The Brief

A whistleblower is alleging wide-ranging misconduct by Anaheim’s top finance official — including enabling fraud that wastes millions of taxpayers dollars, lying to the city council and protecting a known sexual harasser.

In a tort claim filed in early July, former purchasing agent Kari Bouffard alleges she was wrongfully terminated for “engaging in protected whistleblower activity, reporting sexual assault and harassment, exposing procurement fraud, refusing to participate in unlawful contracting practices and addressing severe deficiencies that resulted in costly delays and exposed the city to continuous and significant risk.”

She alleges that Debbie Moreno, Anaheim’s finance director and city treasurer, “violated the public trust, abused her authority, disregarded City Council policies.”

The tort claim, obtained by LAist via a public records request, alleges that Moreno:

• Refused to audit the city’s credit card purchases, which amount to around $800,000 a month
• Covered up that the Fire & Rescue Department bought new ambulances and went to the Council after to seek approval
• Does not follow standard best practices for procurement — no member of the purchasing department had ever written a contract — and instead creates additional, unnecessary processes 
• Uses a policy from 1999 to lease computer hardware at inflated prices, bypassing Council approval 

All together, the tort claim paints a picture of a city’s procurement department that lacks processes or oversight controls — run totally ad hoc — resulting in the mismanagement of taxpayer dollars. And Bouffard alleges in the tort claim her repeated attempts to address issues were met with retaliation. She wrote that she felt like she was “being punished for simply trying to protect the city and ensure its actions complied with the law.”

LAist requested an interview with Moreno through Anaheim spokesperson Mike Lyster, who did not respond to that request.

As the city's top financial official, Moreno is tasked with administering a $2.4 billion budget. Anaheim, the most populous city in Orange County and home to Disneyland, Angels Stadium and Honda Center, has a history of financial scandals.

Former Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu at the Orange County Black History Parade, Feb. 5, 2022. Sidhu resigned in May 2022, a week after FBI documents revealed he was under federal investigation for an alleged quid pro quo scheme involving the now-canceled sale of Angel Stadium.

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Daniel Knighton

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Three years ago, a federal probe revealed a “cabal” of business and political leaders worked behind the scenes to exert influence over City Hall. Former Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu just served two months in federal prison for his role in the corruption scandal.

Bouffard’s tort claim comes at a time the city is contending with a $60 million budget shortfall.

LAist reached out to the city about the allegations in the tort claim, as well as discrepancies we found in records obtained via a public records request. LAist also asked the city about its oversight practices.

City spokesperson Lyster told LAist he would not comment on the specific allegations in Bouffard’s tort claim because they are part of an ongoing personnel matter.

“We take all workplace concerns seriously and adhere to high ethical and professional standards. The claims made are being evaluated and are from a former employee whose work with the city did not extend past probation,” Lyster said in a written statement. “But, in this case, the issues being raised are part of a personnel matter, with all the considerations that come with that. We want to be respectful of all involved, and discussion of personnel matters in the media would be inappropriate.”

Lyster did not dispute Bouffard’s claims. Instead, he wrote that the city welcomes a review of contracts and policies. LAist requested purchase orders, agreements, contracts and process documents related to the claims and found discrepancies that seem to back up Bouffard’s claims.

Lyster did not comment on the discrepancies LAist found in the purchase orders, agreements, contracts and processes obtained independent of the tort claim.

Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken said in a text message that complaints like Bouffard's are taken seriously and investigated.

"If findings are made that can help up improve our processes and procedures, I welcome them," Aitken said.

When did the problems start?

Bouffard, a public servant of 28 years, whose experience includes a long stint at the County of Orange, started at the city of Anaheim in the summer of 2024.

Very soon, she began to notice a lack of processes and little oversight in how the department was run, she told LAist in an interview.

Formal contracts were not written, with neither the city nor vendor agreeing to terms and conditions or scopes of work. That was a “red flag,” she said. Contracts are commonplace in government as they help create a record trail to keep the city — and taxpayers — from being overcharged or billed by unscrupulous contractors.

Bouffard said conversations with other city departments convinced her the purchasing division at the city was in disarray and had been mismanaged for years.

Kari Bouffard, the whistleblower, alleging widespread mismanagement of taxpayer dollars.

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“ I saw all of this, though, as an opportunity to put better systems in place to restore accountability and support both the purchasing team and the departments that we serve,” Bouffard said.

In the tort claim, Bouffard alleges Moreno also created a “hostile work environment” by allowing sexual harassment and retaliation “to continue unchecked.” That section of the tort claim is heavily redacted, with details about the assault, names of employees and details of the investigation blacked out.

