Anaheim officials are set to question City Manager Jim Vanderpool behind closed doors this month following renewed calls to fire him amid concerns over his cozy relationship with Disneyland Resort interests and his alleged involvement in the canned Angel Stadium sale.
It comes years after a corruption scandal – sparked in 2022 by sworn FBI affidavits and refueled by a damning independent corruption probe report in 2023 – raised questions as to who Vanderpool is actually serving:
Disneyland resort interests or the residents that pay his over $386,000 salary.
In the years following the scandal, a new roster of city council members implemented a series of reforms at city hall but top city leaders named in the independent investigation reports like Vanderpool continued in their roles without consequence or much official questioning.
Until now.
On Tuesday, Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken called for a closed session meeting on Jan. 27 to question Vanderpool in front of the city attorney and the city’s ethics officer in response to residents’ demand to sack him.
“We did spend several of us the first year of our tenure on this dais crafting, debating and eventually passing several transparency measures that I wish we would have had in place in 2019, in 2020 it would have prevented a lot of the issues that we still see raising their ugly head to this day,” she said at the meeting.
“Earning and keeping the public trust is tantamount to both me and I know my colleagues on this dias so I would like for us to have the opportunity to ask questions of our city manager and let this process play out.”
Mayor Ashleigh Aitken at the Anaheim City Council meeting on Jan. 13, 2026. Credit: ERIKA TAYLOR, Voice of OC
Vanderpool did not respond to email questions on the issue Wednesday morning or speak to Aitken’s request publicly on the dais Tuesday night.
Aitken and the rest of the city council members also did respond to requests for comment Wednesday morning.
Her request comes following two TimesOC articles this month with the latest reporting that Vanderpool did not disclose a retreat to Lake Havasu paid for by the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce in 2020.
Vanderpool’s statement of economic interest provided by the city shows he did not disclose the trip.
In an email to city council members ahead of Christmas in anticipation of media reports, Vanderpool said he was invited to Lake Havasu by former Chamber of Commerce CEO Todd Ament – a central figure in the corruption scandal.
Vanderpool also joined a host of other chamber leaders, consultants and other proponents of the land sale at the resort.
“It was a social gathering, not a ‘retreat,’ as may be incorrectly characterized. I did not engage with any subsequent social or business travel with Todd Ament,” he wrote.
The timing of the gatherings was curious.
The Havasu retreat took place from Sept. 24 to Sept. 29, 2020 just days after a planned mock city council meeting on Sept. 21 to sell Angel Stadium that Vanderpool has privately denied attending.
Just a day after the Havasu retreat ended – in the early hours of Sept. 30 – city officials would approve a revised agreement to sell the stadium.
In another email to city council members on Jan. 11, Vanderpool said he didn’t know that the chamber paid for the rental unit he stayed in, he only stayed two nights and that the food and beverages he brought would have offset the need to report the stay.
“I am not running from any of this. I stand firm that the narrative in the article is baseless,” he wrote about the TimesOC article.
Jeanine Robbins, a longtime resident and advocate for the homeless, compared Vanderpool to a snake oil salesman and demanded officials fire him and “clean house” – something she said was overdue.
“He attended a retreat with some of the most powerful lobbyists in the city soon after being hired, and claims he was not required to report it because business was not discussed. Yeah, right. Who believes that line?” she said at Tuesday’s meeting.
“If the city manager doesn’t understand the concept behind reporting gifts, then how can he manage the council and the city? After all, that is his title.”
Robbins also said Vanderpool allowed corruption to thrive during his tenure.
“It started at the top with good old Jim. He needs to resign immediately or be fired,” she said.
He is expected to face council member’s questions just as officials start to mull over the future of Angel stadium and as another land sale could be on the horizon years after a corruption scandal tanked the last deal.
