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Nearly a year’s worth of legal dispute between East Bay Regional Park District and its former general manager has reached an apex, with Sabrina Landreth filing a lawsuit this month over her abrupt departure from the public agency late last year.
Landreth, formerly city administrator in Oakland and city manager in Emeryville before leading EBRPD for more than four years, accuses the park district and its Board of Directors of whistleblower retaliation, gender-based discrimination and violation of the California Equal Pay Act, among her five causes of action.
“The retaliatory conduct also included subjecting Plaintiff to a pretextual performance review process designed to manufacture false allegations of bad performance, to undermine her accomplishments at the District and her professional experience otherwise,” Landreth’s attorney, P. Bobby Shukla, wrote in a civil complaint filed in Alameda County Superior Court on Sept. 4.
“The course of retaliatory conduct was intentionally designed to create working conditions that were so intolerable that a reasonable person in Plaintiff’s position had no reasonable alternative except to resign,” Shukla said, adding that the objectionable actions included board members pressuring Landreth to engage in unlawful conduct.
EBRPD has not yet responded to the lawsuit in court, but a spokesperson offered a comment on behalf of the district when contacted by the Pleasanton Weekly.
“The Park District Board remains focused on serving the public, protecting the extraordinary parks and open spaces that define the East Bay, and strengthening the Park District for the future,” the district stated. “We have strong confidence in the leadership team guiding the organization and in its ability to carry forward the Park District’s mission, values, and long-term vision.”
“While the claims by the former general manager move through the appropriate process, the Board is confident the matter will be handled responsibly and effectively,” the statement concluded.
The two sides are scheduled for their first court appearance on April 13 at 2:30 p.m. in Department 16 of the René C. Davidson Courthouse in Oakland.
Landreth – whose representation did not respond to a request for comment by Monday morning – seeks compensatory damages, attorneys fees and costs of the lawsuit, declaratory and injunctive relief ordered by the court, civil penalties, and unpaid wages, interest and liquidated damages.
Joining EBRPD as general manager in March 2021, becoming the first woman to ever hold the post in the history of the agency that touts itself as the largest regional park district in the United States, Landreth worked for more than three years without internal strife and “stellar” performance reviews until problems began to arise in the time after the 2024 election, according to her lawsuit.
After responding to complaints from female staff against two board directors in December 2024 and January 2025, Landreth alleges a pattern of retaliatory conduct ensued for more than a year and half that left her no realistic choice but to resign in the prime of her career.
She stepped down suddenly on Nov. 6, 2025 – two days after her performance evaluation was a key subject on the board’s closed-session agenda. Her resignation took formal effect in February, while Landreth took paid time off and did not work for the district in interim.
Landreth filed a tort claim with the district on Feb. 11, after her employment officially ended, which laid out many of her initial allegations against EBRPD. The board rejected the claim on March 26, according to her lawsuit. She’s also filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department.
The former general manager alleges that her relationship with the board began to deteriorate after she received – and acted upon – complaints from female employees claiming board directors Colin Coffey and Dennis Waespi harassed and bullied them while treating male employees more favorably.
After Landreth moved to provide training to directors in March 2025, Coffey and Waespi conspired with a majority of the board to retaliate against her, according to the lawsuit. That group included Director John Mercurio, whose ward includes the San Ramon Valley, and Director Olivia Sanwong, who represents Pleasanton, Livermore and Dublin.
Landreth’s laundry list of allegations includes the directors refusing to meet with her individually, ignoring her emails, making false claims about her performance, openly laughing when she spoke and treating her “with open hostility” in public meetings and closed sessions.
Coffey and Waespi both denied the accusations when interviewed by the Pleasanton Weekly in February after Landreth lodged her tort claim.
“I believe what is happening is that Ms. Landreth, now an obviously disgruntled former employee, is seeking to monetize what is otherwise an uncompensated voluntary resignation. To do so she is grasping at the proverbial straws,” Coffey said at the time.
“I’m surprised by the allegations that she’s made against the district and some of my colleagues and myself,” Waespi told the Weekly in February. “I deny any of the accusations of gender bias and retaliation, and being that it’s an act of legal matter, I really can’t comment on specific allegations at this time.”
Landreth also accuses the board of retaliating against her for failing to engage in unlawful conduct, such as awarding large contracts outside of the required legal process, directly hiring the board’s preferred candidate for clerk of the board, violating the Brown Act, engaging in nepotism and providing gifts to public officials such as helicopter ridealongs.
Other items on her list of 14 alleged illegal actions demanded of her by directors were providing public money to the “Bay Area Backroads” TV program outside of any procurement process and “redirecting public resources for political purposes in the Tri-Valley to support a Board member’s reelection campaign”.
The lawsuit further alleges 17 examples of gender-based harassment and discrimination, including that she got paid less than her predecessor Robert Doyle despite her more relevant experience leading large public agencies. The catalog also highlights phrases like “go check with the boys”, “macho men”, “only women should be gardeners” and “slow down this work in DEI”.
Landreth claims Mercurio selected a less qualified, cheaper consultant to facilitate her 2025 performance evaluation that generated a number of criticisms and complaints about her that she was never allowed to see.
Following her Nov. 4, 2025 evaluation in closed session, it became clear to Landreth that a board majority “had already determined to remove her from her position without affording her a fair process”, so she resigned, according to the lawsuit.
Her 16-page civil complaint, which demands a jury trial, hinges on five causes of action: discrimination based on gender, retaliation, failure to prevent discrimination or retaliation, whistleblower retaliation and violation of the California Equal Pay Act.
“Plaintiff has suffered and continues to suffer severe emotional distress, including loss of sleep, elevated stress, and difficulty concentrating, as well as damage to her professional reputation, which is central to her career as a public-sector executive,” Shukla wrote in the suit.
“Plaintiff was approximately 49 years old at the time of her constructive discharge, with a reasonable expectation of continuing to work in public service for at least another fifteen to twenty years. Defendant’s conduct has jeopardized her future earnings and public pension,” the attorney added.
