Am I the last to hear about this? Well, I’ll be the first to write about it at least. And maybe if I’m lucky, YOU GUYS haven’t heard about it yet. So long story short:
Friday Sept 25, four days after the first Times revelations, three days after the Council meeting where Arzolas and others angrily self-identified as “Dirty Mexicans,” a group of seven distinguished local Woke nonprofits, with Los Amigos’ esteemed Dr. Jose Moreno as spokesman, sent Mayor Aitken an e-mail entitled “Urgent Request for Meeting with Community,” asking Ashleigh to meet with them. Checks out. That’s what these sorta groups would do. Meet, and “be in conversation,” before jumping to any conclusions about allegations, before saying or doing anything unfair or regrettable.
The e-mail, sent at 2pm, clearly demanded “reply all” – this was from all seven groups equally. Still, the Mayor spent the next few hours calling each of those group leaders whose phone numbers she had (divide and conquer), and then at 5 wrote back – she would meet with any of them, but NOT WITH JOSE MORENO PRESENT, because “I feel engaging with him PUTS ME IN AN UNSAFE ENVIRONMENT.”
WHAT. THE. ACTUAL. FUCK. Nobody wrote anything on Monday, because apparently that is the day of the week that God ordained for non-profits to sleep, self-care, re-up their “bandwidth.” But first thing Tuesday morning the nonprofits let Ashleigh have it: They were not going to be divided and conquered, and took grave offense at her suggesting that the presence of Jose Moreno constitutes an “unsafe environment.”
Have you seen Jose Moreno? The very picture of a gentle academic, not quite effete but very nearly metrosexual. The scariest thing about him is his frequent sardonic streak, and possibly a smidge of self-righteousness. OR IS THAT ALL? Donna recalled that Jose was once named, in 2012, one of the OC Weekly’s “SCARIEST PEOPLE” – #28 in the Scary list! And what made him so scary back then, according to Gustavo? Why, quoting the Weekly,
“When city residents yearned for stirring oration during Anaheim’s long, hot summer, Moreno instead delivered a boring mix of academic jargon and yaktivist gobbledygook.”
Well, when Gustavo is right he’s right. And we should note that this was BEFORE that “Dirty” Mexican pioneered the word “wokoso” which would have been even more appropo. But does this add up to NOT A SAFE ENVIRONMENT FOR A WOMAN? Or is something else going on?
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I have come into possession of the four e-mails in the chain, and have uploaded them as a PDF linked here, in case you wanna read their entirety. I don’t want to force OJ readers to wade thru nonprofit jargon needlessly, so the first and third e-mail I’ll just summarize, but the 2nd and 4th are from Mayor Ashleigh and hence we’re gonna wanna analyze ’em!
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Jose, at 2 Friday afternoon, urged on behalf of the SEVEN GREAT NONPROFITS (OCCCO, OCCORD, CHISPA, LULAC, OCAPICA, Arab American Civic Council, and Los Amigos which may not be a nonprofit) – urged the Mayor to meet with those groups, so that they could “be in conversation.” Conversation about the allegations against her. They hoped to meet BEFORE the upcoming Sept. 29 Council meeting. They wish to “uplift” their communities, and are concerned that she may have “transgressed” the “ethos and values” of those communities, and may have “othered” those communities. They want “to dialogue, to listen, and to learn.” And please when you respond, hit that “reply all” cuz we’re all in this together.
Well, in definite transgression of the spirit of that last request, Ashleigh called up everyone on that chain whose number she had, individually, because that was less scary or something. And then at 5 she wrote:
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From Ashleigh at 5 on Friday, my BOLD and commentary in italics:
I have spent some time reaching out to you, and apologize to those that I do not have your personal phone numbers. [That is NOT what you were asked to do.] I welcome a meeting with your organizations, and the opportunity to reiterate that I wholeheartedly deny making any racial or otherwise inappropriate statements. I will not, however, engage with Dr. Moreno as I feel it puts me in an unsafe environment. [Borderline slanderous?] If you are still willing to sit down with me under those parameters, I would appreciate your time to discuss these very important accusations.
I take allegations like those made against me extremely serious [sic] and they deserve to be fully investigated. I have called for an independent investigation, and will fully participate in order to clear my name and reputation. I must restate: Ms. Ballinas remains my Chief of Staff and a city employee. [Really, why?] This is an ongoing personnel matter, and I am under strict limits on what I may discuss.[Oh. Right.] I will certainly not attack her or litigate this through a whisper campaign or through the press. [You have subtly suggested she has mental issues, clearly enough for your apologists to take the cue.]
