In Chula Vista, 60% of residents identify as Latino, including four of the city\u2019s five council members: Carolina Chavez, Jose Preciado, Cesar Fernandez and Michael Inzunza. Kennedy, who is white, accused several council members of \u201csecretly vetting a younger, Latino law-enforcement official in a nearby jurisdiction,\u201d according to the suit.<\/p>\n
The suit names all four council members as defendants, along with City Manager Tiffany Allen. It does not name the City Council\u2019s fifth member, Chula Vista Mayor John McCann, as a defendant. (A city spokesperson did not provide McCann and Allen\u2019s racial identities.)<\/p>\n
Most council members declined to comment on the allegations, citing the pending lawsuit. But Fernandez, the city’s deputy mayor, told KPBS he had no idea where the allegations were coming from. He said he was disappointed by the accusations \u2014 especially coming from someone who he felt he had a good relationship with.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was hurtful and very upsetting for me to hear,\u201d Fernandez said in an interview last month. \u201cIt felt like you’re pointing the finger at me because I’m Latino. And I’ve done absolutely nothing that’s been alleged.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement, a Chula Vista spokesperson said Kennedy\u2019s claim that city officials conspired to replace her was entirely false and relied on \u201ca racist assumption that Latino leaders cannot act with professionalism and integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Legal experts said Kennedy\u2019s complaint left them with more questions than answers.<\/p>\n
KPBS spoke with three law professors who study civil rights and discrimination law. All three said the initial court filing included little evidence for Kennedy\u2019s discrimination claims. And they pointed out that the complaint comes amid the Trump administration\u2019s aggressive push to focus on so-called \u201creverse discrimination\u201d claims<\/a> against white men.<\/p>\n Khiara Bridges, a professor of public law at UC Berkeley, said the suit essentially asks the public to conclude that the City Council would want to have a Latino person in Kennedy\u2019s role \u2014 purely because they are a majority-Latino body.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that’s a dangerous kind of conclusion that we’re being invited to make,\u201d Bridges said. \u201cI would hope that more evidence would be offered over the course of the litigation.\u201d<\/p>\n Kennedy\u2019s attorney, Cory Briggs, declined KPBS\u2019 request to speak with the police chief. In an email, Briggs said Kennedy looked forward to presenting her evidence in court.<\/p>\n Chula Vista City Councilmember Jose Preciado listens during a City Council meeting in Chula Vista, California on July 21, 2026.<\/p>\n Chula Vista Deputy Mayor Cesar Fernandez listens during a City Council meeting in Chula Vista, California on July 21, 2026.<\/p>\n Chula Vista City Councilmember Michael Inzunza listens during a City Council meeting in Chula Vista, California on July 21, 2026.<\/p>\n Chula Vista City Councilmember Carolina Chavez speaks during a City Council meeting in Chula Vista, California on July 21, 2026.<\/p>\n A holiday party and an investigation\u00a0<\/p>\n Kennedy has led Chula Vista\u2019s Police Department for nearly a decade.<\/p>\n She graduated from the Southwestern College Police Academy in 1992 and quickly rose through the ranks of the Chula Vista Police Department, according to her city bio page<\/a>. In 2016, she became the first woman to lead the department.<\/p>\n According to her lawyer, Kennedy\u2019s allegations against the city stem from an interaction she initiated with a younger officer at a police union holiday party in December.<\/p>\n Kennedy\u2019s lawsuit itself doesn\u2019t describe the party, stating only that Kennedy had attended \u201ca private event outside the City of Chula Vista.\u201d But Briggs, her attorney, described the party to KPBS in March<\/a>.<\/p>\n At the party, several off-duty police officers were taking part in a contest and began dancing, Briggs said. One officer took off his shirt and started swinging it around his head.<\/p>\n At that point, Kennedy stood up, Briggs said. She placed a dollar bill in each of the officer\u2019s front pockets, before returning to her seat.<\/p>\n In her complaint, Kennedy calls the interaction \u201cperfectly lawful off-duty conduct.\u201d In it, she also says Allen, the city manager and \u201cother Defendants\u201d were at the party and \u201cexpressed support for\u201d her behavior.<\/p>\n Fernandez, the council member, said he also saw the interaction.<\/p>\n In an interview with KPBS last month, Fernandez said he was sitting at Kennedy\u2019s table with his wife. Allen was also there, he confirmed, along with her second-in-command and Kennedy\u2019s husband.<\/p>\n As Kennedy returned to the table, Fernandez said, the chief appeared to try and explain the interaction. He said the chief told them it wasn\u2019t a \u201cbig deal\u201d and that she had known the officer and his parents since he was a kid.<\/p>\n \u201cI was just like, \u2018Well that’s, you know, that’s great,\u2019\u201d Fernandez said. \u201cLike, why are you explaining yourself?\u201d<\/p>\n Soon after the interaction, Fernandez said he noticed that the city\u2019s upper management had immediately left the party. The council member said he took that as his cue to leave as well.<\/p>\n Kennedy stayed behind, he said.<\/p>\n Kori Suzuki for KPBS \/ California Local<\/p>\n Chula Vista City Hall is pictured on September 27, 2023.<\/p>\n Kennedy alleges \u2018hostile\u2019 and \u2018oppressive\u2019 workplace<\/p>\n According to Kennedy\u2019s complaint, city officials began a campaign of retaliation five weeks later.<\/p>\n Allen, the complaint says, accused the chief of putting the city \u201cin a negative light\u201d and prompting multiple complaints. (Kennedy\u2019s suit disputes that anyone ever filed complaints over her conduct.)<\/p>\n The city manager ordered Kennedy to make a written plan to correct the alleged damage and threatened to audit the police department, the complaint says. Allen also allegedly shared private personnel information about Kennedy and made false statements about her performance at work to at least one member of the public.