Anaheim Chamber of Commerce seeks fresh start after scandal

Business group nearly folded after its former CEO was convicted in a corruption inquiry.

- By GABRIEL SAN ROMAN

DON LEACH Times Community News MICHAEL JOHNSON, left, is the chamber's board chair, and Dara Maleki is its interim leader.

More than a month in, boxes remain unpacked and stacked in corners at the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce’s new downtown office near City Hall.

Interim President and Chief Executive Dara Maleki is shyly apologetic for the suite’s appearance, as the handful of paid staff that remain go about their workdays.

Maleki, a small-business owner in the Anaheim Resort district, hopes the move signals new beginnings for the chamber — and a return to its roots.

“Getting back to downtown was vitally important,” Maleki said. “I wanted to show people that we're going to strike our independence, and we're going to represent all of Anaheim.”

Under the previous leadership of Todd Ament, the chamber shared office space with Visit Anaheim, a tourism bureau, and a powerful political consultancy, Jeff Flint’s FSB Public Affairs, in a building near Angel Stadium.

“Some would call it ‘Anaheim Inc.,’ ” Maleki quipped.

In the wake of an FBI political corruption inquiry in Orange County that publicly surfaced in May 2022, Ament, who agreed to plead guilty to fraud charges, is scheduled for a sentencing hearing on Nov. 14.

Ament, who resigned months before federal prosecutors charged him, referred to a small clique of power brokers that pulled the strings at Anaheim City Hall as a “cabal” in a phone conversation intercepted by the FBI.

“That will always be a part of our history,” Maleki said. “At the end of the day, we have to move forward.”

The business group nearly didn’t have the chance. In April, former Chief Executive Jerry Jordan notified employees via email that the chamber would be shuttering, as the corruption scandal led to contract terminations and a sullied reputation.

But the following month, an effort to save the chamber took hold.