Bouffard was terminated in July, two days before her one-year probation period ended.

At her six-month performance review in June 2025 (six months after it was due), she wrote in the tort claim she was “awarded a 'Distinguished' rating and a 2% salary increase in recognition of my contributions” despite “an excessive and unsustainable workload” where she could not even take accrued time off.

Bouffard alleges in her tort claim that she was fired not because of poor performance but because her efforts to improve the procurement department bristled Moreno.

Urgent contract for ambulances already in hand 

A few months after she started at the city in 2024, Bouffard alleges in the tort claim Moreno asked her to draft an “urgent” contract to purchase ambulances for the city’s Fire & Rescue Department.

While working on the contract, Bouffard claims she discovered an email showing the ambulances already were procured and delivered.

Bouffard alleges Moreno prepared a staff report for the City Council that requested Council approval for the purchase.

Bouffard wrote: “Ms. Moreno not only misled me regarding the situation but also knowingly falsified the staff report presented to City Council, intentionally concealing the fire department’s unauthorized procurement and colluding to cover up the procurement violations.”

Bouffard alleges Moreno has a personal relationship with Fire Chief Patrick Russell and has shown favoritism toward his department.

Russell did not respond to a request for comment.

LAist asked the city in a public records request for all executed contracts, invoices, order forms and emails pertaining to the order of ambulances. The contract the city shared with us doesn't give any indication that council approved of the purchase before the fire department went out and bought them.

The contract does not show that the council approved the purchase of ambulances that the city already possessed.

Creating additional work for departments 

Bouffard alleges Moreno relied on “cumbersome” procurement processes while punishing Bouffard for trying to implement changes she said would save the city money.

When Bouffard arrived at the city, she told LAist, if a department needed to purchase goods or services, the purchasing team would ask them exactly how much was needed and then they would move forward with that purchase for the exact amount of what was requested.

This method, she said, is “cumbersome” and leads to higher prices for goods, wasting taxpayer dollars. Instead, she sought to implement bulk pricing and planning for future purchases so the city can negotiate better deals.

A city staff member heads into the Anaheim Council Chamber before an open session meeting at Anaheim City Hall on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025.

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These concerns would come to light with a contract for the police department.

When the police department wanted to purchase military equipment, with plans to buy more in the future, Bouffard developed a five-year purchasing agreement with a total amount not to exceed $3.75 million. This was contrary to the usual process used by the city, where purchases are made annually.

In the memo Bouffard drafted to explain her reasoning, she wrote, “Historically, many purchases throughout the city have been made reactively, often in response to urgent needs that arise during the fiscal year. While this method may provide quick relief, it frequently leads to higher costs, unpredictable budgeting and a greater risk of contract ratifications. These challenges highlight the need for a more proactive and structured approach to procurement — one that emphasizes planning, collaboration and long-term stability.”

The memo, which was sent to City Manager Jim Vanderpool, was ultimately stripped of Bouffard’s concerns.

She alleges Moreno and Deputy Finance Director Jean Ibalio excluded her from the rewrite process and dismissed her concerns because they were worried she would raise these process concerns with Vanderpool over “the broader lack of fiscal oversight.”

The city would eventually go without Bouffard’s recommendation for the contract. Instead, in the memo, Moreno wrote the Anaheim Police Department will have to get approval in the future for purchases already approved by the Council.

Ibalio and Vanderpool did not respond to requests to comment.

Circumventing competitive bidding

While Moreno had concerns about a long-term contract for the police department, it appears she promoted the use of a costly 25-year-old policy to purchase computer hardware for city staff.

In April, IT manager Ed Jin told Bouffard to renew a lease of around $4.5 million with Hewlett Packard for computer hardware, using a policy referred to as “1999.” Bouffard was concerned with the high spend for computer hardware and a conversation with the city’s IT admin analyst confirmed the lease was expensive. The per-staff, per-computer cost would amount to $5,000 with the lease. If the city did not renew the lease, the cost would be $1,800 per person.

Jin did not respond to a request for comment about the lease policy.

Other cities spend less on computers. Santa Ana, for example, told LAist the city purchases desktop computers for $850 and laptops for $1,425.

LAist requested the 1999 policy via a public records request. In 1999, the then-City Council approved a motion giving the purchasing agent — who until recently was Bouffard — the authority to issue purchase orders and execute lease agreements for computer equipment.

