General (09)
Susana Barrios
From:ACT Anaheim <actanaheim@gmail.com>
Sent:Tuesday, September 29, 2026 6:11 PM
To:Public Comment
Subject:\[EXTERNAL\] On Behalf of Jeanine Robbins, District 2, Councilmember Carlos Leon
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For public comment on September 29, 2026:
Mayor Aitken, in January, when Jim Vanderpool was under scrutiny for an undisclosed trip to Lake
Havasu, you DEMANDED accountability.
You said, and I quote:
“We need to hold ourselves to a higher standard and not just follow the letter of the law, but follow the
spirit of the law.”
You even wanted the Ethics Officer involved. You said, “He is their ethics officer as much as he is ours.”
Those are powerful words.
So, Mayor, do those standards also apply to you?
Because I filed a public records request for all documents pertaining to the Mayor’s all-expense paid trip
to Qatar.
Let me summarize these records for everyone:
The Qatar Embassy invited the Mayor and a guest to a “Special Mayoral Delegation” in Doha, Qatar, in
May 2025.
The Mayor accepted and informed Qatar that she would bring her husband, Michael Penn, as her guest.
In fact, on April 2, the Mayor emailed Qatar and said, “I will need to purchase Michael's plane ticket,
given the California rules on gifts.”
So, apparently, everyone understood the gift ban law - family and spouses cannot accept gifts on behalf
of elected officials.
The Mayor and her husband went to the Mayoral Delegation in Qatar from May 17th to May 22nd.
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After the Mayor and her husband returned from Qatar, the Mayor’s staff contacted the Qatar Embassy to
obtain an itemized breakdown of the trip expenses for reimbursement.
And the Embassy responded with that information on May 28th. The Mayor’s staff then specifically asked
the Embassy to confirm whether those expenses had been paid by the Embassy, and the Embassy
responded, “Yes, all of these were paid by the Embassy.”
The total cost of the trip was $33,679, and the Mayor was expected to reimburse Qatar $16,779 for her
husband.
But there was no proof of reimbursement in the records I received.
So what story are you going to make up, Ashleigh? If you never reimbursed the $16,000, are you going to
concoct some reason as to how you got out of paying for your husband’s free trip?
And what does the Anaheim Ethics Officer say about all this? He used to work for FPPC and reports to
City Attorney Rob Fabela. Fabela and Greg Garcia should certainly understand the gift ban law because
they both have law degrees. So why haven’t either of them investigated this issue on their own?
My guess? Because Fabela and Greg do not have ethics or spines.
I am absolutely positive that you are going to try to spin this. We know your father’s connections; we
know you will try to squirm your way out of it. But the truth will come out, Ashleigh, and the truth doesn’t
care who your daddy is.
And I bet you were hoping the FPPC investigation would remain closed, but I will be providing additional
evidence to reopen this investigation.
In closing, you asked us to look at your record and your values, and truth be told, your dishonesty is
palpable.
It turns out you have even MORE to be embarrassed about than we originally thought.
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