Archive for the category “Norma Campos-Kurtz”

13 Aug 2023

Anaheim Chamber Luncheon at Angel Stadium Raises Questions About Mayor, Council Violating Brown Act

Matt Cunningham, James Vanderpool, Molly Jolly, and Laura Cunningham having lunch with Mayor Ashleigh Aitken.

By DUANE J. ROBERTS
Editor & Publisher

The Anaheim Investigator has reviewed more than 200 photographs that were taken of a luncheon held at Angel Stadium on June 6th which not only clearly show Mayor Ashleigh Aitken sharing a table with Laura Cunningham, president and CEO of the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce, but Molly Jolly, senior vice president of Finance/Administration for Angels Baseball.

In one photo, the mayor can be seen talking to Matthew Hicks, vice president of Public Affairs for ocV!BE, a $4 billion mixed-use development surrounding the Honda Center that is controlled by Henry Samueli, a Newport Beach billionaire. In another, John Carpino, president of Angels Baseball and right-hand man for team owner Arte Moreno, is standing directly behind her.

Mayor Aitken was not alone at this event. Photos show Councilman Stephen Faessel sat at the ocV!BE table between Hicks and George Urch, their lobbyist. Councilwomen Natalie Meeks and Norma Campos-Kurtz were huddled together off to the side, not far from Mike Lyster, chief communications officer for the City of Anaheim. Fire Chief Pat Russell was also present.

Mayor Pro Tem Natalie Rubalcava and Councilman Jose Diaz were seated at the same table as Aitken was. So was City Manager James Vanderpool, who was stuck in the middle of Jolly and Matt Cunningham, Laura’s husband. Also joining them was Alicia Valadez-Gonzalez of Northgate Markets. One photo shows Berenice Ballinas, Aitken’s Chief of Staff, taking selfies with her.

The Anaheim Chamber of Commerce table.

The luncheon, an annual event that is organized by the Anaheim Chamber, typically brings in a little league baseball team from the local community to meet and interact with persons who played for Angels Baseball, both past and present. Some of the featured guests on June 6th included Patrick Sandoval, Chuck Finley, and Clyde Wright, three generations of Angels pitchers.

This year’s main sponsor was Visit Anaheim, the tourism industry promotion bureau, which paid $10,000 for the spot. SA Recycling, Manheim California, Republic Services, and Best Western Stovall’s Hotels each chipped in $2,750. And Anaheim Regional Transportation, Brewery X, Liuna Local 652, ocV!BE, Pacific Western Bank and Radiant Futures put up $1,750 a piece.

Neither Mayor Aitken or any of the five council members who attended this luncheon responded to questions The Investigator emailed them asking about who paid for their tickets and what actions they took to avoid violating the Brown Act, the state law which regulates the conduct of elected officials at meetings. Instead, they directed our questions to Lyster.

“The Brown Act,” he told us via email, “allows a majority of or all Council members to attend public events without discussing city business among themselves. Our Council members are made aware of and follow this practice.” Though Lyster is technically correct, there is one slight problem: tickets to this luncheon cost a whopping $200 per person and were “limited.”

It could be conceivably argued that despite the fact this event was “open” to the public, the steep price of admission created a barrier to access based on wealth and social class: only people with money could afford to attend. The Brown Act makes it illegal for public meetings to be held in facilities which require payment to enter, but that provision doesn’t seem to apply here.

With respect to the tickets that the mayor, city council, and city staff received from the Anaheim Chamber, Lyster said as follows:

Mayor Aitken, Mayor Pro Tem Rubalcava and Council Members Faessel, Diaz, Campos Kurtz and Meeks attended and were provided tickets.

For Aitken, Faessel and Kurtz, their tickets fall under ceremonial job duties as Aitken addressed attendees, Faessel did the invocation and Kurtz led the pledge of allegiance.

For Rubalcava, Meeks, Diaz and City Manager Jim Vanderpool, it will fall to them to list their tickets as part of a form 700 due in spring 2024.

In a follow up email, he confirmed the city didn’t pay for the tickets and that the Anaheim Chamber gave them away for free.

