Its late November and time for Hot Stove talk when it comes to Major League Baseball and besides hiring Bud Black as a special assistant, the real Angels action is inaction in the form of no negotiations with the city of Anaheim. One of the factors has to be the lawsuit against the city on behalf of CATER, where most of the items have been dismissed by a judge and its down to whether or not the city gave CATE President Cynthia Ward every document she asked for in an exhaustive Public Records Act request.
The Liberal OC has learned Anaheim taxpayers are on the hook for nearly $200,000 — $195,000 specifically to cover legal fees associated with the lawsuit.
From Anaheim’s Public Information Office, this tidbit:
Approximately $195,000 in attorneys’ fees has been directed from City resources to defend our position in this CATER lawsuit. Our goal in the Angels Baseball negotiations remains to keep the team in Anaheim for years to come, and this lawsuit is a distraction in what we need to accomplish. We have succeeded in dismissing all claims that the City violated the Brown Act and continue to defend the remaining claim.”
The city won’t comment further on the suit, but seems confident they are going to win. We’ve said before, unless Ms. Ward has specific information about a specific document the city didn’t provide, CATER’s cause seems lost here. We’re told by sources should the city win their case, the city will seek to collect any cost of litigation fees that could be as much as $5,000 or more. That would have to be paid by CATER.
As CATER Treasurer Brian Chuchua just underwent heart bypass surgery, and he is perceived as the person funding this group, the loss of Chuchua from the organization makes future litigation as expensive risk. There is still no word on when this case will be decided and there are no new negotiations between the city of Anaheim and the Angels. Anaheim fans might soon be drowning their sorrows with San Diego Charger fans as that franchise looks like its heading up the freeway to Carson soon. If the Angels leave, fans can give CATER a share of the blame.
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A side note from the DPOC Meeting Monday; during my chat with Dr. Jose Moreno, he suggested the Angels, the Ducks and Disney contribute a dollar for every ticket sold. I suggested he ask Angels owner Arte Moreno, has he’s a Latino owner. Dr. Moreno said he met Mr. Moreno at an unspecified event and he did make that request of the Angels owner. Arte Moreno considered the question and told Dr. Moreno, “we give a lot to the city already.” And turned to talk with someone else. The Angels do provide millions to Anaheim charities.
And where exactly in Anaheim do you live, Dan?
In Curt Pringle’s office with his good friend Matty, of course!
Thanks for reading Gustavo. Hope the paper is sold before a year passes. Value tends to drop the longer it’s on the market
Oh I’m quite happy in Irvine. Great schools here you know. Did you register to vote in HB or Anaheim? I think the folks on Anna Drive had some nickname for you that was Spanish for “parasite.”
I was only echoing your question to Jeff yesterday as you suggested he had no business caring about the people in OC’s biggest city. The contrast between your answer and his is A CLASSIC.
Nobody calls me any names on Anna Drive; that’s a fabrication of some weasel chum of yours who knows a little Spanglush. You ever been to Anna Drive, Chumpley? (The audience rolls with laughter in the aisles, at the thought of the cowardly fake-liberal daring to set foot in a low-income barrio!)
I would say, as most people do, “Stick to Irvine, Dan,” except you’re a spinning vendido there too, Forde and Mollrich Boy.
Happy Thanksgiving Vern. We’re cooking a 28 lb bird and have a full house for dinner.
Nobody calls you that name to your face. Yes, been to Anna Drive in District 5…been all over Anaheim actually. It’d be great if Jeff knew Anna Drive wasn’t in District 3.
No, you have not been to Anna Drive, liar. You drove down La Palma once and floored your throttle in fear.
In fear of what Vern? People who live there? I find your insinuation amazingly bigoted and short-sighted. You behind the wheel of a car would be scary. But the people of Anna Drive and Latino families in Anaheim and Santa Ana aren’t scary at all.
Vern for an educated man you act very stupid.