Bouffard alleges in the tort claim that this “outdated” policy is being used improperly to avoid soliciting competitive bids, pay in excess for hardware, obtain equipment without council approval and abuse evergreen clauses to avoid processes.

At four different occasions in May and June, according to the tort claim, Jin would “warn” Bouffard to use the policy to renew the lease, saying Moreno and Ibalio were upset.

“During each conversation, I communicated to Mr. Jin I am required to adhere to Council policy and follow the advice of our city attorneys. It was apparent Mr. Jin was under pressure to push me into violating Council policy,” Bouffard wrote.

Jin emailed Bouffard an “evergreen” contract, which Bouffard claims was an attempt to prove that an approved contract existed.

That contract was from 2002 with a company called Compaq, an organization that no longer exists and was acquired by HP.

In her tort claim, Bouffard said the evergreen contract originated prior to her employment with the city and had no expiration date. This “violates competitive bidding and circumvents Council approval protocols,” according to the claim.

Bouffard alleges the Anaheim IT team confirmed to her that the city had been leasing equipment through this process for at least a decade.

“ From my understanding, since 2006, the city of Anaheim has spent over $92 million on hardware and computers through the lease through HP Financial Services without seeking counsel approval,” Bouffard told LAist.

LAist asked the city of Anaheim how much it has spent on computer hardware using the 1999 policy, but we have not received an answer.

No oversight for credit card purchases

A big red flag for Bouffard when she came on board as the city’s purchasing agent was the lack of oversight into the city’s credit card spend: around $800,000 of public money every month.

“ When the departments want to get the purchases they need right away, if there were delays in the purchasing department, they would use those credit cards to get that done. That wasn't being audited,” Bouffard told LAist.

In her tort claim, Bouffard alleges she raised the lack of oversight with Moreno on several occasions but her solutions were “insufficient.”

And when Bouffard raised the concerns with the city’s audit team, which then wanted to audit the credit card program, she alleges Moreno told her: “Do not let them in the door.”

“I found her response unprofessional, dismissive and deeply concerning, particularly given her role as finance director and her responsibility to support accountability and internal controls,” Bouffard wrote.

LAist asked the city spokesperson if the credit card purchases have been audited in the past five years. We have not received an answer.

How to keep tabs on the Anaheim City Council

The Anaheim City Council meets on scheduled Tuesdays. The next meeting is Oct. 28. Meetings start at 5 p.m.

Here’s how you can follow along:

• Attend in person: The board meets at City Hall, Council Chambers, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd., First floor, Anaheim
• Watch the live broadcast
• Here’s how to submit a comment or contact the council

A new trail across the beloved natural area of Elephant Hill in Northeast Los Angeles is officially opening this weekend.

The route is years in the making, and it's a big milestone in the decades-long conservation efforts to preserve this local jewel in the community of El Sereno.

The hiking trail connects one side of Elephant Hill to the other — from the corner of Pullman Street and Harriman Avenue all the way across to Lathrop Street.

It's 0.75 miles in total, but packs a punch.

"It's a pretty straight shot, but because of the terrain — the trail is kind of twisty and curvy. There's switchbacks — and great views," Elva Yañez, board president of the nonprofit Save Elephant Hill, said.

People have always been able to access the 110-acre green space, but Yañez said the new trail provides a safe and easy way to navigate the steep hillsides.

The El Sereno nonprofit has been working for two decades to preserve the land. Illegal dumping and off-roading have damaged the open space over the years. And the majority of the 110 acres are privately owned by an estimated 200 individual owners.

Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) joined the efforts in 2018, spurred by a $700,000 grant from Los Angeles County Regional Park and Open Space District, in part, to build the trail. The local agency received some $2 million in grants from the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to add to the 10 acres of Elephant Hill it manages and conserves. This year, MCRA acquired an additional 12 parcels — or about 2.4 acres.

And the spiffy new footpath — with trail signage, information kiosks and landscape boulders — is not just a long-sought-for victory but a beginning in a sense.

"We know that it means a lot to the community," Sarah Kevorkian, who oversees the trail project for MRCA, said. "We're wrapping up the trail, but it really feels like the beginning of all that is to come."

A hint of that vision already exists — for hikers traversing the new route, courtesy of Test Plot, the L.A.-based nonprofit that works to revitalize depleted lands.

"They're able to see at the end of the trail, at the 'test plot' — exactly what a restored Elephant Hill would look like," Yañez said.

Here's a preview:

The Venice Boardwalk after sunset has generally been a no-go zone for tourists and locals alike, as the beachside bars and restaurants close on the early side and safety is often an issue. Now, a group of artists is out to bring some vibrancy to the creative neighborhood with a series of new installations that will include live evening performances – and even a “Venice Opera House.”

