I mean, YOU don’t have the time, in your busy busy life, during this hottest heat wave in years, to read Berenice Ballinas’ Claim Against the City of Anaheim and Mayor Ashleigh Aitken! It’s 25 damn pages. That’s why you come to the Orange Juice Blog, so I can share with you the highlights or rather lowlights. And these lowlights are quite a thing here!

By way of a few paragraphs of introduction: “DIRTY MEXICAN,” which caught the attention of the world and set Anaheim on fire, seems to have been something the Mayor said maybe only once, to judge by this telling. Gabriel caught a glimpse of a 4-page mediation letter sent to the City by Berenice’s attorney, and that stood out to him, and then, once his Times article came out, “Dirty Mexican” caught the attention of the rest of the world. The context was a belligerently drunk Mayor REFUSING to let either Berenice or then-City Manager James Vanderpool drive her home, saying she didn’t want her car “driven by a Dirty Mexican or a Faggot Man!”

Bad enough that poison would come out of her mouth when inebriated. But what’s overwhelming in these 25 pages is her fixation on whether or not people are gay! It seemed to be a dark fascination. Berenice was mortified to have the Mayor ask her friends if they were gay. Another friend of Berenice had her Club 33 membership suspended by Disney for inviting the Mayor who kept bugging a waiter over whether he was gay. She pissed off a gang of Jamboree Housing folks by insisting someone was gay. And through it all, for 3½ years, she kept questioning Berenice over whether SHE was gay. No matter how Berenice complained. We start to think that maybe Ashleigh was HOPING she could get with her young Latina chief of staff.

The main themes running through these 25 pages is

1. Mayor Ashleigh Aitken’s 3½ years of Drunken Mayoring and the awful, embarrassing and hurtful behavior she displayed when drunk; and
2. more to the point, how for these 3½ years, Berenice, hired with expertise and experience to run policy, was forced to also become a “handler” to a drunken public servant, to clean up her messes, take her abuse, apologize for her, all with no authority to make her reform; and how everybody in staff, Ashleigh’s family, and elsewhere expected and demanded her to keep doing both those jobs, until she finally had an aneurism and PTSD. (Reminds me of how working for Todd Ament at the Chamber made our friend Joanne have a stroke.)

“Berenice is lying or crazy or paid off by the Cop Union,” cry all you Ashpologists in incredulity? Well, Berenice names off witnesses whose testimony she welcomes:

• Ashleigh herself, and Vanderpool
• Human Resources chief Linda Andal
• Former Police Chief Rick Armendariz
• Nam Bartash (aide to the Faessels and now Kristen Maahs)
• Ethics Officer (LOL) Artin Berjikly;
• APD Deputy Chief Chuck Cinnamo;
• City Attorney Robert Fabela;
• former councilcouple Steve & Susan Faessel;
• perpetual deputy/interim City Manager Greg Garcia;
• Alyssa Guerrero (the nice assistant clerk who gives out speaker cards)
• Larry Labrado (Disney executive)
• Carrie Nocella (Disney executive)
• Police Captain Eric Trapp;
• Ashleigh family members (husband Michael Penn is mentioned a lot)
• Disney employees and representatives having knowledge concerning certain incidents,
• persons associated with Jamboree Housing.

Ashleigh sure kept up a good game face in front of us peons, but how could staff never have noticed or said anything? I asked an insider tipster I sometimes hear from, “Did you know about this?” and she was all “Everyone at city hall has observed her behavior.” And the tipster said a lot more which I’ll get to later. But there’s a culture of fear and retaliation in our City of Kindness.

I’m STILL doing an introduction, hold your horses!

I think I just wanted to get all of that out of the way first. Because these revelations do shed light on some interesting aspects of our City’s recent history, which were somewhat shrouded before. Like the JL Report and FBI affidavits did in 2022-3.

• We knew that Mayor Ashleigh and CM Vanderpool came to despise each other; now we have more (entertaining) details on that.
• We also learn more behind-the-scenes details about the Police/Disney Overtime Abuse Scandal,
• AND the problem Ashleigh had with the hiring of Chief Manny Cid.
• And then we’ll hit on the Qatar trip scandal, and more. But, for Christ’s sake, let’s proceed:

When Ashleigh Met Vanderpool

Berenice “increasingly found herself caught between these two officials and drawn into disputes
she had neither created nor could control.”

