April 14, 2022
It is with a heavy heart that we speak out against the failures of the California Legislature to appropriately address sexual harassment as illustrated by the horrific experience from one of our own board members.
Today, the San Francisco Chronicle published two articles on the California Legislature’s failure to protect sexual harassment victims in their own reporting and investigative processes. In her editorial piece, SFWPC PAC Co-Chair Ruth Ferguson bravely tells her story of sexual harassment perpetrated by her supervisor and the abuse she suffered after she reported the harassment to the California Legislature’s Workplace Conduct Unit (WCU). The Chronicle also published their own investigation into the practices of the WCU.
Ruth’s experience is not an isolated event. Harassment, discrimination and retaliation have continued to go unchecked within the California Legislature well past Sacramento’s 2017 #MeToo reckoning due to its failure to institute meaningful practices of oversight, transparency and accountability, to address inappropriate behavior and protect survivors and vulnerable staffers. Undue delays in the form of months and years, denigrating and retaliatory treatment of reporting employees, and failure to discipline or terminate abusers are all methods the California Legislature uses to undermine and dismiss serious allegations of harassment, retaliation, and discrimination. The California Legislature’s reaction to these complaints is disheartening and appalling in light of recent legislation to protect those of who have been subject to a hostile work environment. It seems the California Legislature only protects those who do not work for them.
SFWPC supports the employees of the California Legislature who have reported harassment, retaliation and discrimination and/or who have been subject to abusive practices of the WCU. We agree with the solutions Ruth outlined in her editorial piece: oversight and transparency are the immediate first steps to addressing this institutional crisis. To accomplish this, SFWPC has the following calls-to-action to address harassment, intimidation and retaliation in the state legislature:
- Investigate the failures of the WCU. Call upon the California Legislature to investigate, reorganize and restaff the WCU to prevent failures like the one Ruth experienced. The public deserves a transparent and impartial investigation, free from legislative interference, into the WCU and the California Legislature’s practices. It is clear that while the WCU was set up to address sexual assault and harassment in the legislature, it has clearly failed to fulfill its mission. This is unacceptable and the state legislature needs to address these failures in a system that is centered on survivors and those facing harassment rather than a system that protects the legislature.
- Demand transparency. Echo Ruth’s call to amend the Legislative Open Records Act to increase much needed transparency around these issues.
- Those in power need to speak up. We call upon our local officials, including our state delegation from San Francisco, Mayor, and our Board of Supervisors to support Ruth and SFWPC’s efforts in preventing and addressing workplace harassment, retaliation and discrimination in the California Legislature. Do not excuse abusive behavior by staying silent now.
We are disappointed at the elected leaders and caucuses who pay lip service to championing survivors and women but have failed to hold their friends, colleagues and staffers accountable. Challenging the status quo and taking on a broken system is never easy, but it is easier for those with clout and power. It is all of our responsibility to ensure these leaders and groups use their power and platform to do what is right.
UPDATE: Thank you to all elected officials, organizations, and community members who spoke out in support of Ruth and our proposed reforms!
Elected Officials Support: Rafael Mandelman, Hillary Ronen, Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, Alan Wong, David Chiu, David Campos, Scott Wiener, Myrna Melgar, Ahsha Safai, Catherine Stefani, Gordon Mar, Dean Preston, Connie Chan, Aaron Peskin, Matt Haney, Lara Korte, Bilal Mahmood, Shamann Walton, Christine Pelosi
Organization Support: California Women’s List and United Democratic Club, San Francisco Young Democrats, National Women’s Political Caucus Silicon Valley, Latinx Democratic Club
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