Anaheim Ca Finances

The cities of Anaheim and Irvine as well as two school agencies settled federal charges that they failed to disclose risky investments funneled through the county's treasury in the years before Orange County's historic 1994 bankruptcy. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged that the two cities, the Irvine Unified School District and the Orange County Board of Education were negligent and misled municipal bond investors in 1993 and 1994.

In a show of fiscal frustration, trustees of an Anaheim school district debated into the night Thursday whether to send Mexico a bill for $50 million--the amount the district believes it is owed for 10 years of educating Mexican immigrant children who are not legal U.S. residents. The resolution before the board of Anaheim Union High School District also called for the city to seek $10 million a year from Mexico to cover the continuing costs of educating illegal immigrants in public schools.

Ravi Mehta, the lawyer fired from his Anaheim job investigating alleged campaign violations after the fairness and cost of the probe came under question, billed the city more than $12,000 in attorney's fees to fight his dismissal. The fees are part of a bill for $184,942 that Mehta, the former chairman of the state Fair Political Practices Commission, sent city attorney Jack L. White this week. The bill is for Mehta's fees and expenses from Jan. 1 to March 31.

Councilman Lou Lopez will propose at Tuesday's City Council meeting to terminate the services of independent prosecutor Ravi Mehta. Lopez will also propose hiring a local attorney to take over Mehta's investigations in hopes of saving the city money. To date, Mehta, paid $250 an hour, has billed the city about $118,000 for his work. "I'm not questioning Mr. Mehta's work ethics, I'm addressing concerns of the citizens of the high cost," Lopez said.