This culture came from the top': Ex-East Bay parks director files legal claim alleging retaliation, gender discrimination

"OAKLAND Ex-East Bay parks general manager Sabrina Landreth filed a scathing legal claim against her former employer this week, accusing her bosses of gender discrimination, nepotism and a pattern of illegal behavior that included wrongfully awarded contracts and secretly held board meetings."

"Taken together, the allegations paint a picture of an agency awash in hostility toward women, said Landreth's attorney, Bobby Shukla. This culture came from the top, and was maintained from the top, said Shukla, who is based in San Francisco. It was something very hard for her to try and change, and to not succumb to requests that she considered unlawful or unethical. But she didn't waver in her integrity."

"Landreth arrived at the agency in 2020, after five years as Oakland's city administrator. Her departure late last year came as a shock to many in the East Bay, particularly since she had just been awarded a five-year contract extension in 2024. In her legal claim which typically precedes the filing of a lawsuit Landreth suggested that the repeated reprisals left her no way to remain employed at the parks district, which oversees 73 parks and more than 1,300 miles of trails across Alameda and Contra Costa counties."

Sabrina Landreth filed a legal claim accusing the East Bay Regional Park District of gender discrimination, nepotism, retaliation, wrongfully awarded contracts and secretly held board meetings. Multiple board members were accused of retaliating against Landreth, often in response to her work addressing workplace harassment. An attorney for Landreth described a culture hostile toward women that originated and was maintained from the top and made resisting unlawful or unethical requests difficult. The district said it takes claims of harassment and discrimination seriously and declined to comment on pending litigation. Landreth joined the district in 2020 and resigned in early November after reprisals reportedly made continued employment untenable.

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