In the 4th scene of King Lear, the brutally blinded Earl of Gloucester cries out while wandering sightlessly on the heath, “Like flies to wanton boys are we to the gods – they kill us for their sport!” Similarly, beneath Zeus and Hera, there are demigods, like Mayors and City Managers. We hearken back two years to October of 2024 and the OC Taxpayer Association’s annual “Roses and Radishes Gala” at Irvine’s Hyatt Regency. And lo, a sitting OC Supervisor, unnamed, became alarmed at Mayor Ashleigh’s “visibly intoxicated and increasingly belligerent” behavior and, naturally, did what anyone would do and demanded Berenice take the Mayor in hand.

Let’s see, Supervisor, the kleptocratic OC Tax, Irvine… okay, my money is on that Supervisor being Don Wagner. (right) Which is a little bit amusing or interesting, since Don beat Ashleigh for that Supervisor seat before Ashleigh became Mayor. I wonder what Don was thinking. [UPDATE – Scratch Wagner, turns out it was Katrina Foley – her old friend and fellow blond female Democrat attorney.]

Berenice gave the old college try at controlling the Mayor, with no success, and then went to Vanderpool, who basically said “We can’t do anything, she’s an Elected.” Elected? I want to be Elected! (Cue Alice Cooper.)

That was the night – if it WAS the only night – that Ashleigh, unable to drive home, insisted on Berenice driving her home in Vanderpool’s car, because I’ll be damned if she was gonna let a “Dirty Mexican” or a “Faggot Man” drive HER car. Berenice and Vanderpool talked about this later; Vanderpool said he’d talk to Ashleigh about it but probably never did; later she denied saying those things, which she still denies. It’s very possible she didn’t remember. But when you’re that drunk and people tell you you said or did something, you kinda have to take their word for it. Take my word for it.

Well, let’s move on a month to the Cal Cities Conference that November, where Ashleigh, Berenice and Vanderpool were joined by Councilman Steve Faessel and his wife Susan, as well as the Mayor’s long-suffering hubby Michael Penn. That conference went on a few days, during which Ashleigh’s “intoxication and behavior became increasingly uncomfortable for the Anaheim delegation,” forcing Berenice and others to try to “manage or respond to the Mayor’s conduct” I know what Steve’s face looks like at times like that, it crinkles up in concern and pain, and his fretful wife Susan probably offered Ashleigh a bottle of water.

This is when Berenice first discovered the uselessness of reporting bad behavior to assistant CM Greg “Get-along” Garcia. In this case, Greg told Berenice that she just “has to get used to elected officials,” and that the conduct of former Councilmember [redacted] was “way worse.” Redacted? Jordan Brandman? Lucille Kring? Since we’re talking about overdrinking, I’ll go with Kring here. (Although Kring and Brandman were thankfully never Mayor.) In any case Greg’s reaction seemed to mean that “difficult, inappropriate or illegal conduct by elected officials was something City employees were expected to encounter, tolerate, and learn to manage as part of working around elected officials.”

Finding Vanderpool’s Drugs!

Fast forward to April 22 of last year, and womp-womp, the Mayor showed up to Council’s closed session too drunk to stay for the rest of the meeting. Is this true? Video says yes, go to 1:48:50 to hear Mayor Pro-Tem Natalie Meeks excuse Ashleigh for being “ill” and commence to running the meeting herself:

Seems Meeks, like Berenice, has been covering for the Mayor for a while. No wonder she’s had enough, and was not only the first to call for an investigation but has now (as I write) endorsed Alfredo Rodriguez for Mayor!

Still, how to get the Mayor home that evening, the evening of April 22, 2025? Berenice didn’t have her car, and Captain Cinnamo (one of the more honest cops that the crooked cops hate) offered to take her home… but eventually it was settled that Berenice would drive the Mayor home in Vanderpool’s city car. Which Vanderpool would probably come to regret.

Because, drunk or not, when Ashleigh found herself in the passenger seat of her rival Vanderpool’s car, the instincts of the Former Federal Prosecutor kicked in! And she spent that 15-minute ride searching thru Jim’s stuff. Berenice tried to get Ashleigh to stop, but WHO’S THE BOSS OF WHO? Soon enough, PAY DIRT – which was redacted in the city-released claim. I guessed she found drugs, Gabriel says it was Jim’s prescription drugs. Ashleigh photographed those bottles with her phone. Berenice tried to get the Mayor to delete those photos, protesting that she was violating Jim’s privacy, but who’s the boss of who? And the Mayor actually asked Berenice to “confront” Jim about his drugs but she refused. (Later that month, Ashleigh would blab about Jim’s drugs.)

