The following is an opinion editorial piece by our frequent contributor Mike Geniella. Remember opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect that of MendoFever.
The irony of it all.
Chamise Cubbison did the responsible thing in February 2020 by seeking a legal opinion from the county’s high-priced outside attorney about DA Dave Eyster and his disputed spending practices.
Cubbison, then Assistant County Auditor, warned Morin Jacob, managing partner of the San Francisco law firm of Liebert Cassidy Whitmore, that long-standing issues with the DA had become more contentious.
Cubbison specifically cited the DA claims for reimbursement for a Broiler Steak House dinner that he hosted for 42 staff members and 25 guests. He had labeled the post-holiday gathering a “training session” and insisted the auditor’s office use state asset forfeiture funds to cover the $2,345 cost. Typically, the money seized from criminal-related activities is used for drug and crime prevention programs including law enforcement training.
It was clear in her letter to Jacob that Cubbison was seeking advice on how to deal with a DA who had waged a decade long battle with the Auditor’s Office over use of asset forfeiture funds, travel reimbursements, and now a so-called evening training session at a popular local steak house.
Cubbison went so far as to tell Jacob that her office had even suggested language the DA could add to some claims which would expedite processing “but the DA refused to consider those suggestions.”
“In nearly all the cases, the response is that the CEO has authorized an exemption, that the DA is an elected constitutional officer, and the Auditor is trying to limit the DA’s budgetary authority, or that asset forfeiture funds are non-county monies and not subject to county policy,” Cubbison wrote.
Eyster had earlier succeeded in winning a special exemption to spending documentation requirements from former CEO Carmel Angelo in his bid to get around questioning by the Auditor’s Office.
Then when former Auditor Lloyd Weer retired, and recommended that Cubbison be named his successor, the DA took the unprecedented step of vehemently opposing her appointment, declaring she was unqualified. He also supported a move by the Board of Supervisors to consolidate two independent county offices lead by elected officials to oversee the county finances: the Auditor/Controller and the Treasurer/Tax Collector. The board’s intention is to eventually abolish both offices and create a new Department of Finance more closely aligned with county administrators.
Jacob in her response to Cubbison’s request for help provided no clarity.
Jacob opined that the Auditor/Controller does not have ‘general authority’ to require the DA to comply with county policies but then wrote that the office does have “authority, however, to not reimburse claims and can deny claims for purchase of goods or services that are not in conformity with existing county policies.”
Jacob went on: “The District Attorney may use asset forfeiture funds that may fall outside of conformity with county policies but subject to the guidelines outlined by Government Code 11489.”
Jacob conceded that the DA may have to obtain travel authorizations but only for those that are not related to a case, and either involve travel outside of California or are over $1,000.
In short, instead of clarity that Cubbison clearly sought, Jacob had obfuscated the issues between the Auditor’s Office and the district attorney.
Fast forward three years and it is again Jacob who is center stage in the determination whether the Board of Supervisors could immediately suspend the embattled Auditor without pay before she has even been arraigned and a plea entered to the felony criminal charge Eyster filed against her in mid-October.
Jacob said yes, she could be immediately suspended, and then belatedly offered Cubbison an opportunity to appear before the board two weeks after the fact.
Cubbison attorney Chris Andrian ripped the board, and Jacob, for denying his client due process. He warned civil litigation challenging the board’s action was likely.
There are no surprises here.
Board members, the CEO’s office, and the DA were all aware of the questions Cubbison as assistant auditor, and others before her, had raised about questionable spending practices and reimbursement requests from the District Attorney’s Office since Eyster assumed took over in January 2011.
Yet Cubbison is the elected official who ended up with a serious criminal charge filed against her, and who got sandbagged without a hearing, or the opportunity to publicly defend herself at the time the board acted without notice.
Her reputation is in tatters after 16 years of county service. Cubbison was recruited from the county Transportation Department to work in the Auditor’s Office because of her hard work and expertise.
Cubbison for her part set aside her differences three years ago with the District Attorney and sought legal advice in a bid to clear the air. He chose to wage a vendetta and solicited the county’s CEO and board members to assist.
Cubbison should be praised not condemned for showing responsibility to county taxpayers as a veteran employee and elected official.
Yes, maybe Cubbison is stubborn, difficult, and not easy to work with, according to members of the county’s entrenched bureaucracy.
So what? She is, after all, an auditor.
DA Eyster likes to defend his sometimes bully boy behavior by declaring the public wants a “tough prosecutor.”
Perhaps the blowback from the Cubbison case suggests the public favors an equally tough, no-nonsense auditor too.
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Eyster, like The Broiler, is from a different Era. One where steak and booze is good for you and where women don’t need to bother their empty heads with accountability, just jail her when the hysterical woman points out your wrongs.
I’m wondering if this work party of Eyster’s involved everyone driving home intoxicated, or did he call cabs and dds?
The hypocrisy is infinite and the public is done.
Dirty Dave. No other way to put it.
Mendocino County is in a Doom Loop inside the Doom Loop of California. Check out all the news laws and regulations going into effect on January 1, 2024 and despair.
Mendo has a leadership quality crisis. Both of these influential people are hypocrites, to say the least, and are likely both misusing their positions of authority to make life in Mendo worse than it needs to be. If both loss their jobs after this fiasco, that would be justice.