Anaheim's scandal-ridden Chamber of Commerce poised to close

The Anaheim Chamber of Commerce — an organization embroiled in a corruption scandal that shook the city three years ago — is poised to shutter its doors.

Interim President and Chief Executive Jerry Jordan emailed staff almost two weeks ago with the news he was resigning immediately and the organization would shutter by the end of the month, a development first reported by the Orange County Register. However, the chamber has not yet filed notice of its impending permanent closure with the state’s Employment Development Department of California.

Why it matters

Anaheim is an economic powerhouse, drawing a record 25.8 million visitors in 2023 thanks in part to Disneyland, California Adventure and other attractions. City officials said they have figured out a way to support local businesses beyond the tarnished Chamber of Commerce.

“We're not concerned about a void,” said Anaheim spokesperson Mike Lyster. “Our economic development department has been and is involved in many things that you would normally be associated with a chamber.”

Over the years, Lyster said, the city had worked closely with the chamber — until the corruption scandal. “We stopped any interaction with the chamber in 2022 when all of these issues came to light. We've not had any agreement or formal relationship with the chamber since then.”

The city’s economic development department, he said, has been overseeing business expansions, business retention and attracting new businesses to the city.

How we got here

In 2020, the Anaheim City Council approved selling Angel Stadium to the owners of the baseball team for $320 million. But the sale fell apart after a federal investigation that made headlines.

The city official who helped broker the deal, then-mayor Harry Sidhu, was double dealing, sharing “city-specific information” with the Angels’ owners that they could then use against the city in negotiations.

But that wasn’t all. The scandal also revealed a too-cozy relationship between Sidhu and Todd Ament, the former CEO of the Chamber of Commerce. The former mayor was said to be overly involved in chamber affairs, and Ament was accused of wielding an outsized influence over city leaders.

Federal prosecutors called Ament one of the ringleaders of a “cabal” of elected officials, political consultants and business leaders who worked behind the scenes to influence Anaheim politics. They said he laundered money meant for the chamber to his coffers in order to defraud a mortgage lender for a home in Big Bear.

Sidhu was recently sentenced to two months in prison.

Ament is awaiting sentencing and could face 30 years or more in prison.

It’s not over yet

Last year, a scathing 51-page state audit found that the city failed to properly manage its contracts with the tourism bureau, Visit Anaheim.

Visit Anaheim received more than $111 million in tax collections from the city’s hotels, with a portion then routed to the Chamber of Commerce. The audit found around $4 million was used by the Chamber of Commerce to support “resort-friendly candidates through its political action committee” and to campaign for laws favorable to hotels near Disneyland, in violation of the law.

“Notably, Visit Anaheim’s subcontract did not require the chamber to track its costs or provide invoices substantiating its expenditures,” the audit found.

The audit also found the Chamber of Commerce could not account for how taxpayer dollars it received from the city for promoting local businesses were spent.

The Anaheim Chamber of Commerce did not respond to a request for comment.