Anaheim officials Thursday released a redacted copy of a recent legal claim filed by Mayor Ashleigh Aitken\u2019s policy adviser alleging the mayor had a drinking problem and fostered a hostile workplace that included racial and homophobic slurs.<\/p>\n
City spokesman Mike Lyster issued a statement saying the claim, which was received by the city Sept. 22, was being released publicly as the city is \u201cbalancing openness on an issue involving the city\u2019s mayor and our responsibility to all involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
The claim was redacted to \u201cprotect personnel, medical and some third- party name references that raise privacy concerns, along with attorney-client information,\u201d Lyster said.<\/p>\n
City officials are looking to hire an \u201cindependent, experienced investigator\u201d to go over the allegations \u201cover the next few months,\u201d Lyster said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are looking for a comprehensive, impartial review that balances expediency with due process,\u201d Lyster said.<\/p>\n
Aitken has not responded to repeated requests for comment on the allegations made in the claim.<\/p>\n
Anaheim City Councilwoman Natalie Meeks told City News Service last week that she directed city staff \u201cto investigate the issue fully and expedite it as much as possible. Clearly, we need a full and fair investigation. \u2026 We want to expedite it but also want to make sure it\u2019s complete and fair. Getting it right is more important than getting it fast. There are lot of people at stake here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other council members requested a closed session to be briefed on the claim from Berenice Ballinas. That meeting will be held at 9 a.m. Friday.<\/p>\n
Meeks is mentioned in the claim regarding an \u201copen letter\u201d that was critical of the mayor \u201cconcerning the Angels\u201d baseball team.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese allegations intensified the conflict between the mayor and (former City Manager Jim Vanderpool) and increasingly placed (Ballinas) between the two officials,\u201d according to the claim.<\/p>\n
Meeks said Thursday she had not yet had a chance to read the full claim and couldn\u2019t immediately comment on it.<\/p>\n
Ballinas\u2019 attorney, Corey Glave, declined to comment on the release of the claim he filed with co-counsel Lawrence Lennemann.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnlike the city of Anaheim we choose not to litigate in the media,\u201d Glave said. \u201cWe\u2019ll wait to see how city leadership wants to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
A legal claim is a required part of the process before suing a public agency. If it is rejected by the city, the plaintiff can file a lawsuit. The city has 45 days from the day it was filed to respond to the claim.<\/p>\n
Ballinas claims she was forced to take a leave of absence July 31. The claim alleges sexual harassment, retaliation and discrimination based on her perceived sexual orientation, race, religion and disability.<\/p>\n
Ballinas served as \u201cchief policy adviser\u201d to Aitken since Dec. 7, 2022.<\/p>\n
Ballinas makes numerous allegations of Aitken drinking too much at workplace events and grilling her on whether she is a lesbian, despite Ballinas\u2019 insistence she is not gay. She also alleges that Vanderpool was present for many of the incidents and that she was drawn into the conflicts between the former city manager and the mayor until he resigned earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Ballinas \u201calleges that the mayor\u2019s behavior when drinking could become erratic, belligerent, confrontational, and difficult to manage, and that even relatively minor disagreements or attempts to challenge her could escalate into unnecessary conflict or dramatic events,\u201d according to the claim.<\/p>\n
Balllinas said Vanderpool sometimes \u201cparticipated in conduct she considered inappropriate,\u201d but was otherwise also just a witness or \u201cthe recipient of inappropriate conduct himself,\u201d according to the claim.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the relationship between the mayor and Vanderpool deteriorated, (Ballinas) increasingly found herself caught between the two officials and drawn into disputes she had neither created nor could control,\u201d according to the claim.<\/p>\n
Ballinas, who is of Mexican heritage, accused Aitken of making \u201cracially derogatory comments concerning (Ballinas\u2019) heritage on more than one occasion,\u201d according to the claim.<\/p>\n
She accused the mayor of calling her a \u201cdirty Mexican.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ballinas said that while they were at a Disneyland in May 2025, she offered to give Aitken a ride home because she felt the mayor was too impaired to drive, but Aitken said she refused to have a Mexican drive her.<\/p>\n
Ballinas is also a Roman Catholic and said that once Aitken commented on a cross she wore, saying that God was her \u201cimaginary friend,\u201d according to the claim.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe incident was particularly disturbing to (Ballinas) when considered in light of the mayor\u2019s markedly different public presentation concerning religion and faith,\u201d according to the claim.<\/p>\n
