Denise Barnes, Anaheim City CouncilDenise Barnes, Anaheim City Council
Posted is updated and edited!
Anaheim city council member Denise Barnes, a key member of the Tom Tait city council majority and a Republican recruited by Tait’s aide Mishal Montgomery, was fined $100 for a simple omission on her Form 700. Matt Cunningham wrote about it on AnaheimBlog calling the fine the equivalent of a parking ticket.
But upon closer examination, there’s a much bigger issue.
Barnes recuses herself from certain votes related to Disney due to her husband’s employment. But sources are telling TheLiberalOC that Barnes, who championed the death of the Anaheim Street Car as a principal reason for running for council, most certainly voted unethically on a number of agenda items and quite possibly broke the law in doing so.
Anaheim’s city manager, Paul Emery, and the interim city attorney, Kristin Pelletier, now have a difficult task ahead of them – namely telling the Anaheim City Council that several votes taken by Barnes may need to be tossed out and acted on again – and in many cases, some of these items will die with a 3-3 tie.
Here’s a sample summary of votes Barnes took that are under a cloud now because she probably should have recused herself; I did make an error in the cutting and pasting of several items that I posted too soon before verifying the votes, but there are some votes that remain:
item 22 of the March 7 agenda and item 3 on the March 21 agenda
In these votes, Barnes actually stated the conflict. It was these votes that caused the examination into all the other votes which may or may affect Barnes since the items voted on are within 500 feet of Disney property. I’ll note in this same agenda on March 7, Tait declared he didn’t have conflict but said he would “abstain out of an abundance of caution because there might be a potential conflict of interest.” Perhaps Councilmember Barnes should start doing the same as the Mayor.
Additionally, per Cynthia Ward’s comments on the issue of unrelated items such as the Harbor substation (item 25 on the March 21 agenda), this substation’s primary service area is the Resort District in and around Disneyland. Any improvements to the structure may represent a conflict for Ms. Barnes and needs thorough examination by the interim city attorney.
Property: Parcel 3 of Parcel Map 88-251, in the City of Anaheim, County of Orange, State of California, as per map recorded in Book 233, pages 41 to 46 inclusive of Parcel Maps, in the office of the County Recorder of said county (also commonly referred to as Car Park 2 of the Anaheim Convention Center and the Hilton Self-Parking Garage).
Agency Negotiator: Tom Morton, Executive Director of Convention, Sports and Entertainment
Negotiating Parties: HHC HA TRS, Inc.
Under Negotiation: Price and terms of payment for purchase and sale of property
Property: Parcel 3 of Parcel Map 88-251, in the City of Anaheim, County of Orange, State of California, as per map recorded in Book 233, pages 41 to 46 inclusive of Parcel Maps, in the office of the County Recorder of said county (also commonly referred to as Car Park 2 of the Anaheim Convention Center and the Hilton Self-Parking Garage).
Agency Negotiator: Tom Morton, Executive Director of Convention, Sports and Entertainment
Negotiating Parties: HHC HA TRS, Inc.
Under Negotiation: Price and terms of payment for purchase and sale of property
CONFERENCE WITH REAL PROPERTY NEGOTIATORS (Section 54956.8 of the California Government Code)
Property: Parcel 3 of Parcel Map 88-251, in the City of Anaheim, County of Orange, State of California, as per map recorded in Book 233, pages 41 to 46 inclusive of Parcel Maps, in the office of the County Recorder of said county (also commonly referred to as Car Park 2 of the Anaheim Convention Center and the Hilton Self-Parking Garage)
Agency Negotiator: Tom Morton, Executive Director of Convention, Sports and Entertainment
Negotiating Party: HHC HA TRS, Inc.
Under Negotiation: Price and terms of payment for purchase and sale of property
So for those on the Tait council majority, is it “good government” to have a member of your majority recuse herself for so many important items in the city. Which one of them will speak up and criticize Barnes’ votes and deception?
Should Barnes resign? Should she be recalled? Tait’s aide recruited Barnes as a candidate; what blame should be affixed to Ms. Montgomery, the beneficiary of a huge pay raise courtesy of Ms. Barnes vote?
The bigger question is will the city manager and city attorney – already in an adversarial relationship with Tait stand up to the Mayor to say “knowing what we know now, you need to rescind these items and vote again.”?
It’s a much bigger deal than a $100 fine.
5 Comments
Thank you for sharing this news.
There is no doubt that these illegal votes require Denise Barnes resign from office. Her actions are criminal. Safe bet that she has hired a criminal defense attorney at this point to try to cut a deal.
As a city employee, Mishal Montgonery should immediately be fired. Also, she should be forced to testify on her involvement in recruiting Denise Barnes.
To quote a statement often used in criminal indictments, the public has the right to know what Mishal Montgomery knew and when she knew it.
There is no room for criminal activity at City Hall. Both Barnes and Montgomery must be held accountable for their actions.
