Shelley's staffers call him abusive - complaints filed

[Kadie]

Shelley's staffers call him abusive

Written complaints filed on the secretary of state.

By Gary Delsohn and Herbert A. Sample -- Bee Staff Writers
Published 2:15 am PDT Saturday, August 21, 2004

Current and former employees of Secretary of State Kevin Shelley say he is a verbally abusive boss whose behavior is undermining the morale and productivity of his office, according to interviews and "incident" reports obtained this week by The Bee.

At least three women in the office who have worked closely with Shelley have filed written complaints claiming he attacked them verbally with little provocation, exhibiting the same kind of volatile behavior that led him to seek help with anger management as a state assemblyman in 1998.

"The environment of Kevin Shelley's office is a pressure cooker," said Dave Burke, a San Francisco advance man fired in May after just seven weeks on the job. "The main focus of almost all the employees who deal with Kevin directly is to make sure he doesn't go off."

Burke, one of several former employees interviewed who didn't last long in Shelley's employ, said Shelley unleashed a torrent of profanities at him during a trip to Washington, D.C. He said he was fired by Shelley's chief deputy in May after telling the secretary of state he had no right to belittle him.

more...
http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/ca/story/10454592p-11374046c.html


Seems like there has been one story after another about this guy since he stood up to the electronic voting issue. :tinfoilhat:

[GAspnes]

1. It's amazing what you can find when you go looking

I've worked for verbally abusive bosses. They can have a very productive organization and be very bright personally, but I didn't hang around long enough to find out.

[bo44]

2. Has been singled out for intense scrutiny?

I am of the belief that all pols have some kind of dirt under a pile in their closet. What has Shelley done to deserve almost daily front page news in the SF Chronicle? Is he a control freak asshole as the article suggests? Is someone getting even?

[sang froid]

4. Shelley took a swipe at Diebold, Bush's croney

Shelley was the first to decertify electronic voting machines (and banned Diebold's altogether). That cost Diebold a tidy sum. Plus it added credence to the uproar across the country, costing them even more.

diebold and their friends at Justice are pouncing all over this big time. Shelley has also made his fair share of enemies -- at the SF Chronicle and elsewhere... but there is definitely a partisan edge to it all. The Repugs want to focus on a bad Democrat -- he's a great big target: a constitutional officer in a huge Democratic state... that's paydirt. We'll hear more and more and more about all this.

[davidinalameda]

3. Shelley is pretty much toast

which is a shame--I always liked him

he won't run for re-election