Dancing Too Gay! (Palm Springs, spring ’25)

I know you’ve all been reading this far because you can’t wait to hear about how our City Manager dishonored Anaheim by dancing in far too homosexual a manner. This was at the SCAG (SC Association of Governments) conference in Palm Springs, April and May of last year. That conference was a big deal. Sadly, Ashleigh appeared “visibly intoxicated” and was “stumbling and spilling her drink,” and people wanted Berenice to do something about it!

It didn’t matter though. Ashleigh was NOT too inebriated to notice, with grave concern, the way that the City Manager was behaving on the dance floor. Was he wiggling his hips? Flaunting limp wrists? Shaking his head side to side like he just didn’t care? Whatever, it was far too suggestive of The Gay, and would not stand. Vanderpool was bringing shame to Anaheim. (Pause, as long as you need, to relish the irony.)

So Ashleigh sprang into action, found a city employee and told him to go get Jim because he was “BEING TOO MUCH.” What do you mean being too much, asked the employee, and she said look at the way the guy’s dancing! Employee asked “Do you mean Jim is BEING TOO GAY?” And Ashleigh said YES! The employee refused, he didn’t feel comfortable telling the City Manager to stop dancing just because he was dancing too gay, no matter HOW gay he was dancing!

Well, SOMEONE had to do SOMETHING about this! Calling the employee a “pussy,” and muttering “Typical man, a woman has to do your job,” Ashleigh marched out onto the dance floor herself to take care of the problem. It’s not clear, from the claim, if she demanded the City Manager stop dancing, or just to dance a lot less gay, and whether she had any success with her entreaties.

It was also here, in Palm Springs in the Spring of last year, that the Mayor told people about the drugs she’d discovered in Jim’s car.

It was also here in Palm Springs that the Mayor fought with Vanderpool, went partying with people from Jamboree Housing and other housing organizations at a hotel bar, and got in a dispute with these folks over people’s sexual orientation.

It was also here in Palm Springs that the Mayor told Berenice that Vanderpool had something to do with Meeks’ criticizing the Mayor earlier that month over the Mayor’s “open letter” to Arte Moreno regarding the Angels. (Berenice’s lawyer has that a little scrambled, but that’s what we’re here for!) Anyway this “intensified the conflict between the Mayor and Vanderpool and increasingly placed Claimant between the two officials.”

And it was after this Palm Springs desmadre that Greg “Get-along” Garcia was all, “You know how the Mayor is, just don’t let it get to you.” But Greg said this kind of thing so many times that he’s gonna get his own section below. And the Palm Springs conference (apart from the very gay dancing) is just starting to sound like another typical Anaheim outing.

Disneyland’s 70th!

This happened soon after the Palm Springs debacle, on May 14 at Disney’s Grand California Hotel, and tempers had not cooled. Ashleigh was still mad at Vanderpool for somehow being behind Natalie Meeks’ impudent public criticism of Ashleigh’s “open letter” to Arte Moreno about future Angels Stadium negotiations. Sounds kinda “yawn” to you and me, but it was still a real sore point to the Mayor. And she confronted Vanderbilt about it that day.

Problem is, the Mayor was drunk. Everyone was all, Berenice, can you get the Mayor under control? By everyone I mean Team Anaheim and also Disney people. All expecting Berenice to solve the Drunken Mayor problem. The Mayor, as some drunk people will do, angrily insisted she was fine. ABC7 asked Berenice if they could film an TV interview with Ashleigh and Berenice tried to decline, but Ashleigh overheard, and angrily insisted on doing the interview, slurred speech and all.

Later Berenice tried to drive the Mayor home, having got permission to leave Ashleigh’s car at Disney, but the Mayor insisted she was fine, and once again didn’t want “a Mexican” driving her home. And as always the Mayor denied it all the next day, and became paranoid that Berenice, Vanderpool, and someone at Disney were plotting to “tarnish her reputation.” At the same event, matters between Vanderpool, Berenice and Ashleigh became more twisted:

• A) Vanderpool accused Berenice of “betraying him” by telling Ashleigh he was behind the Meeks mutiny.
• B) Ashleigh had previously told Berenice that Vanderpool himself had admitted to the Mayor that he was behind the Meeks mutiny.
• C) Vanderpool told Berenice he could no longer trust her and that “Ashleigh likes to play mind games.”