Carpino, Aitken and Meeks.

Because this is a breaking news story, The Investigator is still in the process of gathering information about this luncheon. Last week, we filed multiple public records act requests with the city to see if there are any emails and other documents which might shed more light on this matter. If we find anything else significant to report on, a follow up article will be written.

For matter of record, The Investigator does not possess the legal expertise to determine if the mayor and city council violated the Brown Act. And even if Lyster is fundamentally correct, none of this changes the fact they were having private conversations with representatives from the Anaheim Chamber, Angels Baseball, and other business interests out of public view.

Interestingly enough, there also seems have been a conscious decision by elected officials to keep this luncheon a secret. With the exception of a notation Aitken posted on her June calendar, nobody has talked about it. If it wasn’t for The Investigator’s dogged determination to expose what politicians do behind closed doors, the public would have never known it occurred.

Posted in Alicia Valadez-Gonzalez, Anaheim Chamber of Commerce, Anaheim City Council, Anaheim Regional Transporation, Angel Stadium, Angels Baseball, Arte Moreno, Ashleigh Aitken, Berenice Ballinas, Best Western Stovall's Hotels, Brewery X, Brown Act, Chuck Finley, City of Anaheim, Clyde Wright, George Urch, Henry Samueli, James Vanderpool, Jose Diaz, Laura Cunningham, Liuna Local 652, Manheim California, Matthew Cunningham, Matthew Hicks, Mike Lyster, Molly Jolly, Natalie Meeks, Natalie Rubalcava, Norma Campos-Kurtz, Northgate Markets, ocV!BE, Pacific Western Bank, Pat Russell, Patrick Sandoval, Radiant Futures, Ralph M. Brown Act, Republic Services, SA Recycling, Visit Anaheim and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
07 Feb 2023

Past Involvement With Muzeo Museum, Community Services Board Brought Aitken, Faessel Together

Ashleigh Aitken, Josh Spears, Stephen Faessel, Bette Aitken, and Susan Faessel at the Muzeo Museum & Cultural Center in 2018.

By DUANE ROBERTS
Editor & Publisher

During The Anaheim Investigator’s recent inquiry into Norma Campos-Kurtz‘s close ties with Councilman Stephen Faessel, we accidentally stumbled across circumstantial evidence which suggested that another prominent Anaheim politician might also have had a similar relationship with him: Mayor Ashleigh Aitken.

For example, we discovered the mayor had some sort of link to Anaheim Beautiful, a non-profit organization that Faessel and his wife have championed. Multiple photographs The Investigator reviewed show Aitken attended a couple of events this group held at various venues, sometimes while the councilman’s wife was present.

In one photo of a September 2018 luncheon, Aitken can be seen seated at a table directly across from Campos-Kurtz, a who not only joined the Board of Directors of Anaheim Beautiful the previous year, but also maintained a tight relationship with Faessel through her job as district director for state Assemblyman Tom Daly.

Campos-Kurtz (back to camera) with Aitken in 2018.

In an attempt to learn more, The Investigator sent an email to Faessel asking him about his interactions with Aitken, including what knowledge he had about her with respect to Anaheim Beautiful, especially since evidence in our possession suggested that she had been affiliated with this non-profit for at least six years.

In response, the councilman told us that though he doesn’t consider Ashleigh to be a close friend, he has known her for “some years” now. But he said that they became acquainted with each other through their involvement with the Muzeo Museum & Cultural Center and Community Services Board, not Anaheim Beautiful.

Below is Faessel‘s reply:

I served as a member of the original MUZEO board with Betty Aiken and got to know her husband Wylie through that connection, I recall that Ashleigh chaired a MUZEO Fundraiser years ago when her mom and dad were still active in the organization.

My wife Susan served on the Anaheim Community Services Board along with Mrs. Ashleigh Aitken for a couple years in the later 2000’s (I cannot recall exactly) so certainly I got to meet her from time to time there.