[Read: Anaheim Officials Once Again Put Angel Stadium in Play]
Corruption Scandal: Pitching Practice For a Stadium Sale
The entrance to Angel Stadium at the Angels vs Cleveland Indians game Sept. 9, 2019. Credit: SPENCER CUSTODIO, Voice of OC
Both the FBI and independent investigators concluded Disneyland resort interests held undue influence over city hall.
The stadium sale ultimately imploded after federal agents alleged in the affidavits former Mayor Harry Sidhu tried to ram through the deal with the expectation of getting $1 million in campaign contributions from the Angels.
Sidhu ultimately ended up going to prison last year for lying to federal investigators about the failed stadium sale.
His plea agreement described how Sidhu, former elected officials and Lyster allegedly participated in a private mock council meeting to rehearse public deliberations over the land sale.
Earlier this month, TimesOC reported that the mock council meeting took place and potentially included Vanderpool, Angels executives and former Anaheim Chamber of Commerce leaders.
Lyster and Vanderpool did not respond to questions about whether they attended the mock council meeting last week or this week.
After publication of this story, Esther Kwoon – a spokesperson for the city – said neither attended the mock meeting.
Vanderpool denied attending the mock meeting in an email to council members.
“I did not attend and was not involved in any preparation for it,” reads the Dec. 23 email.
When the plea agreement surfaced in 2023, Aitken called for attendees to resign.
“I believe any city official who facilitated or participated in the mock city council meeting should come forward and resign. To hang your hat on whether or not the sham meeting was a Brown Act violation misses the point,” she told the Voice of OC in a text message.
“It was clearly unethical and a violation of public trust.”
Stephanie Mercadante, a resident, pointed to Aitken’s remarks in 2023 and called on her and the council to follow through and fire people who participated in the mock meeting.
“Participating in a rehearsal for a corrupt deal is incompatible with serving the public. Anaheim cannot move forward while those involved in this mock meeting remain in positions of power.
Holding these individuals accountable is essential if Anaheim is going to rebuild public trust,” she said at Tuesday’s meeting
“This is not about hostility. It is about responsibility. It is about ensuring that the people who represent this city are worthy of the authority they hold.”
Anaheim City Spokesman Mike Lyster on Dec. 6, 2022. Credit: JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC
Lyster wasn’t only named in the plea agreement.
Independent investigators called out Lyster in their report for failing to turn over public records on his private phone for them to review.
[Read: Anaheim’s Chief Spokesman is Detailed in the Corruption Scandal; Now What?]
He did not respond to questions Wednesday. An automatic email reply stated he was travelling.
The Rise of a Political “Chameleon”
City Attorney Robert Fabela, left, speaks to City Manager Jim Vanderpool, right, at the Anaheim City Council meeting on Jan. 13, 2026. Credit: ERIKA TAYLOR, Voice of OC
Vanderpool was hired by Sidhu’s city council majority in September 2020 right after former City Manager Chris Zapata was fired after publicly questioning plans to offer the city’s tourism bureau, Visit Anaheim, a $6.5 million bailout weeks after the pandemic began.
Roughly two years later, Vanderpool admitted to Voice of OC that he attended the exclusive Anaheim Chamber of Commerce retreat held on Dec 2, 2020 called out by the FBI.
A year later, independent investigators would allege attendees discussed a plan Vanderpool was on board with to keep as much as $100 million a year out of the city’s general fund once the 1997 resort bonds are paid off.
[Read: How Disneyland Resort Interests Planned to Withhold Tax Money from Anaheim’s Working Class]
“Vanderpool seemed particularly taken with the possibilities,” investigators wrote.
Investigators also alleged Sidhu wrongfully pushed city staff to work with developers he favored with “active support” from Vanderpool.
In an interview with the investigators, Grace Stepter, the city’s director of Housing and Community Development, said she felt Vanderpool was controlled by Sidhu and described him as a color shifting lizard.
“Jim is a chameleon,” Stepter said. “He will adapt to the political environment.”
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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