Don’t know about you, but I put A, B, and C together and get this: The Mayor pried, from Berenice, the knowledge that Vanderpool was behind the Meeks mutiny by telling Berenice that she ALREADY KNEW CUZ JIM HAD TOLD HER and Berenice might as well admit it. Mind games for real. Cue John Lennon:

While My Qatar Gently Weeps

What a month, what a time to be alive! May 2025 is also when the Qatar Embassy invited Ashleigh and a guest – she chose her husband Michael Penn – to visit the fabulously wealthy petro-Emirate. Why? Whyever, that’s outside our scope of inquiry. The thing is, Qatar paid to bring the Mayor there, but she was in charge of paying the expenses for her guest – her husband – and that was nearly $17k. Petro-rich Qatar didn’t give a damn about that, it’s just about following California’s law against political GIFTS.

Duing her diligence, Berenice consulted with Artin Berjikly, Anaheim’s handsomely paid but furniture-like “Ethics Officer.” Time went by and Ashleigh made no reimbursement; Artin actually made an inquiry and at least two citizens submitted PRA’s to see if any re-imbursement was made, but Ashleigh’s response to any person inquiring was that they could “BITE MY ASS.”

I know this is important, because Berenice’s lawyers BOLDED the words BITE MY ASS, and they didn’t bold much. But it is strange. Why would somebody, why would Ashleigh, want her ass bitten? It seems like that would hurt. Is it Artin, an old friend of Ashleigh’s to whom she’d bequeathed this lucrative “ethics” gig, who is invited to bite her ass? Or is it Duane Roberts or Jeanine Robbins who I know also inquired into the Qatar re-imbursement matter? A clue to her meaning was provided later when Ashleigh elaborated, “It’s none of the City’s business.”

Berenice is pretty sure that Ashleigh never re-imbursed Qatar the 17k for her husband. Apparently the Former Federal Prosecutor does not believe she is subject to state law. But at least biologist Tom Fielder (perhaps briefly thinking he was me) was inspired to rewrite a Beatles song in honor of this incident:

The Tampa Crash, and Betty Ford

One thing Greg Garcia used to say, to Berenice, about Ashleigh and Vanderpool, was “Ah, they’ll both make up don’t worry about it,” and apparently that was sometimes true, because in June the three found themselves eating at a Tampa FL restaurant while attending the U.S. Conference of Mayors!

At one point Vanderpool appeared to become “emotional” because [redacted redacted.] Were things not going well at home? With his husband Hernan? Were they still together as they were in 2020? I don’t know. But the one thing that would make Jim feel better was if he went to (reading between the lines) a Tampa gay bar. (Berenice describes it to her lawyer as an “adult-oriented bar with sexually explicit imagery that made [Berenice] feel uncomfortable,” LOL.) Soon enough both women took off and went their own ways, Berenice to her hotel room.

Around 5 in the morning Florida time Berenice was startled awake by an urgent phone call from the Mayor’s husband Michael Penn. He told Berenice to find Ashleigh, get her packed, and take her right back to California! Ashleigh was in her room but “in an impaired condition,” apparently worse than usual. Berenice packed her up and got her onto a plane back home.

Then, for nearly a MONTH, nobody saw Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken. I checked if she missed any meetings in June or July, and she did not, but they were spaced out – June 10, June 17, July 15, July 22, as though to make room for a 27-day absence. Ashleigh is saying now that she spent 30 days in the Betty Ford Clinic; maybe she did go there but it couldn’t have been quite 30 days. In any case Berenice was left alone to cover for her absence and make up excuses and mind the shop. Did Berenice know she was in rehab (if she was?) If so, she doesn’t say that in this claim, respecting Ashleigh’s medical privacy as Ashleigh did not respect Vanderpool’s. [CORRECTION – that’s probably that big redacted paragraph on page 16.]

