Reso 2026-021 Discipline - Councilmember Aguilar

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9 undermine her and other women do not appear to be driven by retaliation simply because he once raised conflicts of interest concerns years before Bowen and the other City Council Members voted to censure him based on his interference with the duties of the former City Manager. Former Mayor Pauline Cutter, former City Council Member Deborah Cox, and former City Manager Fran Robustelli noted that Aguilar has a tendency to complain about being the victim of discrimination without any basis as a means to achieve his personal objectives. They referred to the discrimination complaint that Aguilar once filed against former Mayor Pauline Cutter for race and sexual orientation discrimination simply because Cutter would not allow him or anyone else who was running for re-election to be on the Planning Committee for the City’s 150th Birthday Celebration.7 Cutter explained that she has a child who is gay and has always been supportive of the LGBTQIA+ community. Cutter even gave Aguilar the opportunity to be the emcee at a flag raising ceremony at the City’s Pride Parade. But after the City’s Public Information Officer, an outside consultant and Cutter discussed the fact that anyone who was running for re-election should not be on the steering committee for the City’s 150th Birthday celebration, Aguilar accused her of being homophobic and having discriminated against him because he is Latino. Ultimately, an outside investigator hired by the City found there was no evidence that her decision to bar him from serving on the steering committee was driven by discrimination based on any protected characteristic. Based on this and other incidents, witnesses point to Aguilar’s propensity to complain that he is the victim of mistreatment without sufficient evidence to support his contentions. As Ballew and others revealed, Aguilar “is constantly making himself the victim” without accepting accountability for his own actions. Ultimately, an examination of the evidence uncovered in this investigation found that Bowen’s complaint was largely substantiated and not driven by retaliation when she raised legitimate concerns about Aguilar’s behavior and decisions. B. Simon’s Contention That Bowen’s Complaint and the City Council’s Decision to Censure Him Was Driven by Race Discrimination Is Not Substantiated Simon claimed that Bowen’s complaint, Mayor Gonzalez’s decision to remove him from the Alameda County Stop Waste Board, and a majority of the City Council’s decision to censure him, were all driven by race discrimination. He specifically named Bowen (Asian), Robustelli (Caucasian), Gonzalez (Latino) and Ballew (Caucasian) as the culprits. However, each of these past and present members of the City Council and the former City Manager Robustelli supported without reservation the promotion of Janelle Cameron (who is African American) to City Manager over a lesser qualified Caucasian male who was supported by Simon. Robustelli also hired an African American female Police Chief to replace the former Police Chief. These employment decisions do not reflect racial bias against African Americans. Simon contends he is being treated differently than other non-Black members of the City Council, but he does not cite any comparators who were accorded differential or unequal treatment under the same circumstances. Indeed, when this investigator pointed out that Aguilar, who is of a different race and who was also subject to censure at the same time as him (following an independent investigation into a complaint by Robustelli against him and Aguilar), Simon could not provide any evidence that he was subjected to differential treatment based on race. He only applied circular reasoning that 1) he is the victim of race discrimination, 2) because he is the sole African American presently serving on the City Council; therefore 3) any complaint raised against him and any decision by the City Council to censure him must be because of race discrimination. However, in the absence of any evidence to support his claim of race discrimination, he appears to divert attention from concerns raised by a number of women and denying any accountability for his own actions and decisions. Ultimately, as 7 Cutter referenced the minutes of a meeting held to discuss who could serve on the steering committee that reflected the collective decision to exclude anyone who was up for re-election that year and the fact that Aguilar was the only one who was in that category. Exhibit A Resolution No. 2026-021 Page 9