“Let's play with light and let's play with sound and give people a reason to come to the Boardwalk after sundown,” said artist and entrepreneur Stefan Ashkenazy, who is curating the project and owns the buildings housing them. “I mean, let's just be open 24 hours a day.”

The concept doesn’t have an official name yet, but he’s been calling it “See World.”

Artist James Ostrer's space looks out from a bed through the fence to the ocean at Venice Beach.

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Laura Hertzfeld

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William Attaway, a longtime Venice artist, created a gallery space filled with various paintings and sculptures.

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The pair of modern buildings on the Venice Boardwalk at Thornton Ave. – with their big balconies, floor-to-ceiling glass windows, and seven open garage-style retail spaces – have sat mostly empty since Snapchat vacated their beachside offices in 2019. Ashkenazy recently bought the building and recruited artists to fill those front-facing spaces with creative work until a full-time tenant comes in.

Over the past several weeks the installations have been created in real-time, in public.

All of the projects are loosely along the theme of “home,” with each artist claiming a “room” in the two buildings that stretch across a full block on the Boardwalk. Several local Venice artists are featured, including William Attaway, whose intricate mosaic work is recognizable on the Venice public restrooms along the beach. Attaway’s space features a floating larger-than-life-sized statue and various works in a mini-gallery. In the next room is Robin Murez’s pieces, featuring carved wooden seats from her beloved neighborhood Venice Flying Carousel.

Ashkenazy is no stranger to wild (and wildly successful) art ideas. He’s the owner of the Petit Ermitage hotel in West Hollywood, a longtime haven for visiting artists, and the founder of the decade-old Bombay Beach Biennale, where artists install all kinds of work in an annual event near the Salton Sea. Many of the artists from that community are featured at the Venice project.

A "Venice Opera House" will host pop-up music events throughout the summer.

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Laura Hertfeldz

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New York-based artist Greg Haberny's paintings on the wall of his Venice space.

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Laura Hertzfeld

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New York-based artist Greg Haberny and London-based artist James Ostrer have brought some of their work in the Bombay Beach Biennale to the Venice project. Their windows on the Boardwalk both speak to a child-like sense of wonder and creativity.

“I think it's just kind of exploring and playing a little bit, to have the freedom to be able to do that,” Haberny says of his imagined child’s bedroom space, which includes a fort made out of puffy cheese balls. “It's a big space, too.
It's beautiful.”

Ostrer is experimenting with a performance art idea where he sits in bed amongst a room full of his own artwork, which he describes as “happy art with an edge.” Looking out at the ocean from the bed, he’s invited passersby to sit and have chats with him about his work or anything else they want to talk about.

“It’s a very intimate space, so you have a different kind of conversation,” he said. “I use art to channel human creativity, and [talk about] dark things.”

While there are open fences that block off the spaces, they aren’t sealed up at night. Both Ashkenazy and the team of artists seemed open to the idea that anything could happen and that the installations are a conversation with the public – and with that comes some risk.

Greg Haberny (right) works with his assistants on an installation featuring kid-inspired graffiti art and a "cheesy puff" fort.

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“I don't really know if I [would] say worried, but I guess it's just the cost of doing business,” Haberny said. “I don't really make things to get damaged or broken, sure. But I have done [things like] burned all my paintings and then made paint out of ash.”

While he’s felt safe – and even slept overnight in the installation – Ostrer has been collaborating with a local female artist who performs in a pig mask in front of his installation some nights. Watching her perform, he said, has taught him about the vulnerability of women in public spaces like the Boardwalk. “I've started to, on a very fractional level, have seen how scary that is. Because I've sat in the bed behind her performing at the front here… the way in which men are approaching her and shrieking at her … it's shocking.”

Ashkenazy says he will keep the artists in the space, potentially rotating new ones in, until a fulltime tenant takes over.

“This is an experiment … and after acquiring the building, the intention wasn't, ‘let's open a bunch of public art spaces,’ he said. “It is kind of …what the building wanted and listening to what the Boardwalk needed. Let's play, let's have the artists that we love and appreciate have a space to play and engage and give the locals and the visitors to the Boardwalk something to experience.”

A coalition of residents from across the San Gabriel Valley are mobilizing over a battery storage project and possibly more industrial development in the City of Industry they say could pollute communities next door.

A protest is scheduled today in neighboring Rowland Heights, targeting a 400-megawatt battery energy storage facility sited on about 9 acres that was approved by the City of Industry leaders in January.

