What Are They Hiding at Anaheim City Hall?

Over three weeks a go we made a public records request of the City of Anaheim to produce the phone log, the work product, and e-mails of a woman named Annie Mezzacappa.

Now you may well wonder who this individual is and what this has to do with anything pertinent. Ms. Mezzacappa is the personal assistant to Anaheim Councilman Harry Sidhu and she is a part-time public employee. It is rumored that it is she, not the virtually unintelligible Sidhu who scripts his performances. Yet, she is also his campaign employee and she is the contact person on all those e-mail blasts Sidhu sends out touting his endorsement by some dude or other from Stanton. See the potential problem? We were kind of curious to see if a public employee might just be doing Sidhu’s campaign business out of the Anaheim City Hall, and even on company time.

I tell you this is nothing but candidate intimidation...

Anyway, our Intrepid Travis just got a letter from the Anaheim Deputy City Attorney. Mezzacappa’s phone log is ready. But after 24 days they are denying the request for 6 months of emails and work product because:

“The request is vague, overboard and uncertain in that it fails to request an “identifiable” record.”

Total BS. They seem to be saying that unless you can tell them exactly the document you want they’ll just say screw you. And they get to determine what is “overboard.” And that really defeats the purpose of requesting public records, doesn’t it?

We’ll be picking up those phone logs and let you know if anything fun pops up. In the meantime, we aren’t giving up on those other records, either.

10 Replies to “What Are They Hiding at Anaheim City Hall?”

  1. Sherman, we are trying to look at her emails. By law, Mezzacappa’s emails are public record – plain and simple.

    But Sidhu got his city attorney to block for him. Something is amiss.

  2. My advice, if you are rebuffed for information that you feel you are legally entitled to by a local or state agency, forward a quick complaint over to the FBI public integrity unit.

    Not that they have not been following your website already.

  3. Demand the records under FOIA. I am getting ready to do the same for HSR stuff and City recordsthat tie to them, I keep getting pushed off. Enough already!

  4. Thanks, I have never done a FOIA request before, but I never HAD TO before. I have never had a taxpayer funded staff stalland hedge and fudge so bad, I have been asking for these HSR studies since January! HSR says the City has them the City says HSR does…they are going to turn me into butter. If Annie is on her City computer she is only supposed to be doing City work, and you (we) should be entitled to know what is being done during our pay time.

  5. BTW-tonight’s Sunday Open House offering is Santa Maria style tri-tip…not that this means anything to anyone reading this…

  6. It was really good too. We were just showing someone what Santa Maria BBQ was, as a preview, as the Anaheim Historical Society is hosting a BBQ event in July with Frank Mickadiet. And now I have comepletely jacked your thread, sorry.

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