By Arturo Castañares
Editor-at-Large
A festive holiday party hosted by a local police officers’ union was attended by some of the City’s top leaders, but now the City Manager is using an incident that occurred at the celebration to punish the City’s police chief.
The Chula Vista Police Officers’ Association (POA) hosted its annual holiday party at the Hyatt Regency hotel on Mission Bay on December 16th. The party was a private social event for off-duty police officers and no one wore official uniforms. The event was not hosted by the City or paid for with any taxpayer funds. No one under 21 years old was allowed in because alcohol was being served.
A majority of the Chula Vista City Council attended the party, including Mayor John McCann and his wife, Councilman Cesar Fernandez and his wife, and Councilwoman Carolina Chavez.
The POA endorsed each of those Councilmembers in their respective elections.
The City’s recently appointed City Manager, Tiffany Allen, and her husband, the City’s Deputy City Manager, Courtney Chase, and her husband, the City’s HR Director, Tanya Tomlinson, and Police Chief Roxana Kennedy and her husband, also attended the party.
During the event, the group awarded dozens of raffle prizes, culminating with a grand prize of a large flat-screen TV. Two officers, a male and a female, were competing for the prize by dancing for the crowd, and everyone seemed to enjoy the show, according to attendees, and two videos reviewed by La Prensa San Diego.
During the dancing, the male officer removed his shirt and continued dancing in hopes of winning the prize. No one in the crowd of high-ranking City officials intervened or protested the raucous nature of the event.
As the male officer was dancing, Police Chief Roxana Kennedy approached him with two dollar bills in her hands, and she playfully placed them in his two front pockets, bowed to the crowd, and went back to her seat.
The crowd cheered loudly, and both of the officers were awarded giant flat-screen TVs as the final raffle prizes.
Witnesses who attended the event told La Prensa San Diego that no one seemed offended or complained to anyone about the dancing.
Still image from a video taken during the holiday party
The event ended about three hours later with everyone seemingly having enjoyed the party, according to several people who were in attendance.
A few days after the party, however, City Manager Tiffany Allen raised concerns about the dancing incident to Chief Kennedy, saying she “was very concerned” and calling her participation in the dancing “unacceptable,” although there was no written reprimand or formal counseling offered to Kennedy.
Tiffany Allen
According to Allen, Kennedy acknowledged an "error in judgment", but the Chief did not offer her resignation or suggest she would retire early.
Under the City’s Charter, the City Council appoints the City Manager who can be fired at any time by at least a majority of the Council. Allen was appointed City Manager in October 2025 when long-time City Manager Maria Kachadoorian retired.
The City Manager, in turn, has sole authority to appoint the Chief of Police without any vote or approval of the City Council. The City Manager can hire and fire any city department head, except the independently elected City Attorney, and the City Clerk, who is also appointed by the City Council.
Weeks after the party, Allen held a face-to-face meeting with Kennedy, which was also attended by Human Resources Director Tanya Tomlinson.
Tanya Tomlinson
During the meeting on January 21st, Allen chastised Kennedy for participating in the dancing, and asked the Chief to create a plan to manage what she called "the fallout" from the incident, including an action plan and steps to take to “communicate to employees that the incident was inappropriate so that it does not lower our organizational expectations or standards.”
Allen, who attended the party and did not object at the time, made Kennedy’s participation in the dance a major issue that could affect her employment.
The City Manager also informed Kennedy that the City planned to bring in an outside auditor to review the police department’s procedures to ensure they “comply with the best practices and limit the City’s risk.”
Allen followed up the meeting with an email to Kennedy to document what they had discussed.
The next day, Kennedy took leave from work, and rumblings began swirling throughout the police department and City Hall, ranging from Kennedy having been fired, to her being on medical leave.
In response to the party, the Chula Vista Police Officers’ Association’s board voted unanimously to stand behind Kennedy as a sign of solidarity with their leader. The POA confirmed this week that they have not received any complaints about Kennedy's actions at the party from any officers.
Last Thursday, based on contemporaneous sourcing, La Prensa San Diego posted on social media that Kennedy was “on admin leave and will not return to work” and that Assistant Chief Dan Peak would be running the department in her absence. The information was based on several internal sources that predicted the outcome of the process already set in motion by Allen.
Sources also claim that the City Manager had designs on replacing Kennedy based on her own decision, but that at least three Councilmembers were supportive of the change in leadership.
Two sources confirmed that internal conversations have included offering the position to National City Police Chief Alejandro Hernandez, who was appointed to that post in January 2024.
Peak has been serving as Kennedy’s second-in-command since May 2024, but sources confirmed to La Prensa San Diego that he and Allen had been communicating directly and taking actions without Kennedy’s knowledge since the new City Manager was appointed in October.
Dan Peak
Allen recently approved Peak to attend a week-long city management training program at Stanford University in July without Kennedy’s prior knowledge or approval, and Allen pushed through a special 10% raise for Peak just weeks after assuming her new role.
Last week, La Prensa San Diego’s lawyer filed California Public Records Act requests with the City for all communications between Allen and Kennedy, between Allen and Peak, and any encrypted text messages sent between any of the department’s executive leadership, including Kennedy, Peak, and the Department's four Captains, during the past few months.
Under existing law, electronic messages, even if sent on personal devices, are subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act if they relate to City business, and deleting or destroying such documents constitutes a felony punishable by imprisonment in state prison for 2, 3, or 4 years.
The City has 10 days to respond to the requests, but could extend the period for 14 days if the requests require the City to conduct further searches for responsive records.
This week, La Prensa San Diego confirmed that Kennedy is on medical leave and is expected to remain out at least through February 20th, or longer, depending on clearance by her medical providers.
Kennedy first joined the Chula Vista Police Department in 1992 after graduating from the Southwestern College Police Academy, and later became the CVPD’s first female Lieutenant, first female Captain, and first female Chief.
When Kennedy was appointed as the City’s 24th Chief of Police in 2016, she was the first Chief promoted from within the department in 67 years.
Roxana Kennedy
Kennedy is a graduate of the FBI National Academy, a 10-week, invitation-only professional development program at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, for U.S. and international law enforcement leaders; and has served on the Academy’s California Charter Board of Directors for six years. Kennedy earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Management from California Coast University.
The City is currently facing a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by former Deputy City Manager Eric Crockett, who claims he was offered a severance package when he was being terminated without cause in December 2023, but, when he refused to sign a waiver of claims, the offer was rescinded and he was fired for not being “a good fit.”
Eric Crocket
Crocket claims a tight clique of female employees, referred to as the “mean girls”, has created a toxic workplace environment towards both male and female staffers who are not within the group.
The reference to the 2004 movie, Mean Girls, about a clique of popular high school girls who use gossip, bullying, and favoritism to retaliate against other students, was aimed at then-City Manager Maria Kachadoorian, City Manager Tiffany Allen, and Deputy City Manager Courtney Chase.
Another former employee, Michele Clock, who had served as the City’s Communications Manager, made similar claims of a hostile workplace by Allen when she was interviewed by outside lawyers conducting an investigation in March 2025. Clock, a former newspaper reporter, had perviously worked in communications departments at the County of San Diego, as well as the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District.
Michele Clock
The allegations of a toxic workplace caused by Allen were raised when the City Council was considering her appointment in September 2025, but the Council still voted unanimously to offer her the top job without advertising the open position or interviewing any other candidates.