Such Battery Energy Storage Systems, or BESS, are used to keep the power grid stable, especially as output from renewable energy sources like solar and wind fluctuate. But fires involving lithium batteries at some sites have heightened environmental and public health fears.

Because of the City of Industry’s unusual, sprawling shape stretching along the 60 Freeway, it borders on more than a dozen communities, meaning what happens there can have far-reaching impact.

“Pollution does not end right at the border,” said Andrew Yip, an organizer with No Data Centers SGV Coalition. “Pollution travels.”

Some local activists with the Puente Hills Community Preservation Association have challenged the approval of the battery facility under the California Environmental Quality Act.

Beyond environmental concerns, locals have also been frustrated with how decisions are made by officials in the City of Industry, a municipality that’s almost entirely zoned for industrial use and has less than 300 residents.

Organizers say they’ve struggled to get direct responses from city officials whom they say have replaced regular meetings with special meetings, which under state law require less advance notice.

A city spokesperson has not responded to requests for comment.

The so-called Marici Energy Storage System Facility would be run by Aypa Power. The fact that the battery storage developer is owned by the private equity giant Blackstone, a major investor in AI and data centers, has only fueled concerns that a battery storage facility would lay the groundwork for data center development.

A request for comment from Aypa was not returned.

Today’s protest is taking place at Peter F. Schabarum Regional Park in Rowland Heights across the street from the Puente Hills Mall, a largely vacant “dead” mall, which activists fear could be redeveloped into a data center and bring higher utility costs and greater air and noise pollution.

Yip pointed out that industrial developments make a lot of money for the City of Industry.

“But none of these surrounding communities receive any of those benefits,” Yip said. “Yet we have to put up with all the harmful effects and impacts from this city that does all this development without really reaching out.”

It’s about the size of a park bench and made of steel and wood. The bench’s arm rests are formed by the letters “L” and “A” in a design that’s unmistakable to any sports fan. But the welder-artist who created it says it’s not a Dodgers bench.

“This is about civic pride, L.A. pride. I made a design statement saying that it has nothing affiliated with the Dodgers,” said Steve Campos.

Campos grew up near Dodger Stadium, raised by parents who were die-hard Dodgers fans. So much, that they named him after Steve Garvey but that legacy doesn’t keep him from confronting how the Dodgers benefitted from the mass displacement of working-class people from Chavez Ravine after World War Two. That’s why he calls it an L.A. Bench, and not a Dodgers Bench.

The logo may be synonymous with the city's beloved baseball team, but the design of the interlocking letters was used by the L.A. Angels minor league baseball team before the Dodgers moved to L.A. in 1958.

“The monogram was here before the Dodgers,” Campos said.

A second-generation welder

Welding is the Campos family business. His father created gates and security bars for windows and doors for L.A. clients. That was the foundation for the work Campos has done for two decades since graduating from Lincoln High School, L.A. Trade Tech College, and enrolling in a summer program at Art Center in Pasadena.

The inspiration for the L.A. Bench came last year while he was playing around in his shop creating versions of the L.A. logo. A friend he hangs with at Echo Park Lake asked Campos to make him a piece of furniture.

“I was trying to figure out what my friend Curly wanted. He liked Dodgers and drinking and getting into fights, so I was like, 'Let me make something with the LA monogram,'” he said.

Welder-artist Steve Campos created whimsical steel sculptures with the LA logo.

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It didn’t design itself. He said he had to lengthen the legs on the “A” and lean the back of the “L” in order to make the bench functional. In the process, he’s made a piece of furniture with a ubiquitous logo that he’s embedded with his own L.A. pride, as well as city history past and present.

LA civic pride travels to Japan

Campos vacationed in Japan the last week of April and took advantage of the trip to reach out to people who may be interested in the L.A. Bench. He was caught off guard by people’s reaction when he showed them pictures of it.

“They look at it and they go, 'Oh, Ohtani bench,'” he said.

For them, it’s still a bench embedded with pride, he said, but centered around Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, an icon in his native Japan.

Campos has made four L.A. benches and is selling them fully assembled, he said, for $2,500 each — taking into account his labor and how costly the raw materials have become. For now, he’s offering the metal parts as a package for $500, which requires the buyer to purchase the wood for the seat and the back — an easy process, he said.

While he has no plans to mass produce the L.A. Bench, he does have one goal in mind that shows how hard it is for him to separate L.A. civic pride and the Dodgers.

“I would love to get a couple of them installed at Dodger Stadium,” he said.