{"id":160737,"date":"2026-02-02T20:27:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T20:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/160737\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T20:27:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T20:27:07","slug":"anaheim-city-manager-said-will-move-up-plans-to-retire-hes-meeting-in-closed-session-with-city-council-tuesday-night-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/160737\/","title":{"rendered":"Anaheim city manager said will move up plans to retire, he\u2019s meeting in closed session with City Council Tuesday night \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just days after he was questioned by the City Council in a closed session<\/a>, Anaheim City Manager Jim Vanderpool said he intends to move up plans to retire this year.<\/p>\n

While the contents of the closed session discussion last week are not public, it followed news reports of his attendance at an Anaheim Chamber of Commerce-funded retreat that was not disclosed as a gift in his 2020 annual statement of economic interests. Mayor Ashleigh Aitken called for the closed session questioning<\/a>, from which Vanderpool emerged last week with two council members giving his performance in the city public praise.<\/p>\n

An item for a \u201cpublic employee resignation\u201d appears on the city\u2019s Tuesday, Feb. 3, closed session agenda. City officials confirmed it was Vanderpool who \u201csought and placed this item on the agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Anaheim\u2019s top administrative executive, Vanderpool oversees the day-to-day operations of Orange County\u2019s most populous city and an annual budget of more than $2 billion<\/a>; he\u2019s seen the city through multibillion-dollar development agreements such as the OCVibe entertainment and residential district that is under construction at Honda Center and the DisneylandForward theme park expansion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came to Anaheim at a challenging time to provide continuity and stability for a great city. I\u2019m proud to have done that over the past five years, helping Anaheim recover from the pandemic and move forward with transformative policies and projects, the benefits of which span generations,\u201d Vanderpool said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith more than 30 years in city government, I had already planned to retire this year. I\u2019m moving that up now and seeking nothing but a smooth, positive transition for Anaheim. I do so proud of what we\u2019ve accomplished together and want Anaheim to keep focused on what\u2019s important for neighborhoods, businesses and visitors and to realize a great future ahead,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Vanderpool\u2019s decision to step down comes in the wake of a string of headlines about his attending in September 2020 the retreat to Lake Havasu shortly after he joined the city.<\/p>\n

The guest list included some of the city\u2019s most influential, including then-chamber CEO Todd Ament, from whom Vanderpool told councilmembers in a Dec. 23 email he received the invitation.<\/p>\n

Federal prosecutors would later allege Ament was a leader among a group of business and political allies who exerted sway at City Hall; and Ament was a key player in the scandal involving the now-dissolved Angel Stadium sale \u2014 approved by city council members a day after the Havasu retreat<\/a> \u2014 wearing a wire for the FBI to record conversations with then-Mayor Harry Sidhu. The mayor was recorded saying he hoped to elicit from the sale a $1 million in campaign contributions from the Angels.<\/a><\/p>\n

Vanderpool, in the Dec. 23 email he sent to councilmembers, said he \u201cdid not engage with any subsequent social or business travel with Todd Ament.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a Jan. 11 email to councilmembers, Vanderpool said he didn\u2019t know that the chamber paid for his lodging in a mobile home unit he shared with then-chamber Vice President Laura Cunningham and her husband, which he estimated would have cost $190 over his two-night stay.<\/p>\n

\u201cFood and beverage provided by me would have offset any reporting requirement,\u201d he said, adding he \u201cconfirmed this theory\u201d with Ethics Officer Artin Berjikly.<\/p>\n

Following the closed session with the city manager last week,\u00a0 Aitken said she wanted to put on a future agenda \u201ca request to work with our ethics officer, to look at these potential allegations and prepare a report that can be disclosed to the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vanderpool left the Buena Park city manager position in 2020<\/a> to assume his role in Anaheim after his predecessor, Chirs Zapata, was dismissed by the Sidhu-led council.<\/p>\n

Before Vanderpool became the city\u2019s top executive \u2014 a rank for which he\u2019s paid more than $386,000 annually \u2014<\/a> there was an arguably high turnover in the position, with six different city managers cycling through and serving an average of two years between 2009 and 2020.<\/p>\n

Per his employment agreement, Vanderpool could receive severance payment \u201cequal to six months of (his) monthly base salary.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

But \u201cit is our understanding there are no financial aspects to it,\u201d city spokesperson Mike Lyster said. \u201cBeyond that, we want to respect that this is a closed session, personnel item.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councilmember Rubalcava, who spoke in support of Vanderpool at the city\u2019s last council meeting, said she\u2019s \u201cpraying that he\u2019s going to change his mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that he\u2019s just kind of over it, which is disappointing,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cI really, truly believe he\u2019s done a great job for our city. It\u2019s a very sad turn of events.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just days after he was questioned by the City Council in a closed session, Anaheim City Manager Jim…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,15261,165,164,7,179,1071,23,611,136],"class_list":["post-160737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-city-hall","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-california","tag-community","tag-local-government","tag-local-news","tag-orange-county","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}