While you mentioned her being a member of Anaheim Beautiful, I do not have any personal knowledge of that. Susan and I are very supportive of Anaheim Beautiful however I don’t know every member. She may have been a member.

To go to your main question, we know of each other and have for some years. We do not, nor ever have met socially (unless we happened to have attended the same event coincidentally.)

Therefore I would not describe our relationship as ‘close friends.’

The Anaheim Investigator made at least three attempts to contact Aitken and Berenice Ballinas, her chief of staff, requesting comment for this article. However, for some strange reason, the mayor, who claims to be open and transparent with everybody, declined to answer any of the questions we sent her and ignored our emails.

Posted in 69th State Assembly District, Anaheim Beautiful, Anaheim City Council, Ashleigh Aitken, Bette Aitken, City of Anaheim, Community Services Board, District 4, Facebook, Muzeo Museum & Cultural Center, Norma Campos-Kurtz, Orange County Democratic Party, Stephen Faessel, Susan Faessel, Tom Daly, Wylie Aitken and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
06 Feb 2023

Newly Appointed Councilwoman Campos-Kurtz Admits She Has Had Close Ties to Faessel For Years

Norma Campos-Kurtz (left) with Jordan Brandman (right) at an Anaheim Beautiful luncheon in December 2017.

By DUANE ROBERTS
Editor & Publisher

In the aftermath of the Anaheim City Council vote to appoint Norma Campos-Kurtz to the District 4 seat vacated by Avelino Valencia III last year, a number of partisan Democrats were struggling to figure out the reason why Councilman Stephen Faessel was seemingly “chosen” to nominate her during the final round of balloting.

One video that was circulated on various Facebook groups made an attempt to understand what transpired by carefully dissecting every single move the council made that night. But such superficial analysis always ends up becoming an exercise in futility especially if you don’t know anything about the context of the behavior which took place.

The Anaheim Investigator, however, knew there was a very simple explanation for all of this. And we really didn’t have to dig that deep to find it. Evidence shows that Campos-Kurtz and Faessel are friends. Regardless of what the councilman’s publicly-stated motives were for picking her, they’ve known each other at least since 2016.

The relationship between the two began in earnest shortly after Faessel was elected to his seat on the Anaheim City Council in 2016. At that time, Campos-Kurtz was district director for Tom Daly, a state Assemblyman whose area encompassed a large chunk of Anaheim. One of her tasks was to do outreach to the councilman.

Things began to blossom when Campos-Kurtz joined the Board of Directors of Anaheim Beautiful in 2017, a non-profit organization whose core membership appears to consist of upper-middle class homeowners, some of whom have had ties to other groups like Support our Anaheim Resort and the now-defunct Anaheim First.

Not only has Faessel been a strong supporter of Anaheim Beautiful, but his wife has been an active participant in their activities:”Susan supports … Anaheim Beautiful programs such as Green Ribbon Week, Neighborhood Clean Up, Memorial Tree and Holiday Lights Tour,” according to the Anaheim High School Alumni Association website.

There is no doubt Campos-Kurtz’s involvement with Anaheim Beautiful’s board has benefited them. For example, in two messages posted on Facebook and Twitter in 2019 and 2021, it appears she was instrumental in boosting political support for that non-profit’s activities, including a scholarship program and a holiday lights award ceremony.

In direct response to a question The Investigator emailed to Campos-Kurtz about her relationship with Faessel, she quite frankly admitted to us what we already suspected based on evidence gathered during our own probe: that she had been friends with the councilman for several years now, though mostly in an official capacity.

“I met the councilmember soon after he was first elected to council as a result of responsibilities while working for then Assemblymember Tom Daly,” she told us last Friday. “Over the years I’ve met up with the councilmember (and his wife) at several community events, organization luncheons/dinners, city meetings and events.”

For matter of record, The Investigator does not dispute that Campos-Kurtz is qualified to be a councilwoman. But decisions to appoint someone to a vacant seat aren’t made at a city council meeting alone. They are based on pre-existing relationships formed over years of interactions. Faessel may deny it, but that’s one reason why he nominated her.

