SACRAMENTO — As allegations of rampant sexual harassment and assault roil the state Capitol, an Assembly panel on Tuesday heard powerful testimony about the devastating consequences of sexual misconduct as well as searing criticism of the Legislature’s handling of such allegations — including its failure to identify serial predators.

“We have a whisper network — you all know it,” said Christine Pelosi, who heads the California Democratic Party Women’s Caucus. “Because what everybody here knows is that we have rapists in this building. We have molesters among us.”

In a packed hearing room, the Assembly Rules Subcommittee on Harassment, Discrimination and Retaliation Prevention and Response lobbed pointed questions at a panel of human resources staffers. They asked why confirmed cases of harassment are kept secret and why the Assembly does not track key information — even the number of complaints involving current lawmakers.

“How many complaints in totality have been made since you’ve been in your position?” Assemblyman Vince Fong, R-Bakersfield, asked Debra Gravert, the Assembly’s chief administrative officer.

“We do not track complaints,” Gravert responded. “We only track investigations.”

“Isn’t that problematic — that we don’t track complaints?” Fong asked.

“It’s a valid point,” Gravert said.

The hearing came the day after San Fernando Valley Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra — a Democrat accused by seven women of groping and other unwanted advances, allegations reported last week in the Los Angeles Times — announced his immediate resignation.

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Ex-cheerleader says NFL team owner Dan Snyder sexually harassed her Also on Monday, Sen. Tony Mendoza, a married father of four, was removed from his post as chairman of the powerful banking and insurance committee amid an investigation into complaints of inappropriate conduct with young interns in his office.

One of the Los Angeles County Democrat’s former interns, Jennifer Kwart, testified Tuesday.

“I just felt very alone,” she said. Interns and volunteers, she said, “should be given very clear contact information about who to talk to should they be put in an inappropriate situation and don’t feel comfortable going to their supervisor.”

Kwart, who now works for San Francisco Assemblyman David Chiu, told the Sacramento Bee that Mendoza picked her up from Mineta San Jose International Airport and brought her to his mini-bar suite in a downtown hotel on the way to a Democratic Party convention at the McEnery San Jose Convention Center in 2008. At the time, she was just 19.

She said he asked her about ex-boyfriends and her taste in men and made a statement in the elevator that made her believe he expected that they would have sex that night. She said she later called her mom, asked her to book an early flight home and stayed inside her hotel room for the rest of the night to avoid a physical advance.

Mendoza has denied any wrongdoing.

Also testifying was Pamela Lopez, a 35-year-old lobbyist who told the New York Times and other news outlets that a current lawmaker trapped her in a bar bathroom and masturbated in front of her. She has not named him.

It wasn’t the first sexual assault of her political career, she said, recalling the panic attacks and crushing anxiety she experienced in her 20s when she was new to politics.

“We are severely traumatized because we are so aware of how powerless we are,” she said. “At 23, I didn’t have any connections or relationships. It was easy to get rid of me if somebody wanted to do that.”

Allegations against Bocanegra and Mendoza have emerged since the October launch of We Said Enough, an anti-sexual-harassment campaign led by female lobbyists and legislative staffers in Sacramento and other statehouses. Campaign organizers have repeatedly stressed, however, that their aim is to change the culture — and the reporting and investigative protocols — of the Capitol and to better protect accusers from retaliation.

“Unfortunately, eliminating one or two bad actors does not change the environment,” they said in a joint statement Monday. “We need systemic change.”

The Legislature must change a culture that “for far too long has been silent and protective of people who use their positions of power to prey on others,” Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, a Glendale Democrat who chairs the subcommittee, said in her opening remarks.

Friedman recommended creating a confidential hotline to connect victims of harassment to counseling and legal advice. She also said it was “unacceptable” that each house has a different process for investigating complaints.

“We should have a bicameral process moving forward with our colleagues in the Senate so we set something up that is easy to navigate,” she said, so “that we have one path to justice for everybody.”

Assembly Rules Committee Chairman Ken Cooley drew a few wry chuckles when he noted that the Assembly has a “zero tolerance” policy for sexual harassment.

But he quickly added that how the rules “play out in the real world” must be examined too.

“I view this as a situation where, on behalf of the institution,” he said, “there’s no need to circle the wagons.”

Friedman agreed.

“I am deeply committed to make sure this isn’t just about talk,” she said. “This is going to start changing now.”