Dan, you have listed items Barnes did not vote for. You have listed items that have no link to benefitting Disney. And you have offered no explanation to connect them to Barnes. The FPPC made th statement there was no intent to deceive, this was a mistake made by someone who had never run for office before, where was the City Attorney to walk through the new Council members? I certainly had help and training before filing my 700s and I refer back to it every time I file new ones because the pages can be difficult to discern.
If you want to pursue Barnes for what the FPPC says was unintentional then let’s take another look at the many votes of Murray connected to WillDan and her use of her position for her employer, even after being called on it by the public. We can look good and hard at that again I guess.
As far as any accusation that Barnes “paid back” Montgomery, please factor what Montgomery lost when the former majority stripped the Mayor of the 10th largest city in CA down to one part time staffer, are you saying the Mayor does not need one full time staff person or that the person should not have the level of experience and education that Mishal Montgomery brings to the office? Let’s talk about Steve Lodge being paid the same that Montgomery used to make, without the college degree(s) without the experience, now THAT is a political payback that should trigger outrage.
Anaheim is not a strong mayor system of government; Tait’s extra responsibilities are running the meeting and that’s pretty much it. Montgomery’s raise was excessive and given how Tait has screwed over unions in contract negotiations, it’s very inconsistent to reward Mopntgomery. I realize she’s given you special access to stuff for meetings since you are very pro-Tait; innapropriate to do for someone suing the city and losing generally. Barnes votes ought to be rescinded. Its not about Murray; it’s about Barnes. If Murray is fined by the FPPC, let me know.
Yes these are issues where Denise Barnes cast votes. State law is very clear as to what conditions a conflict.
The FPPC is soley responsible for determine if violations related to financial disclosure /. fit which they found her to have violated state law.
Denise Barnes’ criminal activity, voting on items where state law prohibits her from voting because of financial conflicts, isn’t in the purview of the FPPC. That falls to the California Attorney General and the County District Attorney.
No doubt Councilwoman Barnes’ lawyer will know the difference.
The forms are not difficult to fill out; I’d argue you’d have the intellect of a doorknob to not complete correctly and there’s help readily available on a question.
Montgomery recruited a candidate who voted for her pay increase. Go ahead and defend it. It makes you look bad.
Thank you for sharing this news.
There is no doubt that these illegal votes require Denise Barnes resign from office. Her actions are criminal. Safe bet that she has hired a criminal defense attorney at this point to try to cut a deal.
As a city employee, Mishal Montgonery should immediately be fired. Also, she should be forced to testify on her involvement in recruiting Denise Barnes.
To quote a statement often used in criminal indictments, the public has the right to know what Mishal Montgomery knew and when she knew it.
There is no room for criminal activity at City Hall. Both Barnes and Montgomery must be held accountable for their actions.
Dan, you have listed items Barnes did not vote for. You have listed items that have no link to benefitting Disney. And you have offered no explanation to connect them to Barnes. The FPPC made th statement there was no intent to deceive, this was a mistake made by someone who had never run for office before, where was the City Attorney to walk through the new Council members? I certainly had help and training before filing my 700s and I refer back to it every time I file new ones because the pages can be difficult to discern.
If you want to pursue Barnes for what the FPPC says was unintentional then let’s take another look at the many votes of Murray connected to WillDan and her use of her position for her employer, even after being called on it by the public. We can look good and hard at that again I guess.
As far as any accusation that Barnes “paid back” Montgomery, please factor what Montgomery lost when the former majority stripped the Mayor of the 10th largest city in CA down to one part time staffer, are you saying the Mayor does not need one full time staff person or that the person should not have the level of experience and education that Mishal Montgomery brings to the office? Let’s talk about Steve Lodge being paid the same that Montgomery used to make, without the college degree(s) without the experience, now THAT is a political payback that should trigger outrage.
Anaheim is not a strong mayor system of government; Tait’s extra responsibilities are running the meeting and that’s pretty much it. Montgomery’s raise was excessive and given how Tait has screwed over unions in contract negotiations, it’s very inconsistent to reward Mopntgomery. I realize she’s given you special access to stuff for meetings since you are very pro-Tait; innapropriate to do for someone suing the city and losing generally. Barnes votes ought to be rescinded. Its not about Murray; it’s about Barnes. If Murray is fined by the FPPC, let me know.
Yes these are issues where Denise Barnes cast votes. State law is very clear as to what conditions a conflict.
The FPPC is soley responsible for determine if violations related to financial disclosure /. fit which they found her to have violated state law.
Denise Barnes’ criminal activity, voting on items where state law prohibits her from voting because of financial conflicts, isn’t in the purview of the FPPC. That falls to the California Attorney General and the County District Attorney.
No doubt Councilwoman Barnes’ lawyer will know the difference.
The forms are not difficult to fill out; I’d argue you’d have the intellect of a doorknob to not complete correctly and there’s help readily available on a question.
Montgomery recruited a candidate who voted for her pay increase. Go ahead and defend it. It makes you look bad.