Posted in 69th State Assembly District, Anaheim Beautiful, Anaheim City Council, Anaheim First, Anaheim High School Alumni Association, Avelino Valencia III, City of Anaheim, District 4, Facebook, Norma Campos-Kurtz, Orange County Democratic Party, Stephen Faessel, Support Our Anaheim Resort, Susan Faessel, Tom Daly, Twitter and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
24 Jan 2023

Likely Front Runners Vying for District 4 City Council Seat Have Hidden Ties to Disney-Funded SOAR

Linda Newby (left) with Natalie Meeks (right) at a closed-door meeting of the Anaheim First Neighborhood Leadership Summit in July 2019.

By DUANE ROBERTS
Editor & Publisher

Norma Campos-Kurtz and Linda Newby, two candidates of whom The Anaheim Investigator believes are the likely front runners in the race to fill the District 4 city council seat vacated by Avelino Valencia III last year, have hidden ties to Support Our Anaheim Resort (SOAR), an entity mostly funded by The Walt Disney Company.

Evidence reviewed by The Investigator–including campaign finance documents, numerous photographs, and archived websites–not only show that both women have contributed money to SOAR’s political action committee through various fundraisers, but that one of them was appointed to its separate advisory board in 2022.

Newby, a longtime resident of Anaheim, is the owner of Gallery Travel, a “full-service travel agency.” Between 2013 and 2014, she served on the board of directors of the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce and has been active in other groups formed by that body, such as Anaheim First, which was backed by former Mayor Harry Sidhu.

Multiple photographs in the possession of The Investigator show Newby has participated in SOAR fundraisers on and off since 2014. Form 460s filed by SOAR with the City Clerk’s office report she gave at least $100 to them on at least four different occasions (the last time being August 26, 2021), but did so under the name of her business.

Newby with Sidhu.

Campos-Kurtz, like Newby, has also given SOAR cash. For example, a Form 460 filed in 2020 reports that she made a $100 contribution in October. But another form filed a year earlier shows that Ken Kurtz, her husband, gave them about $200. Notes mention that his payment was made directly to Jill Kanzler, then executive director.

Campos-Kurtz with her husband.

Early in 2022, Campos-Kurtz was appointed to the SOAR Advisory Committee–a fact that she neglected to mention in the application she filed with the city seeking appointment to the District 4 council seat. Additionally, she said nothing about her brief stint with Anaheim First, which still lists her as a member on their website.

That Campos-Kurtz has a close relationship with SOAR is of no surprise. Between 2014 and 2021, she worked for Democratic State Assemblyman Tom Daly, who was one of the earliest champions of this Disney-funded entity. Not only do Form 460s show that Daly got funds from them, but he bragged about their endorsement in 2012.

In 2020, SOAR spent a whopping $405,710–the bulk of which came from The Walt Disney Company–to help Valencia get elected to his District 4 city council seat. It’s not a coincidence that at the time this was happening, he was working as a field representative for Daly and Campos-Kurtz just so happened to be his boss.

Screenshot from SOAR’s website.

Despite the fact eleven other people have filed applications seeking appointment to the District 4 city council seat, The Investigator believes that none of them ever stood a chance of being considered for this position. From our perspective, the decision as to who will replace Valencia had already been made weeks ago.

However, there appears to be no clear consensus on the Anaheim City Council right now as to whether they will pick Campos-Kurtz or Newby. There is a possibility the vote could end up deadlocked 3-3 for both. Regardless of what the case will be, the odds a candidate tied to SOAR will be chosen to fill this seat are quite high.

Posted in 69th State Assembly District, Anaheim Chamber of Commerce, Anaheim City Council, Anaheim First, Avelino Valencia III, City of Anaheim, District 4, Form 460, Gallery Travel, Harry Sidhu, Jill Kanzler, Ken Kurtz, Linda Newby, Natalie Meeks, Norma Campos-Kurtz, Orange County Democratic Party, Orange County Republican Party, SOAR Advisory Committee, Support Our Anaheim Resort, The Walt Disney Company, Tom Daly and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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