Anaheim City Councilman Quietly Employed Girlfriend of Top Serrano Associate as ‘Senior Policy Aide’

Avelino Valencia (left) with Gerry Serrano (right), president of the Santa Ana Police Officers Association, in June 2018.

By DUANE ROBERTS
Editor & Publisher

Councilman Avelino Valencia III quietly employed Tina Arias Miller, the girlfriend of a top associate to Gerry Serrano, president of the Santa Ana Police Officers Association, as a “Senior Policy Aide” during a brief period of time between 2021 and 2022, according to public records obtained by The Anaheim Investigator.

Miller, who is president of the Rancho Santiago Community College District Board of Trustees, has been involved in a relationship with Ernesto Amado Conde, a retired Santa Ana Police sergeant known to be Serrano’s closest ally. He is also a consultant for the police union, earning thousands of dollars in fees from them each year.

The job offer was set into motion shortly after Valencia sent out an email to James Vanderpool, the city manager, on Monday, July 26, 2021, expressing that he “would like to hire Dr. Tina Arias Miller as a Senior Policy Aide…. Dr. Miller will be working about 6-7 hours a week. Her hourly compensation will be $31.00 an hour.”

Valencia’s email to the city manager.

Documents The Investigator acquired from the City of Anaheim show that Miller worked for Valencia less than a year. A human resources action report notes she was hired on August 16, 2021. And her last day on the job was March 31, 2022, according to the final Form 700 Statement of Economic Interests that she filed.

However, it’s unclear what Miller did for the councilman that warranted her higher pay grade. For example, The Investigator carefully reviewed his calendar during the several months he employed her and though she was sent to a few city meetings, she appears to have spent most of her time doing tasks that lesser-paid council aides do.

But most importantly, Valencia took steps to ensure the public never knew he had hired her. At no time did he ever list Miller’s name on his homepage on the city website. And despite the fact she had an official email address, she was apparently told not to use it to send messages, enabling her to elude detection from public records act requests.

The last Form 700 that Miller filed.

This isn’t the only time Valencia has tried to hide his ties to Serrano and his associates. Last year, The Investigator discovered he gave city-owned Angels baseball tickets to Gerry through his wife Serina. In the original Form 802 he submitted, he tried to use her maiden name to conceal this fact, but was later forced to refile it using her married name.

The councilman’s questionable behavior spurred The Investigator to look much deeper leading us to not only uncover evidence of his longtime friendship with Miller, Conde, and Serrano, but the police union president’s hidden relationships with other powerful Democratic Party politicians, including Fiona Ma, the state treasurer.

Valencia has known Serrano since 2018. Sources have alleged the two used to “hang out” together at the Santa Ana Police Officers Association headquarters quite often. Furthermore, they claim Serrano was a guest at his wedding to Monica Mungia, who is employed as a principal with the Anaheim Elementary School District.