My insider, querulous as ever, writes me:

“People are beginning to ask if while the mayor was in rehab, did she notify the city? Was the Mayor Pro Tem [Meeks] notified? Why wasn’t the community notified that the Mayor Pro Tem was in charge?  Who was actually in charge of the city when she was in rehab? Every statement made keeps generating a myriad of additional issues…”

Ashleigh also claims to have not drunk between her June 2025 rehab and the next notorious drunken event a year later (the June 10, 2026 Club 33 incident.) And maybe that’s true. In this claim there are no drinking-related stories told in that 12-month period, although my insider, cynical as ever, writes “People are laughing at the statement she put out about being in rehab before.  So many of these incidents happened after she left Betty Ford. Sounds like ‘Hey, I went to Betty Ford, at least I tried.’”

But in the next couple tales I’ll retell, Ashleigh and Berenice are working together pretty much to the same ends. Remember, this claim is not just against Ashleigh but against the City, Vanderpool and others.

Disney Cop Overtime Abuse Scandal

The late-2025 scandal of APD officers (generally all union brass) committing millions of dollars in overtime fraud while working at Disneyland was, just like this Ashleigh scandal, something we first learned when it was leaked to The Times’ Gabriel San Roman in July of this year, and just as I’m doing now, I added my own gloss to it here. I don’t know who leaked the story to Gabriel, but it WAS something that Ashleigh and Berenice were concerned about before any of us had an inkling.

In the Fall of last year, perhaps sober and experiencing an urge for good governance, and in the wake of an APD audit looking into its own officers’ overtime abuse, Ashleigh (and Berenice) “became aware of BROADER concerns regarding potential misuse or improper reporting of APD overtime expenditures.” And the Mayor directed her Chief of Staff to look into the City’s 50 highest-paid employees and the overtime amounts associated with them.

COOL! Now that is the kind of work Berenice likes to do, what she was trained for. Good government. Saving the people’s money, rooting out malfeasance and waste.

Pero, womp-womp. She ran into nothing but road blocks, roadblocks put up by the same folks who’d knowingly approved all this wasteful overtime. Delays, and constant complaints that it was TOO MUCH WORK to compile all that information. Police Chief Armendariz and Captain Cinnamo, straight-arrow reformist cops as far as it goes, confirmed she was onto something. Meanwhile Vanderpool and Greg Garcia “attempted to minimize the significance of the overtime concerns and resisted/delayed providing complete and accurate information necessary to reconcile the discrepancies.”

Finally Ashleigh, on a worthy reformist mission, decided to give up rather than piss off the Police Union and maybe lose their endorsement for her re-election. (Which she has now lost anyway over the “Dirty Mexican” scandal.) And then, in July, someone leaked it all to Gabriel. Go figure!

Oh well it was a noble crusade while it lasted.

Chief Cid & Maleficent!

The hiring of Police Chief Armendariz’ replacement, former Glendale police chief Manny Cid, is somewhat connected to the above-mentioned Overtime Scandal. The choosing of Cid happened right while that scandal was shaking up City Hall, and the Union Brass with the plum Resort gigs and jacked-up overtime were big cheerleaders for Cid. In fact Union president Jose Duran, unable to contain his excitement, was telling everyone that Cid already had the job, even while the recruitment process was still going on, and no finalist had been announced. These Union/Resort cops, tired of Armendariz’ discipline and investigations, thought rightly or wrongly that Cid would be less of a drag.

Berenice saw a problem here – was the process fair and complete? – and Ashleigh agreed for whatever reason (we’re not sure if she had a preferred candidate or not.) But this Chief hiring was Vanderpool’s baby – even though Council would have to approve it – and he didn’t like these two women meddling in it. Jim warned that the Mayor’s involvement in the recruiting process would be an overstep and violate the City Charter. Berenice began to look into matters like whether Cid had submitted his application on time, and she really began to get on Jim’s last nerve.

And then, at Disneyland’s December 2025 Candlelight celebration, Jim did the unthinkable – he publicly referred to Berenice as “MALEFICENT.” At a Disney event no less. THAT IS THE LOWEST. (Apparently.) Something Berenice may never recover from.

Seriously I never saw the movie but apparently getting called Maleficent by the City Manager at a Disney thing was a huge deal. Claim says, once again, Berenice “realized that she had been improperly placed in the middle of a growing feud between two of the City’s highest-ranking officials – a feud that would eventually culminate with Vanderpool’s February 2026 forced resignation.” [Forced? It didn’t seem that way.] Ashleigh said Berenice should report the Maleficent incident to Linda Andal at HR but Berenice didn’t think running to Jim’s subordinate Linda would accomplish squat. Neither would complaining one more time to Greg Garcia, but she did that anyway, resulting in “You know how Jim is, he didn’t mean it.” She also told friendly police Trapp, Armendariz, and Cinnamo, coincidentally all cops that the Clique of Union/Resort cops hated.