<\/p>\n In February, Kennedy sent a letter demanding that city officials preserve evidence. In response, her complaint says, the city launched investigations into her claims and allegations that Kennedy had violated the city\u2019s workplace harassment policies.<\/p>\n Kennedy was on medical leave at the time, her lawsuit says. Still, city officials forced her to sit for interviews with investigators, saying she could be fired if she didn\u2019t participate. (In a statement, Chula Vista spokesperson John Cihomsky said Kennedy had specifically been out on \u201capproved personal leave.\u201d)<\/p>\n They also froze Kennedy\u2019s access to the city\u2019s digital workplace programs, the complaint said, meaning she couldn\u2019t access pay stubs or other personal information.<\/p>\n City officials, Kennedy says in her suit, were trying to make it \u201ctoo hostile, oppressive, and toxic\u201d for her to stay. On May 11, she filed a discrimination complaint with the state Civil Rights Department. The next day, she filed her lawsuit against the city.<\/p>\n Chula Vista City Manager Tiffany Allen listens during a City Council meeting in Chula Vista, California on July 21, 2026.<\/p>\n According to Kennedy\u2019s complaint, the city\u2019s investigations against her were meant to obscure their true goal: to force her to retire.<\/p>\n \u201cDespite her groundbreaking law-enforcement career, including serving as (the) city’s first female Chief of Police, city leadership secretly decided to force her out of her job in order to replace her with someone younger and of different ethnicity,\u201d the suit reads.<\/p>\n It’s unclear from the complaint why Kennedy believes that \u2014 and why she blames particular council members. The Chula Vista City Council doesn\u2019t have formal authority to fire the head of the Police Department. That task falls to the city manager, who has the sole power to appoint and remove the city\u2019s police and fire chiefs.<\/p>\n Cihomsky, the Chula Vista spokesperson, said the city was deeply concerned by the allegations and planned to vigorously defend itself in court.<\/p>\n \u201cThe suggestion that there is a conspiracy to replace the Chief is entirely false, and the implication that this is due to her ethnicity is inherently offensive,\u201d Cihomsky wrote in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n Allen declined to speak with KPBS through a city spokesperson. But in an emailed statement, she said none of the city council members had tried to sway her.<\/p>\n \u201cThe suggestion that any member of the City Council attempted to improperly influence me regarding Kennedy\u2019s employment, or in any other aspect of this matter, is completely false,\u201d Allen wrote.<\/p>\n Fernandez denied ever considering leadership changes at the department.<\/p>\n \u201cThe City of Chula Vista, by-and-large, really trusts the police department,\u201d the councilmember said. \u201cSo it never ever crossed my mind to change anything.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI sit comfortable every day knowing that there is absolutely no basis for this,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Chavez, another councilmember named as a defendant, declined to respond to Kennedy\u2019s allegations, citing the pending lawsuit. But she said she had an excellent relationship with the department\u2019s officers.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I can say is that I respect and value our Chula Vista Police Department,\u201d Chavez told KPBS last month. \u201cThey put their life on the line to protect us, and there’s a reason we honor and respect them.\u201d<\/p>\n Inzunza and Preciado, the other two council members named in the suit, both declined to comment on the record citing the pending litigation. McCann, the mayor, also declined an interview request.<\/p>\n Chula Vista City Attorney Marco Verdugo did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Chula Vista City Attorney Marco Verdugo speaks during a City Council meeting in Chula Vista, California on July 21, 2026.<\/p>\n \u2018Very, very little detail\u2019<\/p>\n Despite the remarkable accusation, experts said Kennedy\u2019s complaint offers little evidence to support her claim that the City Council conspired to oust her because she is white.<\/p>\n Bridges, the UC Berkeley professor, said she thought the lawsuit was extremely vague.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s very, very, very little detail contained in this complaint,\u201d she said. \u201cI mean, there are no statements there, there are no documents there \u2014 there are no conversations that she can point to.\u201d<\/p>\n David Oppenheimer, also a law professor at UC Berkeley, said that\u2019s not necessarily unusual at this stage. He said some attorneys do take the approach of only providing the minimum amount of information that the law requires.<\/p>\n Oppenheimer also emphasized Kennedy\u2019s claim that city officials discriminated against her because of her age \u2014 and, potentially, other aspects of her identity as well.<\/p>\n \u201cIt suggests a number of possibilities,\u201d he said. \u201cThe first thing that occurred to me was to look further at whether there’s evidence that they are treating her as they are because of that combination of age and sex.\u201d<\/p>\n Chula Vista\u2019s City Hall has seen clashes over workplace culture before, including an accusation of discrimination by a white official against a Latina colleague.<\/p>\n In 2022, Voice of San Diego reported<\/a> that then-Councilmember McCann had filed a workplace complaint against then-Mayor Mary Casillas Salas after she referred to him as a \u201cgringo.\u201d The news outlet described McCann as white and Salas as Latina. McCann called the phrase a racial slur and accused Salas of discrimination and harassment. (An outside investigator eventually found the term was inappropriate for the workplace but didn\u2019t constitute discrimination or harassment.)<\/p>\n However, Kennedy\u2019s lawsuit also comes as the federal government has focused intensely on prosecuting discrimination cases against white Americans<\/a>.<\/p>\n Justin Hansford, a law professor at Howard University, said the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission<\/a> (EEOC) \u2014 the federal agency that investigates workplace discrimination complaints \u2014 has made an aggressive push to hone in on these so-called \u201creverse discrimination\u201d cases.<\/p>\n![\"Chula](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786047862_518_.jpeg\")
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