on for the next meeting next week to get council approval to release the memo the Ethics Officer wrote addressing potential issues around the closed session agenda,” she said in a phone interview.
Berjikly didn’t respond to questions earlier this week about Vanderpool and the trip.
Aitken said officials should adhere to ethics training.
“At the end of the day, you need to act on the information that you are learning,” she said.
“Training is always good, but at the end we have to respect the rule of law and as elected officials and city staff, we need to hold ourselves to a higher standard and not just follow the letter of the law, but follow the spirit of the law.”
Editor’s note: Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken’s father, Wylie Aitken, chairs Voice of OC’s board of directors.
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.
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