Manny Cid’s appointment was unanimously approved by Council Dec. 9, with staggering compensation verging on half a million, more even than his new superior Vanderpool was making. Ashleigh, saying “This isn’t the hill I’m going to die on,” decided not to oppose it since Cid already had all the other Council votes, and again she didn’t want to piss off the Union/Resort cops and lose their endorsement, which, again, she just did anyway with her alleged “Dirty Mexican” comments. A worse hill to die on.

Nobody was more excited about Vanderpool’s new Half-Million-Dollar Chief than the Union/Resort Cop Clique. They imagined Cid would wreak vengeance on the cops (like Berenice’s friends Trapp, Armendariz, “Cinnabun” and Lorenzo Glenn) who had dared to rein in their overtime & other abuses, and celebrated with a juvenile video featuring “Cid” shooting paintballs at their tormentors:

The fact Vanderpool hired Cid (who would report to him) at a higher wage than himself made everyone suspect that Jim would soon demand a raise himself – hey, can’t make less than your underling! And he was expected to hang on till the fall or so, when his retirement would be a lot bigger. Jim faced a small scandal in February when the new Chamber leaked (to Gabriel and myself) documents showing that he’d gone to a 2020 “retreat” at Havasu with the Cabal plotting the Stadium Heist, something he had never seen fit to mention through ALL those investigations. Ashleigh found that a firing offense, but Jim who was clearly loved by all the rest of the Council (for some reason) passed a 6-1 vote of confidence.

And then, like the next week, he startled EVERYONE by suddenly resigning! I still say we don’t really know why. This claim characterizes it as a “forced resignation” over some dispute over hundreds of dollars but that doesn’t seem right either. The best article about Jim’s surprise departure remains this one by me. But suddenly one of Berenice’s tormentors was gone, replaced temporarily (and to this day) by perpetual deputy/interim Greg Garcia. Let’s get back to that Claim.

Berenice’s Birthday Disaster at Club 33

Ashleigh is now characterizing the sad events of this past June 10 at Disneyland Resort as an alcoholic “relapse” at some “birthday event.” That’s weird, for someone who claims to have been so close to her chief of staff – it was BERENICE’S birthday that the Mayor spectacularly ruined!

It was a friend of Berenice’s who had membership to Disney’s exclusive Club 33 (mistakenly called “303” in the claim) where the Mayor and Berenice had a 3-hour lunch, and the Mayor drank a lot. You may not be surprised that she went back to asking Berenice if she was gay, come on admit you’re gay, no matter how Berenice denied it and tried to change the subject. Three hours of that wonderful birthday talk and then they went over to the 1901 Lounge to meet Berenice’s membership-owning friend.

At the 1901 Lounge, the Mayor really wanted to know if this one male cast member was gay, and spoke to him in Spanish because he looked Latino. The guy did his best to ignore her. So Ashleigh went back to insisting Berenice was gay, to her friend. Can’t you see how gay she is? Friend asked Berenice to calm the Mayor down – cuz isn’t that Berenice’s job? Even on her birthday?

Twelve days later Disney punished Berenice’s friend: NO MORE CLUB 33 FOR YOU! You brought in some drunken Mayor who made “rude, insensitive and inappropriate remarks” to a Cast Member, an “egregious violation!” Friend’s membership was placed on hold. Meanwhile the Mayor denied doing anything inappropriate, and claimed that Disney was just punishing Ashleigh “politically.”

And that was Berenice’s Birthday Bash at the Disneyland Resort!

Greg Garcia & other failing Staff

• “You have to get used to elected officials.  Lucille Kring was way worse.”  – Greg Garcia, after the Cal Cities incident.

• “You know how the Mayor is; just don’t let it get to you.” – Greg Garcia, after all the chaos in Palm Springs.

• “Give Jim some time to cool off. You know how they are. They’ll make up in no time and it will go away.” – Greg Garcia, after all the drama at Disney’s 70^th.

• “You know how Jim is, he didn’t mean it.” – Greg Garcia, after the Maleficent incident.

