General (12)
Susana Barrios
From:Stephanie Mercadante <burglin.stephanie@gmail.com>
Sent:Tuesday, June 9, 2026 6:48 PM
To:Public Comment
Subject:\[EXTERNAL\] On Behalf of Marc Herbert
Warning: This email originated from outside the City of Anaheim. Do not click links or open
attachments unless you recognize the sender and are expecting the message.
For public comment on June 09, 2026:
Tonight, I would like to discuss accountability within Human Resources.
The City of Anaheim has policies that promise employees a workplace free from harassment, retaliation,
discrimination, and misconduct. The City also has grievance procedures, EEO complaint processes,
whistleblower protections, and ethics policies.
Who is holding Human Resources accountable when these policies are not enforced? The Mayor? The
Council? The City Manager? The City Attorney?
Linda Andal serves as Anaheim's Human Resources Director. During her tenure, numerous employees
have filed EEO complaints, grievances, retaliation complaints, whistleblower complaints, and
allegations of workplace misconduct.
Yet it’s common knowledge amongst City employees that Human Resources protects Management
rather than investigating Management.
When allegations involve senior executives, who investigates? Who provides oversight? Who ensures
complaints are impartially handled?
When the LA Times covered the story about the Fire Department’s Supervising Dispatcher Brenda
Carrion having awarded her niece a $500,000 dollar contract, where was Linda Andal? Did she refer this
potential procurement fraud to the OC District Attorney for investigation? No, she did not.
When former City Manager Jim Vanderpool was accused of misconduct and later found to have provided
inaccurate information regarding his Laughlin trip, where was Linda Andal? Did she initiate an
investigation? No, she did not.
And speaking of Jim Vanderpool, why was Linda Andal involved in efforts to pursue a multimillion-dollar
Third Party Administration contract for workers' compensation services with a vendor connected to Jim
Vanderpool? Why did Linda Andal step in when the City already employed staff performing those same
functions?
These are not merely procurement questions. These are questions about oversight and stewardship of
public funds. These are questions on whether the Mayor, Council, and Staff are working in the best
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interests of Anaheim residents. If not, who are they working for?
When Public Utilities employees repeatedly reported harassment, retaliation, protected union activity
issues, drinking water concerns, Call Before You Dig complaints, safety issues, and whistleblower
disclosures, how many of those complaints were fairly and impartially investigated? The answer is none
of them.
Why not?
How many tort claims, grievances, EEO complaints, and lawsuits has the City faced during Linda Andal's
tenure as Human Resources Director?
The purpose of Human Resources is not to protect the Managers, Council, and Mayor from
accountability. The purpose of Human Resources is to protect employees, enforce City policy, ensure
ethical conduct, and reduce liability to taxpayers.
Taxpayers ultimately pay the cost when misconduct is ignored, retaliation is allowed to continue, and
lawsuits are filed.
So tonight, I ask the Council:
Who is auditing Human Resources? And who is holding Linda Andal at Human Resources accountable
for her failure to protect employees and taxpayer dollars?
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