8 on Legislator’s Staff Quit, Sources Say

Half of Assemblywoman Audie Bock’s staff reportedly quit this week after an argument that prompted a visit from California Highway Patrol officers.

Bock, whose 1999 election from Piedmont made her the Green Party’s highest-ranking U.S. officeholder, met with nine employees last week who complained of an abusive workplace, said a source in her office who spoke on condition of anonymity. The employees blamed managers in the legislator’s Sacramento and Oakland offices, the source said.

The CHP, which is responsible for security in state buildings, went to Bock’s Oakland office May 12 after receiving a report of a verbal altercation, CHP spokeswoman Maggie Magner said.

“We determined it was an internal office dispute, and we didn’t get involved,” she said.

A total of eight staff members in the two offices quit Monday after Bock failed to respond to their concerns, said a former employee from the Oakland office, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

CHP officers accompanied the employees while they cleaned out their desks, Magner said.

Bock, who left the Green Party last fall, declined to comment Friday and said she could not respond to statements by sources who would not allow their names to be used.