As a former federal prosecutor
…I believe serious allegations should be evaluated based on facts and evidence through a fair and independent process. That is why I am asking the City to retain a truly independent outside investigator of unquestioned integrity to conduct a thorough review of these allegations. I kindly ask that judgment is reserved until all facts are brought forward.
I am already committed to a YMCA event on Monday. I am available Wednesday, 11am-12, or most of Friday. Please email or reach out to me personally at [phone redacted.] I welcome productive dialogue, apologize for any hurt this has caused our community, and look forward to an honest discussion about how to move Anaheim forward.
In solidarity, Ashleigh.
Night fell, morning came, the 3-day nonprofit weekend passed, and OCCORD’S Ivon Pena took to her keyboard:
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Tuesday morning Ivon laid into the Mayor. First she took issue with Ashleigh trying to respond individually to what was clearly a group communication. Then she went from taking issue to taking UMBRAGE and I quote:
“Given the seriousness of the allegations and the concern they have generated in our communities, we are disappointed that your response would require the exclusion of a member of the very group requesting this dialogue and a member who has worked for decades uplifting our Latino – Mexican-origin communities. It does not escape us that your rationale for trying to exclude Dr. Moreno raises serious racial/ethnic and gendered tropes about Latino men.” . .
Ooh, tropes! BAD tropes! I hadn’t even thought of that. Ivon continues with some legit concerns about the proposed investigation:
“…We support a process that is thorough, fair, independent, and transparent, and that is not hidden from public view by any potential NDAs that would prevent the public from understanding the situation thoroughly and accurately. At the same time, the existence of an investigation does not eliminate the need for dialogue between community leaders and the City’s elected leadership during a moment of significant public concern.
“We are genuinely disappointed that you have refused a meeting with us as a community, as we sought to approach this moment with seriousness, transparency, and care for the communities we serve and the trust necessary in our democratic institutions…” .
Well said, Ms. Pena, you do OCCORD proud! But… oh, Ashleigh’s response to THAT was some kind of classic, you gotta see…
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Dear Ivon,
Thank you for your response to my email last week. Again, I am happy to meet with all these organization collectively in my office. If you cannot accept my invitation to my office with my restrictions, that is your collective choice. But that choice is yours and not mine. You are always welcome in my office.
Now see if you can make heads or tails of this next paragraph, apparently Ashleigh’s comeback to Ivon’s talk of “racial/ethnic and gendered tropes about Latino men”
As a Woman’s Studies major, I deeply contest the notion of a static “Latin American gender culture”. I also don’t subscribe to reverse sexism, as it is a fevered response to women gaining power in the home and outside of it. Women do not have historic institutional power, making your framework indefensible. I would caution accusing me of sexism and racism based on my email. The current movement of Traditional Masculinity and the calls for historic gender roles inside and outside the home is indefensible, and certainly not aligned with my values. . .
THIS is Ashleigh’s defense of calling Jose a man in whose presence she feels “unsafe?” Can you understand a single clause of it? Some think she was drunk when she wrote it, but she did lead a meeting a few hours later. It sounds like she tore up the pages of a college textbook and threw them at Ivon. It sounds like “You guys want to talk wokosa gobbledygook, I’ll outdo you all! “As a woman’s studies major.” (Not a former federal prosecutor this time.)
It’s near slanderous and certainly undeserved to talk about Jose like he’s either violent or sex-gropey (like Ashleigh allegedly was with Faessel at the Initial Team Anaheim meeting.)
I don’t know when Ashleigh got so scared of Jose, but I do know he and many of us were very disappointed when we supported her for Mayor partly because she promised to support Jose’s Campaign Finance Reform, and then a mere couple months after being elected told us that no, we heard wrong, it is unconstitutional and indefensible in court (when even our City Attorney Fabela said he could defend it.) And Jose was angry about that at an Anaheim Democrats meeting, and has been critical of her many times since.
I don’t know when Ashleigh got so scared of Jose, but this does put in context how she behaved when he came up to speak at Council that evening – the first time he’d spoken there in years! – and, unsuspecting, she stammered, “Next speaker, Jose M – M – Moreno?” And then covered her mouth with her hand and said something to someone on her left, mira nomas:
Maybe Jose really IS Orange County’s 28th Scariest Person, if only because he sees through bullshit and calls it out clearly! MORE THURSDAY MORNING, I need to write about the latest text survey, from the Police Union, about Ashleigh-Gate, and other scenes of people maneuvering to take advantage of a possible power vacuum! See you in the morning! . .
