The departed top administrator of the East Bay Regional Park District has filed a sweeping legal claim against her former employer, alleging that several elected officials retaliated against her after she pursued harassment complaints, and that they engaged in repeated “unlawful conduct” that included nepotism and steering public contracts to favored consultants.
Sabrina Landreth resigned as general manager in November, accusing the board of failing to exercise “appropriate governance” and operating “without adequate checks and balances.” It marked a tumultuous end to her four-year tenure overseeing the district’s 73 parks and 126,000 acres of open space across Alameda and Contra Costa counties and bills itself as the largest regional park system in the country.
Tensions had been building for months before Landreth’s departure. During public meetings, some directors accused her of acting unilaterally and without sufficient board input on a number of decisions, from moving forward with a staff reorganization to hiring a new board clerk. Landreth, a former Oakland city manager, countered that she was attempting to professionalize district operations…