Anaheim\u2019s top administrative executive resigned Tuesday night, just a week after he left a closed session questioning seemingly unscathed and with vocal support from at least two councilmembers.<\/p>\n
The City Council unanimously accepted City Manager Jim Vanderpool\u2019s request to move up his plans for retirement and step down,<\/a> which he put in for days after he was questioned behind closed doors by city leaders for having attended an Anaheim Chamber of Commerce-funded retreat to Lake Havasu without listing the trip as a gift in his 2020 statement of economic interest.<\/p>\n Vanderpool\u2019s resignation \u201cin connection with his retirement,\u201d was effective at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 3, according to his notice, which was signed by Mayor Ashleigh Aitken, who was the one to call for his closed session questioning and, later, a review by an ethics officer \u2014 the results of which she asked be public.<\/p>\n The council tapped Deputy City Manager Greg Garcia to serve in the interim, to oversee the day-to-day operations of Orange County\u2019s most populous city, with more than 350,000 residents and an annual budget of more than $2 billion.<\/a><\/p>\n The Lake Havasu gathering was shortly after Vanderpool joined the city; he told council members he was invited by then-chamber CEO and President Todd Ament, who FBI prosecutors later alleged to be part of a group of business leaders who held undue sway over City Hall. Ament was also a key witness in the FBI\u2019s investigation into former Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu and the sale of Angel Stadium.<\/p>\n Vanderpool, in a Dec. 23 email he sent to councilmembers ahead of media reports, said he \u201cdid not engage with any subsequent social or business travel with Todd Ament.\u201d<\/p>\n In another email to councilmembers last month, Vanderpool said he didn\u2019t know that the chamber paid for his lodging in a mobile home unit he and his spouse shared with then-chamber Vice President Laura Cunningham and her spouse.<\/p>\n He estimated his two-night stay at Lake Havasu would have cost $190 and \u201cfood and beverage provided by me would have offset any reporting requirement,\u201d he said. He told council members he had \u201cconfirmed this theory\u201d with Ethics Officer Artin Berjikly.<\/p>\n Vanderpool was hired out of Buena Park in 2020 to assume the city manager position in Anaheim,<\/a> after predecessor Chris Zapata was dismissed by the Sidhi-led council. Garcia also served as the interim for a few months that same year before Vanderpool began the job in September.<\/p>\n Per his employment agreement, Vanderpool could have received a severance payment \u201cequal to six months of (his) monthly base salary,\u201d<\/a> which was $386,000 annually,<\/a> but his signed resignation agreement said he \u201cvoluntarily waives his right to severance.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOur city manager\u2019s decision today to resign comes after years of extraordinary pressure. And I want to acknowledge the resilience and professionalism he demonstrated throughout the time he served our city,\u201d said Councilmember Natalie Rubalcava, who in recent weeks has consistently voiced her support for Vanderpool.<\/p>\n \u201cDespite difficult circumstances over the past six years, he delivered for our city and served as a steady source of stability for our employees and our residents alike,\u201d she said. \u201cWhile this was not the outcome many of us on this dais had hoped for, the foundation he set for the city will remain here.\u201d<\/p>\n Councilmember Ryan Balius also praised Vanderpool\u2019s job performance during Tuesday\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n \u201cJim provided very consistent leadership for the city through many challenging periods,\u201d he said, mentioning Vanderpool\u2019s role in advancing the Beach Boulevard renovation project in District 1, which Balius represents, and shepherding the city through the pandemic.<\/p>\n \u201cJim was the longest-tenured city manager that we\u2019ve had in the last 15 years. And I believe stability and city leadership are important factors in maintaining confidence in our local government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope as we move forward,\u201d he added, \u201cwe\u2019ll focus on the qualifications, the experience and the capacities to effectively lead our city.\u201d<\/p>\n This developing story, please check back for updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anaheim\u2019s top administrative executive resigned Tuesday night, just a week after he left a closed session questioning seemingly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,15261,165,164,7,1071,23,611,136],"class_list":["post-163935","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-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\/163935","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=163935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163935\/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=163935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}