Two conflicting portrayals of suspended Mendocino County Auditor Chamise Cubbison emerged Thursday on the second day of testimony in a preliminary hearing on criminal charges against her and the county’s former Payroll Manager.
The hearing, scheduled for two days, continues next Tuesday. Its outcome will determine whether Superior Court Judge Ann Moorman orders the contentious case to trial or dismisses the felony charges as sought by defense attorneys for Cubbison and co-defendant Paula June Kennedy.
Current CEO Darcie Antle described Cubbison as “angry, abusive” and displaying a “confrontational tone” when she learned of the county administration’s plan to strip the Auditor’s Office of its payroll oversight. Antle said she felt threatened and so unsettled that she wrote her reactions days later.
“I thought she was less than professional,” testified Antle.
However, Sheriff’s Investigator Andrew Porter described Cubbison as calm and cooperative when the criminal probe was launched in 2022.
Porter said Cubbison met with him repeatedly during the early days of the investigation and explained how a disputed county pay code was involved. Porter said he initially interviewed Cubbison while she sat in his “pickup outside her office.”
However, Cubbison denied telling Kennedy to use it to cover the large number of hours the Payroll Manager was putting in during the Covid pandemic to meet payrolls, according to Porter.
Porter said he quickly learned that it was in fact Cubbison who triggered the criminal investigation by alerting the County Counsel’s Office of a Kennedy threat to quit and sue the county for payment of 390 hours of uncompensated work over a three-year period.
Porter said he originally obtained from Cubbison a spreadsheet Kennedy kept of the extra payments she made to herself that contained regular entries of “per Lloyd,” or “per Chamise.” Later, the county’s IT department provided him with a copy that had been retrieved from Kennedy’s computer files.
Cubbison attorney Chris Andrian, a noted Santa Rosa defense lawyer, grilled Antle about her involvement behind the scenes in events that led to criminal charges being filed and the subsequent takeover by the CEO office of the county payroll. Antle, sometimes, brushed aside questions, saying, “I wasn’t CEO then.”
Kennedy’s lawyer, Fredricco McCurry, a county Public Defender, sharply questioned Antle about county policies and procedures and how they compared to state and federal laws. He zeroed in on Antle’s earlier testimony that she feared the county might be breaking the law by allowing Kennedy to work so many hours to meet the county payroll single-handedly.
McCurry asked what might have happened had the county payroll not been done on time.
“1,200 employees would not have been paid,” responded Antle. McCurry then wanted to know what steps might have been taken and whether that included the possible termination of Kennedy.
Antle sidestepped the question by saying her likely first action would have been the development of a “performance improvement plan.”
At the end of two days of testimony, the Cubbison case appears so far to be one of “he said, she said, they said,” based on an earlier description by Andrian.
For the first time, however, the level of engagement of District Attorney David Eyster in political events preceding Cubbison’s arrest and criminal charging emerged in the ongoing criminal case. Until now, the DA’s role has been confined to documents on file in a parallel civil case Cubbison has filed against the county Board of Supervisors for denying her due process.
On Thursday, however, a recently disclosed private memo was cited, written by DA Eyster to a county supervisor advocating board members block Cubbison’s appointment in 2021 as interim Auditor.
The three-page Eyster memo includes details of a three-step plan where the DA secretly advocated for county supervisors to do away with an elected Auditor-Controller and an elected Treasurer-Tax Collector and merge the two offices into a single Department of Finance to be under the control of board members. Supervisors eventually did this, but their overall goal for control was thwarted when voters in 2022 elected Cubbison to lead the combined offices.
Antle acknowledged Thursday that her former boss Carmel Angelo had sent her and two other county administrators a copy of the Eyster memo the day before he showed up at a board meeting and publicly denounced Cubbison.
Antle deflected how seriously she and others in the CEO’s office took Eyster’s private email, saying he is “known for his strong opinions.”
Why Eyster publicly denounced Cubbison and blocked her interim appointment remains the subject of speculation but focuses on the DA’s reported vendetta against her because as retired Auditor Lloyd Weer’s chief assistant she had repeatedly questioned the DA office’s own spending practices.
