General (19)
Susana Barrios
From:Stephanie Mercadante <burglin.stephanie@gmail.com>
Sent:Tuesday, June 23, 2026 6:42 PM
To:Public Comment
Subject:\[EXTERNAL\] On Behalf of Jeanine Robbins, District 2, Councilmember Carlos Leon
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 23, 2026:
Every month, the City posts professional services agreements and other contracts that fall under the City
Manager's authority.
And why do you post these contracts? Let me enlighten you as to the reasoning:
Because after the Harry Sidhu corruption scandal and the Angel Stadium debacle, residents demanded
greater transparency and accountability over how City Hall spends taxpayer money.
So now the City posts the contracts, labels it “transparency,” and congratulates itself for posting the
contracts online.
Who is evaluating whether those contracts delivered value to taxpayers?
Who is making sure these contracts were not awarded to family members or friends or even campaign
donors?
Who is measuring performance?
Who is reviewing whether the work was completed as promised?
Who is asking whether the scope was justified, the spending was reasonable, and the deliverables were
actually delivered?
Is the City just having Debbie Moreno blindly pay invoices?
Is this type of laissez-faire approach to contracts the City’s idea of good governance?
Which brings us back to the Lenain Water Treatment Plant. The City Council approved Brown and
Caldwell to audit the plant operations. These auditors are there every single day. It is our understanding
that these “auditors” are receiving operational training, shadowing staff, and also sleeping in their cars.
What exactly are taxpayers paying for?
How do you audit a water treatment plant and not focus on laboratory data, treatment performance,
operational decisions, and compliance practices? How do you ignore the information being provided to
the public that clearly contradicts what is happening at the plant?
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If these auditors are auditing water operations, how did they miss one of the biggest issues raised by
residents: The extensive flushing that occurred before compliance sampling?
These seem like pretty basic things to audit. And yet they were ignored. And are still being ignored.
This City never hesitates to spend money. But when it comes time to ask whether the money was well
spent, suddenly nobody seems interested.
Responsible government isn't knowing how much money was spent. Responsible government is knowing
why it was spent, whether the justification was sound, whether the deliverables were received, and
whether Anaheim taxpayers got a return on their investment.
If you're not asking those questions, then you're not providing oversight—you're simply providing a rubber
stamp. It is time to change the way you are doing business.
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