On September 19 a grassroots movement organized by Anaheim residents collected signatures at Pearson Park to recall Mayor Harry Sidhu of Anaheim.  The group has a goal of collecting a total of 17,000 signatures to recall Sidhu.

The grassroots movement presents the following complaints of the Anaheim Mayor: refusing to protect seniors residing in Rancho La Paz mobile homes from a rent increase that left many homeless,  giving money to the tourist district during the COVID19 pandemic instead of helping residents that were left without jobs, and the sale of the Angel Stadium at a fraction of the cost. Vern Patrick, a resident of Anaheim leading this movement, and his colleagues have decided to take action and gain signatures by early February of 2021 to then elect a “suitable candidate.” 

Mayor Harry Sidhu was elected to office on December, 4th, 2018 promising to make the city of Anaheim the city of “The American Dream”, save the lives of the homeless, and create hotels for visitors to “generate more dollars for local businesses and more tax revenue to invest in our neighborhoods.” AE News tried to get a response from Mayor Sidhu on the recall but we never received a reply. 

¨We voted against him but he’s turned out to be even worse than we thought,¨ Vern says. The main reason for his recall is that people feel that Sidhu is willing to invest his time and effort in helping corporations while neglecting the needs of Anaheim residents.  They also make mention of bad deals such as the Angels Stadium which was sold to billionaire Arte Moreno for 150  million, only a fraction of its value.   

“He refuses to attend and do zoom meetings where citizens talk about stuff they want to change,” Vern mentioned that other cities have Zoom meetings to listen to their people’s wants and needs. However, Sidhu has refused to even attend a single meeting or place his attention on his people’s needs. The grassroots movement also mentioned high numbers regarding COVID-19.  They feel the city did not do enough to stop the spread of the pandemic and although the numbers are diminishing, they are still high and people are still struggling with rent, jobs, and contagion.