You can easily seperate compassion from logic and smarts. For example one can feel sorry for the Women of Amna drive who have lost sons to violence and or prison. But that doesn’t mean these young men did not derserve lengthy prison sentences or did not play a part in their deaths. In fact these women bear MORE responsibility than their children for raisong monsters. Look at the signs: failing grades, drugs, petty crimes, tattos, gang affilliation….the writing is on the wall.
Further, these mostly immigrant women who choose t have four or five kids, and live in squalor in a one bedroom apartment and working several low level jobs to make ends meet, while their drunk husbands lay about complaining they can’t find work. Here’s an idea learn a skill, move out of that ghetto, make sure your mids can read and write english, quit uSing the children as pawns and LEAD BY EXAMPLE.
You love a good fight Vern, we get it. You just are fighting logic and common sense when you defend Amna Drive and it’s denizens.
PS- Would you agree,it’s poor taste nickname a kid Boo-boo, whose Dad was a criminal gang member killed in a shootout with police who’s gang mo iker was “Yogi”?
Gang unit cops, paid by the taxpayer to troll the facebook pages of “anti-police activists” and their friends, and using more taxpayer-paid time to post taunting anonymous comments on blogs … why do those seem like “people” not worth responding to? In any case most of what you (you guys?) write is wrong, exaggerated or out of context.
Nobody calls Joey’s son Booboo, except for ONE crack by Zia a long time ago. And whether Joey was in a “shootout” – whether he even had a gun at all, as his killer claims and T-Rack unquestioningly echoes – is hotly disputed, by folks who were there and other evidence. All I have to say about that for now, to an anonymous specter.
(Hate to let this thread die.)
Yes, it is very popular, in Republican counties like the OC, and on Republican blogs like this, to blame the poor and minorities for their problems. Certainly it’s up to each of us, especially parents, to try to improve our and our families’ lots in life. Most people I know are doing their best.
No post here blames poor or minorities for any problems. We’re not a Republican blog. We sure as hell don’t support Republicans they way OJ does. But since we’re labeling, OJ is the blog for those with real convictions…the kind that lead to jail time or being fired or lacking adequate employment opportunities.
Just where in Anaheim do you live, Vern? Or Greg Diamond? Or Ryan Cantor? But it’s OK for you and them to be involved in Anaheim politics?
Vern has told me he pays the utility bills on Anna Drive, so we can assume it’s his girlfriend’s place
Hey moron (Anaheimster) I explained above that the only reason I asked Dan “where in Anaheim he lives” was because a day or two earlier he asked Jeff that sarcastically. TRY AND KEEP UP, klepto.
So where are you registered to vote Vern? You might have missed my response to Jeff. Much of his community activism in Anaheim is associated with a paycheck.
Look it up jackass. I feel that you deserve to know approximately zero about my life. Additionally, who gives a damn where I’m registered?
hey cheminowski, if the angels leave its because of their greedy billionaire owner. I know you love to fawn over that swine but he really is the worst thing that could have happened to that team.
So now you think I am obligated to clear up the mountains of horse manure your “inside” sources have shoveled your direction? Get off your butt and put in a CPRA request for the documents yourself Dan, and you fight to pay 20 cents a page for records nobody wants to give you because they think there is some bizarre exemption in CPRA for records they find politically uncomfortable (or worse.)
You note that the Judge flat our refused to award costs or fees to the City? Nor did the Angels or PCI even ASK to recoup what they spent to defend their interests in agreements the City could easily have resolved within the space of ONE CITY COUNCIL MEETING but instead chose to jeopardize those agreements by letting them become the subject of litigation we did everything in our power to avoid, and in doing so allowed them to feed the gossip machine you continue to enable. So when Arte Moreno refuses to pick up the phone when “City of Anaheim” appears on his Caller ID screen, don’t blame me, I didn’t throw him under the bus for deal points the Council’s lackeys OFFERED Moreno before BLAMING him as the greedy team owner!
