County Pays $1.5 Million to Settle Cubbison Civil Case

The settlement represents about half of the potential monetary damages that Chamise Cubbison might have obtained had she continued her legal challenge

Chamise Cubbison (Photo courtesy of Mendocino County Employees Retirement Association)

Mendocino County supervisors are paying $1.5 million to settle civil litigation with former county Auditor Chamise Cubbison, according to newly obtained documents.

The board’s agreement was reached weeks ago but kept concealed until disclosure of the settlement was obtained this week under a Public Records Act request.

A key document bearing the signature of chair Bernie Norvell of the Board of Supervisors is dated Feb. 16, according to the records disclosed. Earlier, on Feb. 10, Cubbison attorney Therese Cannata and Morin Jacob, the county’s lawyer, signed a document approving the form of the agreement.

Why the settlement has been kept secret so long remains a mystery.

No one at the county level, including Norvell, or the county’s outside attorney involved in the Cubbison case, responded to requests Thursday for comment.

Nor did District Attorney David Eyster who was a key participant in events that led to the Cubbison civil litigation after his disputed efforts to criminally prosecute Cubbison collapsed on Feb. 25, 2025, when his felony case accusing her of misuse of public funds was dismissed in Superior Court.

The settlement represents about half of the potential monetary damage that Cubbison might have obtained had she continued her legal challenge, according to knowledgeable civil attorneys.

Cubbison reportedly agreed to settle because she is ready to move onto to her new job as newly elected county Treasurer / Tax Collector, and end years of upheaval in her career after being targeted by Eyster.

Cubbison attorney Therese Cannata said Thursday that Cubbison is “pleased and grateful to have reached a settlement with Mendocino County and conclude this long and difficult chapter in her life.”

“Speaking for her entire legal team, we were honored for the opportunity to serve Ms. Cubbison,” said Cannata. She is a noted lawyer who has obtained statewide recognition for representing management-level public employees.

Morin Jacob, the managing partner of the San Francisco law firm of Liebert Cassidy Whitmore retained by the county as an outside attorney, did not return written requests for comment. Jacob was instrumental in advising the board in 2023 that it could suspend Cubbison as auditor without pay or benefits based on DA Eyster’s move to criminally charge her.

Eyster’s action, laced with backroom political intrigue, stemmed from a hotly disputed case involving overtime pay in the Auditor’s Office during the Covid pandemic. At issue then was $68,000 paid to former county Payroll Manager Paula June Kennedy for extra hours. Eyster claimed Cubbison had authorized use of a “secret pay code” but testimony during a criminal preliminary hearing revealed the payments were not hidden, and that current and past county officials knew about them.

Judge Ann Moorman, who presided over the criminal case, found that there was no criminal intent on the part of Kennedy or Cubbison.

Court records show that on April 17 the Cubbison civil case was formally dismissed by Moorman at the request of attorneys on both sides. Earlier, on Jan. 9, a trial date was vacated because the case had been ‘settled,’ according to court documents.

County officials still have not publicly acknowledged the outcome of a contentious case that rocked the county administrative center and triggered a political brouhaha that engulfed the county board.

Cubbison in October 2023 was abruptly suspended without pay from office and had to hire a noted Sonoma County defense attorney to defend her against Eyster’s criminal allegations.

The DA later hired an outside prosecutor at a cost to local taxpayers of about $200,000 to take the case to court. The county board meanwhile authorized about $400,000 to cover its defense costs stemming from the subsequent civil litigation.

In total, the Cubbison affair has publicly cost $2 million or more. The $1.5 million settlement “is intended as a full and final resolution by the parties to this agreement of the claims and the action,” according to the newly released documents.

A significant portion of the Cubbison settlement will go towards covering 17 months of missed retirement contributions when she was suspended from her job as elected Auditor.

It provides that $143,573 be directly paid by the county to the Mendocino County Employees Retirement Association to be credited to Cubbison’s retirement account to ensure she received full credit for the pay periods falling between Oct. 14, 2023, and Feb. 25, 2025, when she was suspended without pay.

The remaining $1,356,426 will be considered settlement of alleged personal damages and reimbursement of her attorney fees and costs, according to the document.

The settlement was entered “with the understanding that it is the result of a compromise of disputed claims and shall never at any time for any purpose be considered an admission of the truth of any of the allegations, claims, or contributions made by any party against any of the other parties.”

Cubbison returned to work in February 2025 in the Auditor’s Office the day after criminal charges were dismissed against her.

Cubbison pushed for a return of independent offices for Auditor-Controller and Treasurer-Tax Collector, which had been forcibly combined by the Board of Supervisors over public objections. In the background, some county supervisors and DA Eyster, were advocating eliminating the two offices overseen by elected officials and creating a new Department of Finance instead.

Board advocates wanted control of the two key county financial offices. Eyster resisted challenges by Cubbison and past auditors over his office spending practices, including hosting annual staff parties at a local steak house. County policies ban such gatherings.

The Board of Supervisors this past Tuesday approved making the two key county financial offices officially separate again as of July 5.

Cubbison, a veteran county employee, that same day was elected by voters to become the county’s new Treasurer /Tax Collector. The board appointed her as interim head until she is formally sworn in next January.

Megan Hunter, a Cubbison assistant in the Auditor’s Office, has been appointed interim Auditor/Controller until January, when she assumes leadership of that office after running unopposed in Tuesday’s primary election.