Berenice Ballinas says she was hired to shape city policy and ended up packing the mayor’s bags in the middle of the night.
After a night of drinking at an Orange County awards gala in October 2024, Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken refused to let her chief policy adviser or the city manager drive her car because she did not want a “dirty Mexican” and a “faggot man” driving it, the adviser alleges.
That accusation is one of many in a 25-page legal claim from Berenice Ballinas, which the city released in redacted form Thursday. Ballinas, who has worked for Aitken since December 2022, says the mayor mocked her Catholic faith, repeatedly insisted she was a lesbian and left her acting as an unofficial “handler” at conferences, Disney events and even City Hall.
The claim, received by the city Sept. 22, is the legal precursor to a lawsuit, and its allegations have not been proven. Anaheim has 45 days to respond. City officials said they plan to hire an outside investigator.
Aitken has denied using the racial slur. “These allegations are extremely serious, and they deserve to be investigated,” she wrote in a Facebook statement last week. “I did not use the racial slur attributed to me, and I have always been a champion of the LGBTQ community.”
‘A MEXICAN’ AND AN ‘IMAGINARY FRIEND’
Ballinas, who is of Mexican heritage, says the gala remark was not a one-off. The claim alleges Aitken made derogatory comments about her heritage “on more than one occasion,” including at a May 2025 Disneyland event. When Ballinas offered to drive the mayor home that night because she believed Aitken had been drinking, the mayor allegedly said, in substance, that she was not going to have “a Mexican” drive her.
In fall 2024, according to the claim, Aitken looked at the cross Ballinas wore and called God her “imaginary friend.”
A city employee also told Ballinas that at a Palm Springs conference in spring 2025, the mayor asked him to pull then-City Manager Jim Vanderpool off the dance floor and agreed when he asked if she meant Vanderpool was “being too gay.” When the employee refused, he said, Aitken called him a “pussy” and told him, “Typical man, a woman has to do your job.”
‘GIRLFRIEND’ AND CLUB 33
The claim describes years of Aitken pressing Ballinas about her sexual orientation, often in front of colleagues and friends, even after Ballinas said she is not a lesbian and asked the mayor to drop it. At Angels Opening Day in April 2025, Aitken allegedly kept calling Ballinas’ openly lesbian friend her “girlfriend.”
It came to a head June 10 at Disneyland’s members-only Club 33, where Ballinas says the mayor drank through a three-hour birthday lunch while questioning her about her dating history. At the 1901 Lounge afterward, Aitken allegedly quizzed a Disney Cast Member, in Spanish, about whether he was gay or straight, then told Ballinas in front of a friend that she knew Ballinas was gay.
Disney later wrote to the Club 33 member who hosted the outing, citing “rude, insensitive, and inappropriate remarks” to a Cast Member and calling it an “egregious violation,” according to the claim. The membership was put on hold. Aitken denied making inappropriate comments and called Disney’s action politically motivated, the claim says.
THE 3 A.M. CALL
Much of the claim reads as a catalog of nights Ballinas says she spent managing the mayor. She alleges Aitken arrived at an April 22, 2025, City Council meeting appearing “visibly impaired by alcohol,” sat through closed session and then needed a ride home. Ballinas borrowed the city manager’s car and says the mayor rummaged through his belongings on the way.
At Disneyland’s 70th anniversary celebration, a Disney representative allegedly warned Ballinas that the mayor should stop drinking. Ballinas tried to cancel an ABC7 interview, but Aitken overruled her and went on camera with speech that “appeared slurred,” according to the claim.
During a June 2025 trip to Tampa, Florida, the mayor’s husband allegedly woke Ballinas with a call around 2 or 3 a.m. and told her to find the mayor, pack her bags and get her on the next flight home. Ballinas says she took the mayor to the airport hours later, and Aitken was then absent from City Hall for an extended period.
After a Team Anaheim dinner, the claim says, the mayor knocked over a stranger’s bicycle and fell in the street. When Ballinas told the mayor’s husband she needed help, he allegedly answered, “Don’t we all?”
Ballinas says top administrators knew and did little. Vanderpool allegedly told her, “We can’t do anything; she’s an elected.” Greg Garcia, then an assistant city manager and now the interim city manager, allegedly told her, “You know how the Mayor is; just don’t let it get to you.”
‘BITE MY ASS’
The claim also targets a May 2025 trip to Qatar. Ballinas says she warned that the mayor’s husband had to cover his own costs, but the Qatar Embassy paid about $16,779.34 in expenses attributed to him. State law limits gifts and travel payments to local officials.
Ballinas says she took the matter to the city’s ethics officer. When she followed up with Aitken, the mayor allegedly said those asking could “bite my ass,” and later called reimbursement “none of the City’s business.” Ballinas believes the money was never repaid.
That contrasts with the mayor’s tough talk after Vanderpool resigned in February over an undisclosed trip. “I try to hold myself to a standard that is even higher than those of state law requirements,” Aitken said at the time, according to the claim. The city is still living down the scandal that led former Mayor Harry Sidhu to plead guilty to federal charges.
Ballinas also says she flagged discrepancies in police overtime figures, questioned whether Police Chief Manny Cid’s hiring was predetermined and refused to work the mayor’s Prayer Breakfast on city time. After she went on leave around July 31, she alleges, the city pulled her website profile, withheld an approved raise, and that the city attorney’s office shared her confidential correspondence, including medical information, with the mayor.
POLITICAL FALLOUT
The allegations, first reported by TimesOC, are already costing the mayor. The Anaheim Police Association’s political action committee suspended its endorsement of her reelection Tuesday. Councilwoman Natalie Meeks requested an investigation, and Councilwoman Norma Campos Kurtz said she would seek Aitken’s resignation if the claims hold up. The council is scheduled to discuss the claim in closed session Friday.
“Unlike the city of Anaheim we choose not to litigate in the media,” said Corey Glave, one of Ballinas’ attorneys.