As far as the remaining litigation and the records the City still refuses to make available, I will be careful in my rebuttal, but no I don’t have help with the costs and fees, the City saw to that with their BS legal maneuvers (another issue certain to bite them in the hiney, which is what you get when the legal pit bull you bring in to hide your fleecing of the taxpayers has very little prior experience being a City Attorney.)
And as far as what is still missing, you get off your butt and put in a CPRA request for the records yourself, and YOU see what I asked for in September 2013, and ask for what the city’s response claims satisfied the request, and you go dig up the City’s Conflict of Interest policy to see what I should have expected to be provided with, based on my request, and then you go ask for the mountain of records sent over in the Discovery response that shows what the City admits to having, but failed to turn over, and then you ask for the 6 inches (plus or minus) of transcript paper piled on my table right now from the Deposition I just sat through so the City’s $400 an hour lawyer could rack up more publicly funded fees on this case.
But I am not giving that to you as a freebie. See, the last time you got all wound up over the CATER suit I scored an amazing expert in CPRA law as my Counsel, so you spinning out of control might score me even more “enemy of my enemy” benefits. Go ahead Dan, scream your head off, the Judge doesn’t read your blog and doesn’t care what you think you know about the case.
By the way I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving, and your frustration that the world doesn’t work the way you want it to didn’t disappoint you too terribly.
Life would be better if we made Tom Tait king of Anaheim. Wouldn’t you agree Cynthia?
Life would be better if every town had a majority of councimembers as honest and caring as Tait, I’ll say that much. More liberal would be nice though….
Trait abstains from more city business due to business conflicts than almost any elected official in OC. Once he’s out, watch his firm reap a bunch of OCTA contracts that he had an inside view of after his wait period is over. Caring? Votes against every city employee contract because the only city employee he cares about is his admin. How many city manager have left Anaheim because of Tait?
Dan, Dan, Dan . . .
“Trait (sic) abstains from more city business due to business conflicts than almost any elected official in OC.”
Well, he’s the mayor of the largest city in Orange County with the second largest population. Just who exactly should have more conflicts?
“Once he’s out, watch his firm reap a bunch of OCTA contracts that he had an inside view of after his wait period is over”
Being public contracts, they’ll be bid and the terms available for review. If you find a situation with definitive evidence showing Mr. Tait’s company submitted an inadequate bid and still received public funds or where Mr. Tait’s company failed to fulfill it’s obligations per terms of the contract, let us know.
“Caring? Votes against every city employee contract because the only city employee he cares about is his admin. ”
That’s simultaneously lazy and a lie. Well done.
“How many city manager have left Anaheim because of Tait?”
Zero.
Cheers.
Zero is incorrect Ryan.
Do you work for your Dad, Ryan? Do you ever work?
Now people are asking why or how *I* got involved in Anaheim? Time to reminisce – I blame it on Lorri Galloway, whom I gave the nickname LoGal which stuck. Back in June 2012 she was on the OCTA Board and I was lobbying her to vote against toll lanes on the 405, but she told me “Your blog isn’t a good OC blog because there’s hardly anything about Anaheim (besides a rare Gabriel or Duane piece) and Anaheim is the biggest most important city in this county, and I’m gonna tell you all about it.” And she filled me in on the corporate giveaways, the attempt to “Let the People Vote,” the struggle for district elections, and the problem of police killings (which was about to get even worse.)
So for a long time she gave me tips for story ideas; soon I met Cynthia and Jason; after a while Mayor Tait was asking around “Who is this Vern Nelson and how does he know so much about Anaheim?” He asked me to have coffee, we spoke for two hours and we’ve been good friends ever since. Back then you could be friends with both Tom and LoGal. LoGal used to call me back then and say “You bring so much love and light and laughter into Anaheim,” LOL, I hope she never said the same thing to Dan.
That all ended when she decided to run for Mayor and I told her she shouldn’t (like probably a hundred of her friends did.) She [mostly] cut ties with me, and decided to use the more pliable Dan C to sing her praises to the blogosphere. But still she would call me every once in a while with a subversive story idea: “Dan couldn’t write this, it’s not his style.” But eventually I got even more irritated at her campaign, its religious overtones and mostly her refusal to take any difficult stands, and I let her know plainly by writing “The Silence of the LoGal” [google it] under the pen name Anaheim Insider. She never talked to me after that.
