{"id":476595,"date":"2026-09-26T16:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T16:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/476595\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T16:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T16:26:12","slug":"anaheim-california-mayor-responds-to-allegation-she-called-staffer-a-dirty-mexican","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/476595\/","title":{"rendered":"Anaheim, California Mayor Responds to Allegation She Called Staffer a \u2018Dirty Mexican\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

After being accused of making inappropriate comments about her chief of staff’s race and sexuality, the mayor of Anaheim, California has issued a response.<\/p>\n

In a September 11 letter sent by her attorney to City Hall, Berenice Ballinas alleged that Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken “exclaimed that she did ‘not want her car driven by a dirty Mexican'” on one occasion, and also “questioned her chief of staff’s sexuality in front of other people.” The LA Times<\/a> broke the news of the letter on September 21.<\/p>\n

\"<span<\/p>\n

Instagram\/Ashleigh E Aitken<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Aitken, 50, posted a statement to her Facebook page. “These allegations are extremely serious, and they deserve to be investigated. I did not use the racial slur attributed to me, and I have always been a champion of the LGBTQ community,” wrote the mayor, a Democrat who is up for reelection next month.<\/p>\n

“Berenice remains a City employee, and because this involves an ongoing personnel matter, there are strict limits on what I can responsibly discuss publicly,” continued the statement, before alluding to a medical emergency Ballinas recently suffered.<\/p>\n

\"<span<\/p>\n

Instagram\/Ashleigh E Aitken<\/p>\n

“I will not violate her privacy or attack an employee who has recently experienced a serious medical issue simply to defend myself in the press. I welcome an investigation and will cooperate truthfully, and I believe the facts should determine what happened.”<\/p>\n

The statement concluded by saying, “I care about Berenice and sincerely wish her well in her recovery. I also believe that I am entitled to have these extraordinarily serious allegations evaluated on the evidence.”<\/p>\n

\"<span<\/p>\n

Instagram\/Ashleigh E Aitken<\/p>\n

The letter also alleged that Aitken “made comments” about a Disneyland worker’s “perceived sexual orientation and ethnicity” and that former Anaheim city manager Jim Vanderpool (who resigned amid a corruption scandal earlier this year) joined in the harassment with Aitken.<\/p>\n

“Beginning in or about 2023 \u2026 Mayor Aitken and Mr. Vanderpool repeatedly and habitually made unwelcome comments regarding Ms. Ballinas’ perceived sexuality, including myriad statements and insinuations that she is a lesbian, directly referring to her as a lesbian, pressuring her to admit that she was a lesbian, questioning of her romantic relationships, and comments directed at her guests and companions,” read the letter in part.<\/p>\n

The New York Post<\/a> reported that angry residents called for Aitken’s resignation at a recent City Council meeting.<\/p>\n

This story Anaheim, California Mayor Responds to Allegation She Called Staffer a ‘Dirty Mexican’<\/a> first appeared on Globe<\/a>. Follow Globe<\/a> on <\/a>Yahoo<\/a> so you don’t miss what’s coming next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After being accused of making inappropriate comments about her chief of staff’s race and sexuality, the mayor of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[163,19740,185466,7,9,8,4752,187046,187235],"class_list":["post-476595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-anaheim","tag-ashleigh-aitken","tag-berenice-ballinas","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-city-hall","tag-dirty-mexican","tag-inappropriate-comments"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}