Anaheim councilmembers are scheduled for a closed-door meeting Friday morning, Oct. 2, to discuss a claim filed by Mayor Ashleigh Aitken’s chief of staff alleging harassment, racist remarks and retaliation as well as a “failure” by city administration “to take corrective action.”
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The Sept. 21 claim was submitted by attorney Lawrence Lennemann, who represents Aitken’s chief of staff Berenice Ballinas. It alleges Ballinas “suffered ongoing harassment,” faced “intrusive questioning concerning her perceived sexual orientation, her Mexican heritage and her Catholic faith” and that when Ballinas made disclosures to city leaders, they were not kept private as would be required by law, she experienced retaliation and the city failed to investigate and take action.
Ballinas has served as Aitken’s chief of staff since December 2022. Ballinas is on a leave of absence that began on or about July 31, according to the claim.
The 25-page claim outlines more than a dozen examples of the experiences Ballinas is alleging occurred — including having to navigate “a recurring pattern of the mayor’s alcohol consumption” — spanning October 2024 to June 2026.
“Monitoring, responding to, and performing damage control arising from the mayor’s alleged alcohol-related conduct consequently became a recurring, substantial, and exceptionally stressful component of claimant’s working life,” the claim alleges, adding Ballinas was wedged between a “growing feud” between the mayor and then-City Manager Jim Vanderpool, which “complicated her ability to determine where and how to report legitimate workplace concerns.”
Vanderpool served as Anaheim’s city manager for six years until resigning in February.
Aitken did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday, but in a recent statement posted to her Facebook page, she said, “I did not use the racial slur attributed to me, and I have always been a champion of the LGBTQ community.”
The claim filed on behalf of Ballinas was included in the supporting documents that accompanied the agenda the city posted Thursday for Friday’s special closed session.
“We have shared a claim as part of a special City Council closed session meeting agenda. In doing so, Anaheim is balancing openness on an issue involving the city’s mayor and our responsibility to all involved. The released claim includes limited redactions reflecting our obligation to protect personnel, medical and some third-party name references that raise privacy concerns, along with attorney-client information,” city spokesperson Mike Lyster said Thursday morning.
“Anaheim takes all claims seriously. Our process is moving forward, with the engagement of an independent, experienced investigator expected to be finalized soon,” Lyster said. “An independent investigation is expected to take place over the next few months. We are looking for a comprehensive, impartial review that balances expediency with due process. Beyond that, we want to respect all involved and will share any additional updates as appropriate.”
Additional Anaheim councilmembers called this week for an investigation into the allegations, and at least two councilmembers have said they’d ask for the mayor’s resignation if the allegations were found true. Councilmember Natalie Meeks was the first to raise concerns during a council meeting last week.
“I stand with Councilmember Meeks in demanding an expedited investigation,” Councilmember Kurtz said during Tuesday’s council meeting.
“If the allegations are shown to be correct, I will also ask for the Mayor’s resignation,” Kurtz said, later calling for a closed-door meeting for councilmembers to review the allegations.
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At Tuesday’s meeting, Aitken reiterated that she welcomes an independent investigation.
“I need this independent investigation to clear my name and I really welcome it because that is what a democracy is all about,” she said. “You are innocent until proven guilty.”
The claim describes events Aitken attended in her capacity as mayor while, it is alleged, she was intoxicated, including a Disneyland 70th Anniversary event where she participated in an ABC7 television interview “during which time her speech appeared slurred;” an April 2025 City Council meeting; and other public events where the claim said her conduct was commented on by public officials, such as by an Orange County Supervisor and Disneyland Resort representatives.
The claim also raises questions about the city’s Ethics Division, a department within the City Attorney’s Office, and argues several instances where Ballinas felt more city action should have been taken, such as a 2025 trip to Qatar the mayor’s husband participated in, and how its expenses were handled.
Ballinas “obtained an itemization attributing approximately $16,779.34 in expenses related to the mayor’s husband” for that trip and the Qatar Embassy paid the sum despite Ballinas advising Aitken that her husband’s “expenses were required to be paid separately,” Ballinas’s attorney wrote.
The mayor later explained her husband had been invited separately because of his connection to Chapman University, the claim said.
And in another instance of “misuse of public resources” lodged by the claim: Anaheim city employees provided assistance with a Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast Ballinas understood to be a non-city event during “taxpayer-funded city work hours at the direction of the mayor,” her attorney wrote.
The claim lists several occasions where her attorney says Ballinas disclosed conduct to Interim City Manager Greg Garcia and other city officials, but “senior officials frequently minimized the circumstances, treated difficult conduct by an elected official as something claimant was expected to tolerate or learn to manage.”
Ballinas, according to the claim, alleges the city retaliated against her by withholding a merit salary increase that had been approved in July, removing her information and profile from the city’s website and communicating “to external stakeholders that the mayor’s office was going through a ‘transition’ insinuating that claimant was no longer employed by the city.”
Aitken is running for reelection this November; she faces two challengers for a second, four-year term. Ballots are set to go out next week.
This week the Anaheim Police Association suspended its endorsement of Aitken, saying in a statement, “The decision follows the emergence of serious allegations concerning statements and conduct attributed to Mayor Aitken involving a city employee.”
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