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ANAHEIM, Calif. (Feb. 11, 2025) — Anaheim has expanded ethics training for city staff to include more than 830 managers and other employees.
The expanded ethics training is part of Anaheim’s extensive and ongoing good governance reforms, making the city one of the most transparent in Orange County, if not all of California.
A voluntary expansion at the recommendation of the city’s ethics officer, training now covers more than 830 employees, up from 80.
The change now requires the training of those who weren’t previously required to undergo the training before, including assistant managers, middle managers, supervisors and others.
Ethics training is now expanded to include all who are what are known as form 700 filers — those filing yearly, state-required forms detailing income and economic interests.
Before, only City Council members and top executives were required to undergo ethics training.
The expanded ethics training goes beyond what’s required by the state of California, which mandates only elected officials and some appointed commission members do ethics training.
The policy expansion was initiated by Artin Berjikly, Anaheim’s assistant city attorney and ethics officer, who joined in August.
Since coming to Anaheim, Berjikly has overseen the ethics division within the City Attorney’s Office, while expanding and clarifying the public calendar reporting by key city officials.
The expanded ethics training and other reforms come after the challenges of 2022, when Anaheim saw a mayor resign amid serious concerns about undue influence and conflicts of interest.
Reforms adopted in the past two years include limits on how much City Council candidates can lend their campaigns, tightened rules for lobbyists, putting meeting calendars online, retaining emails for two years (up from three months) and requiring use of city phones for city business.
Anaheim is also the first Orange County city with an ethics officer.
The city continues its work on good governance. You can read more about the events of 2022 and ensuing reforms here.