Majority of Anaheim City Council members call on mayor to resign amid FBI corruption probe
ANAHEIM, Calif. (CNS) -- Three Anaheim City Council members on Wednesday called on Mayor Harry Sidhu to resign amid a FBI corruption probe into his involvement in the proposed sale of Angel Stadium to team owner Arte Moreno.
Anaheim Mayor Pro Tem Trevor O'Neil joined Councilmen Stephen Faessel and Jose Diaz in sending a letter to Sidhu's lawyer calling on him to resign. That request followed a call for Sidhu to resign at Tuesday's City Council meeting from Councilmen Avelino Valencia and Jose Moreno. Councilwoman Gloria Ma'ae also raised concerns about the corruption probe.
Messages left with Sidhu and his attorney, Paul Meyer, were not immediately returned. Sidhu has not commented publicly on the allegations.
Meyer declined to comment Tuesday.
Sidhu did not attend Tuesday's council meeting, and if he misses another meeting with an unexcused absence his seat could be considered vacant. The council is next scheduled to meet June 7.
"The deeply troubling issues that have come to our attention involving Mayor Sidhu since May 16, 2022, raise serious concerns and questions about his ability to continue as mayor of Anaheim,'' O'Neil, Faessel and Diaz said in the letter to Sidhu's attorney.
On Tuesday, an Orange County Superior Court judge put the stadium deal on pause at the request of the state Attorney General's Office, which revealed the corruption probe in its legal papers.
In an unusual move, the attorney general's court papers included an FBI search warrant affidavit detailing elements of the federal probe, including two confidential informants, one of whom was wired to secretly record conversations with the mayor.
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