April 16, 2025 8: 44 a.m. — our story was updated with a paragraph explaining the costs the county incurred in prosecuting a criminal case against Chamise Cubbison and Paula Kennedy that was found by a judge to have no merit.
Mendocino County Chief Executive Darcy Antle opened the first of several public budget listening sessions on Tuesday, inviting residents to weigh in on spending priorities and potential cuts for the coming fiscal year. The Fort Bragg meeting quickly became a forum for public frustration, with calls for accountability and structural reform.
Coastal residents identified deteriorating roads and a lack of equitable funding for spay and neuter programs as pressing needs. But when it came to budget cuts, some said the most wasteful spending had already occurred — specifically, the county’s expensive criminal prosecution of elected official Chamise Cubbison, who was ultimately vindicated.
“The CEO is an at-will employee and she is part of the problem,” said Jean Arnold, referencing Antle. She and others placed significant blame on District Attorney David Eyster, accusing him of draining county resources with what they described as a politically motivated prosecution.
“DA Eyster’s salary is a county expense, and he’s effectively defunded numerous programs with the oncoming expense of this litigation,” said Steve Kaspar. As of December 2024, the cost of paying outside law firms to work on the Cubbison prosecution was more than $119,000. The sum did not include the time spent by county employees — members of the district attorneys office, the sheriff's office and the chief executive office — who all spent many hours attempting to a build an unusual criminal case against the elected official and her employee. It did not include the cost of a arguing a motion to dismiss and the cost of the preliminary hearing. Furthermore, it did not include the amount that Cubbison and Kennedy were forced to spend defending themselves — or the cost the county will have to pay damages in the civil suit they have brought against the county.
Jacob Patterson called for Antle’s replacement with a neutral restructuring expert from outside the county organization.
Supervisor Ted Williams, who has previously advocated for a “clean start” in county leadership, defended Antle’s office. “I think you have a team that’s been trying to [build efficiency],” he said. “It’s really hard. Every little incremental change is faced with opposition.”
The public outcry over the Cubbison case has intensified in recent weeks, spilling over from a Board of Supervisors meeting last week into the listening session on Tuesday.
At the board of supervisor’s meeting, Bill Barksdale, a local resident, called the DA “an abuser of taxpayer money” and demanded his termination, citing his office’s “lavish banquets” and prosecution of Cubbison and her colleague Paula Kennedy.
Public concern has also reignited debate over a structural change Eyster previously supported — the consolidation of the auditor-controller and treasurer-tax collector roles. A coalition of local organizations, including the Mendocino County Farm Bureau, the Mendocino Women’s Political Coalition, and the Mendocino County Democratic Central Committee, has sponsored a change.org petition requesting the board to reverse that merger.
“We prefer democratically elected offices,” said Adam Gaska, executive director of the Farm Bureau.
Antle plans to hold additional budget listening sessions in the coming weeks as the county prepares to close an estimated $4.2 million gap in the current fiscal year and confronts a projected $17 million shortfall in the next budget cycle.
