Photos Show City Manager Attended Private Parties and Receptions Thrown by Prominent Registered Lobbyist

Gloria Ma’ae, James Vanderpool, Jose Diaz, and Scott Voigts at a holiday party thrown by Curt Pringle & Associates in December 2022.

By DUANE J. ROBERTS
Editor & Publisher

Photographs obtained by The Anaheim Investigator reveal that City Manager James Vanderpool not only attended an annual holiday party thrown by Curt Pringle & Associates, a prominent lobbyist firm, in December 2022, but he was there along with two other elected officials, including then Councilman Jose Diaz and current Councilwoman Natalie Meeks.

Furthermore, The Investigator has photos of Vanderpool at other events either hosted or co-hosted by this lobbyist. One taken of a reception in May 2018 shows him mingling with Matt Cunningham, a political consultant who at one time had close ties to the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce, and Katie Cawelti, the daughter of Curt Pringle, the firm’s president.

Last month, we reported that Meeks might have deliberately withheld information from her public calendar to conceal the fact she had a December 3rd meeting with Pringle, a registered lobbyist hired by Glydways, a high-tech company headquartered in San Francisco that is seeking future contracts with the city potentially worth millions of dollars.

Our article pointed out Meek’s close relationship with this lobbyist began almost twenty years ago when she served as director of public works while he was mayor. In 2022, both Pringle and his wife Alexis pumped $4,400 into her city council campaign. A photo we published showed her hanging out at his annual holiday party about a month after she won the election.

The party that the councilwoman attended, an invitation only event, was held on December 7, 2022 at The Ranch Restaurant & Saloon, located less than two miles away from the offices of Curt Pringle & Associates. Besides Diaz, Meeks, and Vanderpool being present, so was outgoing Councilwoman Gloria Ma’ae. And of course, Pringle and his wife were there.

Meeks at Pringle’s holiday party in December 2022.

The Investigator has photos of Vanderpool at events going all the way back to the days when he was deputy city manager of Buena Park. For example, in October 2011, he attended a private reception co-hosted by Pringle that was held at the The Catch, a defunct restaurant previously owned by an Arizona businessman who had close ties to Mayor Harry Sidhu.

One image shows him talking to an OCTA official and a Buena Park councilman. In others, just standing amongst the crowd. And he was in good company: Cunningham, Meeks, and Sidhu were present. So were Todd Ament, president/CEO of the Anaheim Chamber, Carrie Nocella, a controversial Disney executive, and Councilwoman Kris Murray.

Vanderpool at The Catch restaurant in October 2011.

Sidhu with Cunningham.

Pringle with Nocella and an unidentified woman.

Ament with an unidentified man and Sidhu.

Meeks with Murray.

In May 2018, while Vanderpool was city manager of Buena Park, he attended a conference in Indian Wells organized by the Southern California Association of Governments. Photos of a private reception reveals he was with Cunningham and Cawelti, who, besides being Pringle’s daughter, has been employed as a lobbyist at her father’s firm since 2015.

In May 2019, Vanderpool went to the SCAG conference again. This time, however, he was accompanied by Sunny Park, a Buena Park councilwoman. One photo, which was taken inside of a restaurant, shows both of them hanging out with Jennifer Fitzgerald, who was vice president of Curt Pringle & Associates until she moved to Texas in 2021.

Vanderpool and Cunningham (wearing sunglasses) with Pringle’s daughter.

Vanderpool, Park, and Fitzgerald in May 2019.

The Investigator also has photos of Vanderpool attending a charity fundraiser at the offices of Curt Pringle & Associates in April 2019. In one image he can be seen behind Paul Simonds, then senior vice-president of the firm, and Councilman Trevor O’Neil, who voted to make him Anaheim city manager in 2020 after Mayor Sidhu abruptly fired the previous one.

Vanderpool (circled in red) at a Pringle charity fundraiser in April 2019.

For the record, there were no rules in Buena Park or Anaheim which forbid Vanderpool from attending these private parties and receptions, much less report them. Moreover, though Curt Pringle & Associates has been a lobbyist for companies seeking city contracts in both municipalities, The Investigator has no evidence he improperly used his power on their behalf.

But in this era of increased transparency, it does raise serious questions if the public calendar policy, which was adopted in 2023, should require elected officials and city staffers to disclose all of their interactions with registered lobbyists, even reporting their attendance at private events where no city business was discussed–something not currently being done.

“Council members are expected to use judgment and always keep the best interest of the city and those we serve in mind,” said Mike Lyster, a spokesperson for the city. “A holiday party in and of itself would not necessarily require reporting. If significant city business were discussed, a member would be expected to report that on their calendars.”

In addition, the public calendar policy imposes absolutely no civil or criminal penalties on persons who are found to be in direct violation of it. Though the city council moved quickly last year to make it a crime for unsheltered individuals to sleep on a sidewalk, they seem to be loath to regulate themselves when it comes to them abusing their own power.

The Investigator did make a good faith effort to contact Vanderpool for this article. Because we wanted to better understand his longstanding relationship with lobbyists linked to Curt Pringle & Associates, we aggressively sought his comments. But so far, as of publication date, he hasn’t bothered to respond to any of the email messages we sent him.