New Documents Show Disputed Extra Pay Was Disclosed To County Administrators

For months serious criminal accusations have hung over the heads of elected Mendocino County’s Auditor Chamise Cubbison and former County Payroll Manager Paula June ‘P.J.’ Kennedy after District Attorney David Eyster filed felony charges of misappropriation of public funds 17 months ago.

There were public claims that vigilant County administrators led by CEO Darcie Antle had tipped law enforcement to the fact that Kennedy secretly drew about an $68,000 in pay over three years during the Covid pandemic by using a mysterious “470” county payroll code. Antle was credited with alerting the DA to an unauthorized pay scheme Cubbison and Kennedy allegedly had worked out.

After DA Eyster formally charged Cubbison, the County Board of Supervisors swiftly suspended Cubbison without pay and benefits, and publicly touted that it had acted to “protect” the county’s finances.

Those claims were shattered Monday in yet another dramatic turn in the Cubbison criminal case, however.

When the preliminary hearing resumed Monday after a month-long break, the court unexpectedly learned that the DA’s chief investigator last week had turned over “exculpatory” evidence.

It showed in fact the extra pay for Kennedy for three years had been routinely included in twice-monthly payroll reports that were automatically distributed to top county administrators, including Antle and her staff.

The specific information also had been sent to the County’s Human Resources Manager, who had earlier testified she didn’t even know what the 470 code was. The county code is one of dozens and typically used to label miscellaneous expenses.

The regular reports citing Kennedy’s extra pay also had been distributed for two years to former Auditor Lloyd Weer before he retired in 2021. Weer claimed during earlier testimony that he never authorized any extra pay for Kennedy while he was still in charge of the office, and that he was unaware she had been including it in her check.

The disclosure of the documents’ existence on Monday clearly displeased Superior Court Judge Ann Moorman.

Moorman called the documents “important” in the face of testimony that suggested secrecy surrounding the Kennedy extra pay was made in a covert manner.

“Willful ignorance will not be tolerated by this court,” declared Moorman.

Moorman said she would now have to look differently at the earlier testimonies of Weer and Cherie Johnson, the county’s Human Resources manager. Both had claimed to be unaware of the 470 code payments, as did Antle.

Moorman ordered the county’s IT department to produce copies of the regular reports that Weer, Antle, Johnson and other County officials regularly received, as well as “any member of the Board of Supervisors.”

The fact that earlier in the criminal proceedings significant time had been spent on thousands of missing county emails because of the collapse of an archival system also seemed to be on Moorman’s mind. The judge reminded participants that she had taken the extraordinary step of bringing in a special master to review for relevancy hundreds of emails that eventually were retrieved.

“Even with those steps, what was presented today was not discovered,” said Moorman.

Moorman paused, and then said again, “Willful ignorance will not be tolerated by this court.”

The hearing resumes at 10 a.m. today.

The outcome will determine if Cubbison and Kennedy will be ordered to stand trial, or whether Moorman will rule favorably on pending defense motions to dismiss the case.

Monday’s disclosure of the retrieved payroll reports dramatically shifted the focus of the preliminary hearing.

Until now, it has been a plodding examination of county payroll procedures and the extraordinary amount of time everyone agreed that Kennedy had put in processing a payroll for 1,200 county employees during the covid interlude.

The extra work came at a time when the Auditor’s Office was being buffeted by pandemic stresses, a faulty computer system, and board plans to forcibly merge the Auditor’s office with the Treasurer-Tax Collector, the second of the county’s two key finance offices to be led by an elected official.

CEO Antle was expected to resume her testimony when Monday’s preliminary hearing renewed, but instead Andrew Alvarado, Eyster’s chief investigator, was called by Cubbison defense attorney Chris Andrian to explain how prosecutors learned of the payroll reports.

Alvarado was followed by deputy County Counsel Brina Blanton who attempted to explain how her office had overlooked the reports. Blanton was followed by IT Manager/Deputy CEO Tony Rakes who attempted to explain why the reports didn’t surface during earlier searches.

On Moorman’s instructions, Rakes produced samples of the reports during an IT examination during the lunch hour.

Moorman directed that at today’s hearing she expects to have specific records submitted for six county officials including Antle, Weer, and Johnson, the Human Resources Manager.