Anaheim council members publicly broke their silence Tuesday over allegations that Mayor Ashleigh Aitken used a racial slur toward her chief of staff, with one member pledging to seek the mayor’s resignation if the claims are substantiated and another requesting a special closed-session meeting on threatened litigation.
Councilwoman Norma Campos Kurtz said she stands with Councilmember Natalie Meeks in demanding an expedited investigation, and that she would ask for the mayor’s resignation if the allegations prove true.
The allegations, raised repeatedly during public comment, center on claims that Aitken called her chief of staff Berenice Ballinas a “dirty Mexican” and made derogatory comments about her perceived sexual orientation.
“I am a Mexican, an East LA Mexican raised to be proud of who I am and where I came from,” Campos Kurtz said. “Grandfathers who worked in the fields, a grandmother who boarded the Red Car in LA every day with her mop and pail, and rode to Union Station to wash out the train cars so that our boys from East LA would board clean trains on the way to fight a war. My father was an auto mechanic. My mother worked in a factory. All came home tired, sweaty, and dirty.”
The mayor has denied wrongdoing and said she welcomes an independent investigation to clear her name.
“I need this independent investigation to clear my name, and I really welcome it because that is what a democracy is all about,” Aitken said. “You are innocent until you are proven guilty.”
Councilmember Kristen Maahs, who acknowledged she had not communicated on the issue, said there is “no room for racism in our city, period,” and that she awaits the facts.
Councilman Ryan Balius said he believes in innocence until guilt is proven and suggested the mayor consider suspending her public calendar while the investigation proceeds.
“We’ve obviously got some pain out in the community, and maybe it’s a good idea to suspend suspend the public calendar until the investigation is over,” Balius said. “I do ask that it is an independent investigation, and I ask for it to be expedited as quickly as possible.”
Campos Kurtz asked City Attorney Robert Fabela to schedule a special meeting before the council’s next regular session set for Oct. 13 so the body could meet in closed session regarding threatened litigation stemming from the alleged misconduct. Fabela explained that under the Brown Act, the state’s open-meeting law, either the mayor or a majority of the council may call such a meeting.
The remarks came after more than a dozen speakers addressed the allegations over the course of the meeting, with several community organizations calling for a transparent and independent process. Another speaker who said he was from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization alleged racism is built into the city government and Anaheim Police Department.
The AI platform Civilio assisted this report.