Ballinas alleged that city officials began turning to her as an \u201cunofficial, frequently after-hours crisis-management role as the mayor\u2019s `handler,\u2019 involving the mayor\u2019s personal crises, interpersonal conflicts, public conduct, transportation needs (and related public safety concerns), as well as acting as a family intermediary,\u201d according to the claim.<\/p>\n
When Ballinas stepped in to handle the problems, she said, it \u201cresulted in the mayor becoming angry or belligerent toward (Ballinas), denying impairment, yelling at (Ballinas), accusing (Ballinas) of exaggerating or fabricating concerns regarding the mayor\u2019s condition, claiming any criticism was `politically motivated,\u2019 or otherwise reacting adversely when (Ballinas) attempted to establish limits or challenge the mayor\u2019s conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ballinas alleged that the mayor became so obviously intoxicated at the Roses and Radishes Gala on Oct. 23, 2024, that an Orange County supervisor \u201cexpressed concern\u201d and asked Ballinas to \u201cstop the mayor\u2019s drinking.\u201d<\/p>\n
As she tried to help the mayor get home from the event, Aitken allegedly said she did not want Ballinas or Vanderpool to drive her car because she did not want a \u201cdirty Mexican\u201d and a \u201cfaggot man\u201d in her car, Ballinas alleged.<\/p>\n
Ballinas said she reported her allegations of alcohol-related problems at a conference in November 2024 to then-assistant city manager Greg Garcia, who is the interim city manager, but he downplayed the conduct.<\/p>\n
Ballinas also alleged the mayor was \u201cphysically affectionate\u201d with a man at a Team Anaheim dinner, leading the mayor\u2019s husband to take her away with Ballinas. She said that while walking back toward the couple\u2019s hotel room, Aitken grew angry and knocked over someone\u2019s bicycle, damaging it. Her husband later asked her to help him send money to the bike owner through Venmo.<\/p>\n
The claim also details how she got dragged into a feud between the mayor and Vanderpool over the hiring of the city\u2019s new police chief. She said the mayor asked her to investigate the hiring process, which angered Vanderpool, who allegedly referred to Aitken as the Disney character \u201cMaleficent.\u201d<\/p>\n
She alleged she was also falsely accused of taking a Christmas tree from another city department and that she was scapegoated for it without evidence because she is Mexican.<\/p>\n
Ballinas also accused the mayor of showing up to a City Council meeting \u201cvisibly impaired by alcohol\u201d in April 2025. After the meeting, Aitken asked Ballinas to drive her home but since she did not have her car she got permission to borrow Vanderpool\u2019s car and she claimed the mayor started rifling through the then-city manager\u2019s personal belongings in his vehicle.<\/p>\n
Ballinas also detailed allegations of the mayor getting drunk at a Palm Springs conference in spring of last year and dragging Vanderpool off a dance floor because he was \u201cbeing too gay,\u201d according to the claim.<\/p>\n
Ballinas also alleged that the mayor\u2019s drinking had grown to be such an issue that city officials discussed how to \u201chelp her sober up before a scheduled stakeholder reception\u201d at Disneyland\u2019s 70th anniversary event in May of last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cA Disney representative separately approached (Ballinas) and told her that the mayor should stop drinking because she appeared intoxicated,\u201d according to the claim.<\/p>\n
The next day Aitken \u201crepeatedly\u201d contacted Ballinas to deny she had been drunk and accused her, Vanderpool and a Disney employee of \u201cattempting to tarnish her reputation,\u201d according to the claim.<\/p>\n
Ballinas also said the mayor\u2019s husband asked her to help her pack and return home during a U.S. Conference of Mayors in Tampa in June of last year. She also alleged that an \u201cemotional\u201d Vanderpool had the mayor and her go with him to an \u201cadult-oriented bar with sexually explicit imagery that made\u201d Ballinas \u201cuncomfortable,\u201d according to the claim.<\/p>\n
Ballinas said the mayor was \u201cabsent for an extended period of time\u201d after she got home from Tampa.<\/p>\n
Ballinas also said the mayor\u2019s drinking at her birthday party in June at Disneyland included Aitken \u201crepeatedly\u201d asking a Disneyland employee about his sexual orientation, prompting the employee to file a complaint. She said the mayor also continued to insist Ballinas is a lesbian, which she denied.<\/p>\n
Ballinas said Disney complained about the mayor\u2019s comments to the employee.<\/p>\n
Ballinas also raised issues of the mayor\u2019s husband having expenses paid for by Qatar during a trip to the country despite Ballinas telling embassy officials that they could not pay for the expenses, which amounted to $16,779.34.<\/p>\n
\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anaheim officials Thursday released a redacted copy of a recent legal claim filed by Mayor Ashleigh Aitken\u2019s policy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,124257,164,185470,611],"class_list":["post-483895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-mayor","tag-anaheim-news","tag-mayor-ashleigh-aitken","tag-orange-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483895","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=483895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}