Near the tail end of Tuesday\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/a> while the regular portion of the council meeting was still in session.<\/p>\n \u201cTonight 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,\u201d reads the post.<\/p>\n \u201cEven her fellow Democrats on the council joined the two Republican members and rebuked the Mayor. We are hearing her motion failed 6-1.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n 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\u2019s general email also went unanswered.<\/p>\n Most elected officials are staying quiet about the leak and most have not responded to questions about Vanderpool<\/p>\n Except for Aitken.<\/p>\n After the meeting she posted a screenshot of the Log Cabin post on her Instagram story writing on it \u201cYou couldn\u2019t wait 24 hours before breaking ANOTHER law?\u201d<\/p>\n Aitken said she doesn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI 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,\u201d she said in a Wednesday phone interview.<\/p>\n Under the Brown Act \u2013 the state\u2019s open meeting law, elected officials can hold closed door meetings to discuss certain things like lawsuits and personnel matters.<\/p>\n The law also prohibits officials in those meetings from disclosing any information from closed session discussions outside of those meetings.<\/p>\n Under the Brown Act<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n Fabela reaffirmed that no reportable action was taken on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cThe 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,\u201d he said in a Wednesday email.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean violating the public trust in such a flagrant and obvious manner is unacceptable in today\u2019s 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\u2019re not willing to follow the rules ourselves,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The rest of the city council members did not respond to requests for comment about the leak Wednesday.<\/p>\n At the Tuesday regular council meeting, Disneyland resort-backed Councilmembers Natalie Rubalcava and Ryan Balius publicly praised Vanderpool.\u00a0<\/p>\n City Spokesman Mike Lyster said the city was aware of the Log Cabin Republicans of OC\u2019s post but didn\u2019t comment further.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200b\u200bWe cannot speak to any outside post and are not privy to details of closed session,\u201d he wrote in a Wednesday email. \u201cWe do not have anything else to share on this at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769721606_622_CityCouncil_Anaheim_Jan13_2026_Taylor-7.jpg\")
Mayor Ashleigh Aitken at the Anaheim City Council meeting on Jan. 13, 2026. Credit: ERIKA TAYLOR, Voice of OC<\/p>\n