Six-figure overtime pay to Anaheim cops patrolling the Disney Resort draws review
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For several months TimesOC reporter Gabriel San Román has been taking a deep look into massive overtime pay that’s been collected by Anaheim police officers who have been given a coveted beat patrolling “The Happiest Place on Earth.”
The resulting story appears here online and will be in print in Sunday’s Daily Pilot & TimesOC. I can recommend it as a very illuminating read.
I’m treading lightly with it in this space, so as not to spill all the details before you have a chance to see it for yourself, but overtime earnings of a couple of men boosted their annual pay by hundreds of thousands of dollars, hardly Mickey Mouse money.
One sergeant, in fact, more than doubled his salary in 2024 by collecting extra $$$ patrolling the Disneyland Resort, according to the investigative report.
Anaheim PD command staff began an investigation into the matter of overtime that year on the order of then-Police Chief Rick Armendariz, and found evidence of “potential overtime misuse.”
A few months ago the sergeant mentioned above filed a legal claim with the city, “alleging his overtime hours were reduced last year in retaliation for refusing a Disney order to oversee what he asserted were ‘arrest quotas.’”
Disney, which by contract with the city reimburses it for the patrols, according to the report, denies it has sought arrest quotas around its Anaheim resort.
More overtime is on the wish lists of some officers. The TimesOC‘s look into the situation notes the police department’s union leadership has maintained that “staffing levels remain insufficient in Orange County’s most populous city and that overtime is required to compensate, particularly in the bustling Resort District.”
There’s a lot more to this story, so I encourage you to read it, especially if you happen to be a resident of Anaheim, which, like so many other O.C. cities, is facing a substantial budget shortfall.
MORE NEWS
• Are more social media “takeovers” such as the one Newport Beach experienced on July 4 on the horizon for other O.C. locations? On Saturday, Knott’s Berry Farm police put out the word they would be beefing up their presence , in anticipation of an “unsanctioned event” there. And Huntington Beach police made known in an Instagram post last week they were aware of plans for an Aug. 1 “Beach Bash” takeover there and had “no intention” of letting any criminal activities related to it happen.
• In other Surf City news, first it involved only the lifeguard towers, now it’s the steps on the iconic pier: The city is selling ad space to try to shore up City Hall’s shaky finances.
• This could be a tough sell to Lake Forest voters: Six years ago they overwhelmingly (by 82.5% of the vote) supported a lifetime ban on city council members seeking reelection after having served two consecutive terms on the dais. Now they’re going to be asked to overturn that ban in the November election.
PUBLIC SAFETY
• Officials this week released the name of the Laguna Beach woman who died after driving over an embankment onto Coast Highway Friday, in the same location where a man died last year while teaching his daughter to drive. The identity of a 22-year-old motorcyclist who died after running into the back of an Amazon truck in Huntington Beach over the weekend has also been released.
CRIME
• It’s been more than two decades, but a man suspected in the 2003 murder in Costa Mesa of one of his acquaintances is now under arrest, but the details of the 54-year-old’s apprehension have not been made public.
SPORTS
• In the first round of the MLB draft, the Angels picked 17-year-old Jared Grindlinger, a product of Huntington Beach High. “He’s ready. He’s totally ready,” Oilers coach Benji Medure told the Daily Pilot.
• Speaking of young phenoms, Fei Fabiola “Fifi” Garcia, a 14-year-old former Sports Illustrated SportsKid of the Year, has been making her mark in multiple sports since she was in elementary school. Daily Pilot reporter Matt Szabo caught up with her in between her athletic commitments this summer for this feature story.
LIFE & LEISURE
• Newport Beach celebrated the opening of its $23.4-million Witte Hall auditorium at the city’s Central Library with special events over the weekend.
• Orange County Music & Dance, a pre-K through 12 performing arts school, has announced the acquisition of a second building in Irvine that will accommodate an expansion of the nonprofit’s resources and programs.
• Wild Rivers waterpark in Irvine has been hosting weeklong Junior Lifeguards camps for kids ages 6-12 this summer, and a spokesperson told the Daily Pilot they believe they’ll sell out all of their camp weeks soon.
• The Boys & Girls Clubs of Huntington Valley recently held a groundbreaking for a 6,000-square-foot expansion at the Kingston Branch in Fountain Valley to create a permanent home for its ClubHouse Academy Performing Arts programs.
CALENDAR
• “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” is on stage through July 25 at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tickets, which start at $49.01, are available at scfta.org.
• Here’s an experience for wannabe mystery solvers: A new interactive dinner theater experience, “The Speakeasy Murder & Other Acts of Prohibition,” has opened at Buena Park’s Pirates Dinner Adventure. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit speakeasymurder.com.
Until next week,
Carol
KEEP IN TOUCH
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