Until recently. Life is long and we’re all friends again. Well, that’s me and Anaheim.
Hey Dan….Where did YOU get that info? I can’t locate a Media Release by Ruth Ruiz or the City Attorney…and the City shows your back to back CPRA requests stopped in 2014. I bet they were not filled to your satisfaction, and you gave up trying to get info that way, but you can’t admit that or you would have to admit I might have something to bitch about in MY CPRA complaint)
So how did YOU discover the cost for that portion of the litigation?
You’re checking on *my* PRA requests? Creepy. I sent an email query into the PIO. Got a response. It’s not rocket science. My PRA requests were filed to my satisfaction.
What do you hope to accomplish Cynthia?
If I know Cynthia, she hopes to force some openness and accountability on these crooks. Weird that any blogger could take exception to that.
Openess. Accountability. Start with a list of CATER members you drunk POS
Uh, do you think that CATER has the same responsibility of “openness” as a government entity?
As for “accountability” — do you think that CATER has a legal responsibility to anyone other than its own Board of Directors?
It’s a good idea for you to stay anonymous. It avoids a lot of likely embarrassment.
well, you keep questioning the funding of Anaheim Blog. Perhaps you ought to regard your own arguments there.
Mr. Diamond,
Much has been written on the local blogs and social media (MOSTLY by you??) about your “dependence” on SSRI’s to deal with your fluxuating moods. Some have taken the extreme view, suggesting armed guards should be posted at the DPOC meetings.
Given your support for CAIR representative Hussam Ayloush, and insistence that he is above reproach and the families new claim that this whole thing may have been the result of “workplace bullying” about Syeed’s Beard, I have to wonder, do the endless teasing about your fashion choices, poor hygine, close shaved beard are not “ENOUGH” to put you over the edge?
I guess it’s just the crazy Republican’s, The Brutal Cop’s, Whitey and everyone else, EXCEPT the ISIS Terrorists that shot up SB, The SSRI Kids that shot up Columbine, Shady Hook, Kentuctky etal.
Coccoa Puffs Greg.
Is CATER anyone’s elected representative? No? Then bugger off, partial birth.
Precisely Vern. CATER isn’t elected by anyone and not that many people even known what CATER is. The presumption is they represent so many people in Anaheim, the vast majority of whom don’t know or care
…and when they make a compelling case in court, who cares who they are?
Let me know when that actually happens Vern.
“Using the pen name”.
I believe that Greg Diamond would term that an anonymous coward, or Political Ninja.
What, that only applies to people he disagrees with.
there were about half-a-dozen reasons I used the name “Anaheim Insider,” but most everyone knew it was me. And most importantly, Lorri Galloway and Curt Pringle knew it was me. I’ll probably use it again, I like getting under the skin of the original A.I. over at Matt’s fever swamp.
VERY different from the anonymous hitmen all over the other blogs like this one.
Oh. OK that makes it right.
And different……NOT.
Wait a second. Am I actually getting lectured on using a pen name (which everyone knows is me) … by the fictitious “David Vasquez?” This blog is, indeed, through the looking-glass.
why would you use a pseudonym if everyone knows it’s you? Dumb.
If you read the damn story, dumb one, you’d know I was playing a character.
and that’s different from real life how exactly, El Mosquito?”
CATER didn’t cost the City a dime. “The City” cost us taxpayers $200,000. All they had to do was follow the Brown Act and the PRA then take a re-vote. That would have cost NOTHING.
But they wouldn’t do it. Why not? Think it was because they had something to hide?
BTW, Arte has just wasted two of the three years he got for FREE from Brandman, et al. So he really didn’t have anyplace else to go, did he Charlie?
That comment is mine.
What comment’s yours, Randy? This thread is mine, I need to know!