Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken refused to provide a key document to the city’s ethics officer regarding a Qatari embassy-sponsored trip to the emirate’s capital last year, according to a legal claim filed by her chief of staff.
Aitken allegedly told the aide, Berenice Ballinas, that anyone inquiring about the May 2025 trip to an economic forum in Doha attended by the mayor and her husband could “bite my ass,” according to the Sept. 21 claim on file with the city.
Ballinas discussed the Qatar trip with Anaheim Ethics Officer Artin Berjikly after the mayor returned from the Middle East, the claim states.
Berjikly, according to the allegations, told Ballinas that he wanted to “get the truth out” and asked if the Qatari embassy invited Michael Penn, the mayor’s husband, separately through Chapman University.
“[Ballinas] told him she did not think so but explained that the Mayor had stated she was going to obtain a letter stating that her husband had been invited,” the claim read.
Berjikly asked Ballinas to get him a copy of the letter.
“The Mayor will not provide me the letter,” Ballinas said, according to the claim.
State law allows outside entities to pay for an elected official’s travel as long as it’s for official business. The same law requires that spousal travel paid for by third parties be reported as a gift to the officeholder unless the outside entity has an independent business relationship with the spouse.
Ballinas asserted whistleblower protections in her Sept. 21 claim “where she reported conduct that she reasonably believed violated local, state or federal laws and/or applicable rules or regulations.”
Before the claim’s allegations were filed, and the city later released a redacted version, the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission declined last month to investigate the trip.
“It appears that Ashleigh Aitken’s spouse attended the trip to Qatar through his own invitation that was received directly from Qatar for their position with Chapman University and not as a guest,” Kendall L.D. Bonebrake, chief of the FPPC’s enforcement division, wrote. “Therefore, the cost associated with the trip would not be considered a gift to Aitken.”
An FPPC complaint filed by a constituent in August argued that Aitken should have disclosed her husband’s paid-for travel expenses as a “gift attributable to the mayor” under the Political Reform Act, which the FPCC enforces.
In an April gift disclosure form, Aitken reported that the Qatari embassy in Washington, D.C., paid $16,880 for her to attend the forum.
A letter from the state’s watchdog agency cited an embassy invitation for Penn to attend the forum separately as a Chapman University representative, which absolved any further reporting requirements from the mayor.
However, Ballinas alleges that the Chapman invitation was “after-the-fact documentation” to address Penn’s “participation and expenses,” which she believed should have been reimbursed to cure any potential gift rule violation but wasn’t.
The accusation joins Ballinas’s broader claims that Aitken made bigoted comments about her race, religion and perceived sexuality at various city functions.
Aitken did not respond this week to requests for comment on the Qatar allegations in the claim, which is generally a precursor to a lawsuit.
The mayor previously responded to questions about the trip with an email stating, “The FPPC has reviewed all the relevant evidence and, as the state agency in charge of enforcement, has declined to open an investigation. This matter is closed.”
Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken’s attendance at the Qatar Economic Forum in 2025 prompted questions about her husband’s free trip.
(Courtesy of the city of Anaheim)
On March 24, 2025, Qatar’s ambassador to the United States invited Aitken and a guest to attend the forum with a U.S. delegation of mayors.
Mindful of state gift laws, Ballinas exchanged emails with Michael Glenzer, a Qatari embassy official, and requested travel expense tabulations for Aitken and Penn to attend the Bloomberg-sponsored forum, with the mayor’s husband being her guest.
The mayor also corresponded with Glenzer in light of state law.
“I will need to purchase Michael’s plane ticket, given the California rules on gifts,” she wrote Glenzer on April 2, 2025.
On April 18, 2025, Penn received a private invitation to the forum from the embassy as a Chapman representative, which came 26 days after Aitken’s invite. Penn chairs a volunteer advisory board for the private college in Old Towne Orange.
By the time the forum ended, Ballinas confirmed in a May 28, 2025 email with Glenzer that the embassy paid for travel expenses he tabulated for Aitken and her “spouse,” with Penn’s expenses totaling $16,779.
The next day, Aitken spoke about her Qatar trip during a City Council meeting and noted that no city taxpayer funds paid for her travel.
When Ballinas couldn’t get a copy of the letter to Berjikly that day, she spoke with City Atty. Rob Fabela, who allegedly told Ballinas that the city could not compel Aitken to provide the document.
“That is the Mayor’s personal business,” he reportedly said.
Fabela and Berjikly did not respond to a TimesOC request for comment.
The Qatar trip resurfaced again in July 2025 when Jeanine Robbins, an Anaheim resident, sought city documents related to it. The public records request made Aitken anxious, according to Ballinas’s claim.
Duane Roberts, an another Anaheim resident, had asked for the same records a month before.
Ballinas asked if Aitken reimbursed the Qatari embassy for Penn’s travel expenses.
The mayor allegedly responded, “It’s none of the City’s business,” according to the claim.
Aitken followed that the embassy invited Penn as a Chapman representative. Ballinas found the explanation “entirely inconsistent” with the timeline of emails with Glenzer.
The mayor provided copies of Penn’s invitation letter to the FPPC and TimesOC after Robbins’ complaint.
Given the claim’s new allegations, Robbins plans to file a reconsideration with the FPPC.
“The timeline is so very clear that Aitken and Penn were expected to pay for his trip,” she said. “Then all of a sudden, they don’t have to pay for it. It is just very coincidental.”
Chapman, according to a spokesman, had no official business in Qatar in 2025 but said representatives are always welcome to take opportunities to tout the college’s achievements.