It’s pretty sad that this was the best person Berenice could go to for “help” with being tug-of-warred between the City’s top administrator and the City’s top elected. Easy-going “Get-along” Garcia, who’s now the interim City Manager. (He told me once, during one of his previous interim stints which happen every time Council fires a CM, that he “never wants to be official City Manager, too much pressure and people blame everything on you.”)

It was precisely as useless to go to Human Resources Chief Linda Andal, who also reports to the City Manager, who was Vanderpool. My tipster e-mailed me, “Some are wondering if Garcia and Andal will be put on administrative leave during the investigation since they failed to report that the claims were made. They failed to protect the taxpayers from this exposure and failed to follow employment reporting laws.” Well, sure but who would put them on leave? We have no City Manager or Mayor, nothing but six Deer in Headlights on Council.

I still can’t believe that one of the ballyhooed “Reforms” in Ashleigh’s ballyhooed “Fall of Reform (2022)” was a Whistleblower Hotline that goes to… City Manager Vanderpool! (Good thing that Anaheim’s whistleblowers are now organizing, although it seems that didn’t help Berenice.)

Anaheim City Hall is full of men and women who cower and cover, and who failed Berenice. That’s why Berenice’s Claim is against the City, not just Ashleigh and Vanderpool.

Michael Penn, enabling husband?

I feel sorry for Michael Penn. He’s always nice to me and Donna. Sometimes I think he’s been put on Be Nice To Vern detail when the Mayor and I have our differences. His life must be difficult. He works for his wife’s famous and powerful father Wylie, who, lore has it, shares the same disease as his daughter (and me.)

His wife was doing so bad in Tampa last year that he grabbed her (or rather had Berenice grab her) and put her in rehab. But she’s obviously not better yet. And she needs tough love. Not enabling, not encouragement to keep it up but just do better.

Early on in Ashleigh’s term, at the “Initial Team Anaheim Dinner,” Berenice saw her getting all touchy-feely with some (REDACTED) guy. [UPDATE – believe it or not, that was the (married) Councilman Steve Faessel!] Vanderpool stepped in, and Michael eventually removed her from the dinner, and asked Berenice to come along. Ashleigh had a tantrum and kicked someone’s bicycle, damaging its mirror, before falling herself.

The next day, Michael arranged for Berenice to make a Venmo payment to compensate the bike owner. Berenice, way back then, told Michael that the Mayor “was not okay,” that she “needed help.” Michael responded, “Don’t we all?”

Yes. Don’t we all.

And Ashleigh Plans to Ride this out!

If it weren’t sad, and didn’t put an entire City of 350,000 people’s affairs on hold, it would be fascinating, and I’m talking about the public kaleidoscope of bargaining and denial Ashleigh’s been going through these past two weeks. There was, first, the plea to “judge me by my values as shown in my work,” and no denial of the charges. Next there was a denial of the charges along with a couple hints that her accuser, whom she cares so much about, was suffering some sort of mental illness for which she has the utmost sympathy.

Then a few days later came the big “brave” confession that she suffered from “an unhealthy relationship with alcohol,” and had gone to rehab 15 months ago, and humbly “owned” her problem, and “vowed to be a better leader!” But she was absolutely innocent of everything else she’d been accused of, if you can believe that. (See above.)

Wow, did she receive a lot of love for that, from staggeringly countless SHEEPLE who saw her “honesty” and “courage” as relatable, admirable, and the sign of a GREAT Mayor! “You admitted you are an alcoholic, we love you, please keep being our Mayor!”

She even latched on to that saying, “Don’t judge me by my weakest moment” or whatever. DUDE. Three and a half years is not a moment.

But this has got to be the worst:

Clearly she is in as much denial as ever. Clearly to her she is still the victim. Clearly she is still planning to ride this out – “RIDE, ASHLEIGH, RIDE!”

But the worst part is when you realize the intended audience of this TV appearance is Berenice Ballinas. It is Berenice that Ashleigh hopes will see this, see her tearful reminiscences of their once-beautiful and intimate “relationship,” back off her legal threats and admit her charges were untrue.

Ashleigh. Please give up. You’re going to win this election but you KNOW that doesn’t mean this is over. You need to resign as soon as you’re sworn in so we can have a special election and you can focus on yourself, your health and your family. And so we can have a new Mayor. Pearlman is right: OTHER PEOPLE BESIDE YOU CAN DO IT.

Ashleigh. Brandman. Kring. Sidhu. Galloway. Ament. Is it something in our water? Oh Lord, I feel a meme coming on…