Antle in other testimony Thursday reinforced a perception that Cubbison, and Weer before her, jealously guarded the Auditor’s Office independence.
Antle testified that Weer, while still in office, told the CEO’s office in “no uncertain terms” that he would fight to keep the county Auditor’s Office as the official watchdog of the county payroll.
During a later confrontation with Antle, Cubbison told her the CEO staff was too inexperienced to manage the complexities of the county payroll.
Special prosecutor Traci Carrillo, hired by Eyster to take the Cubbison case to trial, aimed at showing felony criminal intent on the part of Cubbison and Kennedy. Any confirmation is yet to be made.
Porter will testify about specific details when the hearing resumes next week.
Cubbison chose to fight the felony charge rather than accept an early Eyster offer to reduce it to a misdemeanor if she resigned.
We the people must figure out how to impeach Eyster before he has the dignity of retiring.
It only takes 15% of the voters in Mendo to start the process.
Disgusting behavior on all levels of Mendocino County upper management. CEO Darcie you should be ashamed of yourself. DA you flat out lied and tried to manipulate a court case in an email not circulated to all involved. That is a chargeable offense there Mr Eyster. Mendocino County management is very adept at making people look like they are the ones that are the problem. The little tactic of say one is not professional and became angry is often said by the vapid souls walking around the office halls between their bonbons sessions. Talking about the little people below them and there “ridiculous” problems. They present themselves as coated in diamonds and flawless. That email shows a little bit of the truth. I hope our judge is not intimidated by Eyster to not act on that. His demeanor can prevent those below from speaking truths. All of us peons below Mendocino County management must remember the queen does not poop. You must not speak of truth. Smoke n mirrors, glossy 5x7s witty , snotty comments welcome to Mendo Government culture..
You nailed it when you wrote that calling someone angry and unprofessional is an often-used tactic by elected officials (and others) to avoid legitimate criticism. I grew weary when on the Fort Bragg hospital board not only of this tactic but the empty calls for collaboration when confronting the hospital’s problems was needed. Same for the County. The BOS use their precious “collaboration” to avoid staking out unpopular positions.
Angry and abusive are also used to describe any woman talking above a demure ,diminutive and self depricative tone.
Disgusting behavior on all levels of Mendocino County upper management. CEO Darcie you should be ashamed of yourself. DA you flat out lied and tried to manipulate a court case in an email not circulated to all involved. That is a chargeable offense there Mr Eyster. Mendocino County management is very adept at making people look like they are the ones that are the problem. The little tactic of say one is not professional and became angry is often said by the vapid souls walking around the office halls between their bonbons sessions. Talking about the little people below them and their “ridiculous” problems. They present themselves as coated in diamonds and flawless. That email shows a little bit of the truth. I hope our judge is not intimidated by Eyster to not act on that. His demeanor can prevent those below from speaking truths. All of us peons below Mendocino County management must remember the queen does not poop. You must not speak of truth. Smoke n mirrors, glossy 5x7s witty , snotty comments welcome to Mendo Government culture..
This is definitely political and the DA should not even have a job at this time. He’s twisted and corrupt and should never been allowed to stay in office. I don’t think that the board of supervisor should go against the voters about this. He has hung this woman out to drive for something that she did not do except catch him trying to steal money. That’s one of the most corrupt things I’ve ever seen and we sure don’t need it here in many single County anymore!
Why hasn’t Carmel Angelo been called back and put under oath?
It is illegal to fire an employee for allegations or even charges of unlawful conduct, much less an elected official, without due process of the law. DUH, like no county employee has ever been arrested before? Ask any county counsel or HR director. You put the employee on “admin leave” or its unlawful termination. This is so just so corrupt. I don’t want to pay taxes anymore for this corruption.
The ceos office should be investigated. Biggest waste of tax money is in the ceo office
“Mendocino County management is very adept at making people look like they are the ones that are the problem” very well said. Darcie discribing Cubbison as “angry, abusive” and displaying a “confrontational tone” “I thought she was less than professional,” this is Mendo county managment tactics 101.