MENDOCINO CO., 12/19/25 –A state audit of Mendocino County released Thursday found that the county is facing persistent budget deficits, has not had sufficient oversight of spending, and had faulty processes that led to ballot errors in the 2024 primary election.
The state Legislature passed a bill last year requiring the California State Auditor to perform an audit of Mendocino County by the start of 2026. The audit cited media reports that “indicated that Mendocino has struggled financially and that errors occurred in the county’s administration of the 2024 presidential primary election.”
On the issue of the county’s finances, the nearly 100-page report audit found that Mendocino as of this month had $30.6 million in uncollected taxes, penalties, interest and fees related to default properties, and also “will continue to face persistent deficits if it does not take additional action to address its budget deficit, such as raising tax rates.”
Mendocino County also “has not exercised sufficient oversight of staff spending that would best protect it against waste, fraud, and abuse,” according to the audit, which alleged that the county District Attorney’s Office may have violated state laws when $3,600 in public asset forfeiture funds were spent on an end-of-year event at a steakhouse for staff and their guests.
The audit also highlighted problems with the county’s administration of the 2024 primary election, in which its ballot printing vendor issued incorrect ballots to nearly every one of the more than 50,000 voters in the county. Shortly after resolving that error, another problem was found in which some voters were not placed in their correct districts, so more corrected ballots had to be sent out.
The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors plans to hold a public workshop in mid-January to discuss the audit and its recommendations, though the board’s response to the audit noted that some of the recommendations involve independently elected county officials.
District Attorney David Eyster’s response to the allegations involving his office said its use of asset forfeiture funds was legal since the use of those funds is “within the prosecution core functions and discretion afforded to elected district attorneys statewide.”
The response said, “The District Attorney and his staff will continue to evaluate the audit’s recommendations, implement improvements where appropriate, and ensure that all financial and operational practices remain firmly within the bounds of law.”
County Auditor-Controller/Treasurer-Tax Collector Chamise Cubbison in her response said she largely agrees with the audit’s recommendations and noted her office “was understaffed for most of the reviewed period and experienced several changes in leadership, the loss of decades of institutional knowledge and changes in leadership styles and priorities.”
The county elections office in its response to the audit said it is working with contractors to remedy errors in time for elections in 2026.
Thanks for the laugh Mr. Eyster.
So the county gets to wildly spend and waste our tax dollars and the remedy is to raise taxes again on the taxpayers of Mendocino County? I call BS! They have no concern about forcing out and bankrupting our counties citizens from their overtaxation. I’d like to see a comparison in what Humboldt and Lake County residents pay in taxes compared to Mendocino County residents. The BOS misappropriates millions on their pet projects and wild ideas and fantasies to generate tax dollars by making Mendocino some kind of Cannabis hub. It’s spending after spending and failure after failure. Yet, they continue to salivate at the thought of getting big taxes from their wild failed ideas. They refuse to acknowledge, accept, or correct their failures. Tens of Millions wasted every year and they are still clueless.
It’s less the over taxation and more the lack of potency your tax dollars do for you thanks to your local politics (and elected officials).
-Prop 13 is a massive discount on property taxes to long time established homeowners. Mendo has many of them (back to the land movement folks, boomers, and established) going back to the days of the 70s, & 80s.
-Most of the County’s tax base is sales tax and TOT.
-Local politician egos definitely are putting a dent in the cost side of the county’s budgets, but so are the local politics to a even larger degree.
-Mendocino County disproportionately has too many people based on limited incomes (retirees) and/or life long tax dodgers (Black market cannabis growers and Jeffersonians) that vocalize demands, but not solutions to cost reconciliation in their communities. That attitude reflects inside the county culture dynamic, which is why this county has a inconvenient state audit displaying this government’s ‘faking it till they make it’ mantra, and years of high turnover from fairly important depts that shouldn’t be turning over so much staff.
-Locals grumble at the idea of a new development in the area regardless of what it is in their perception. Then they (locals) want their roads fixed, and on what tax base?
-The County budget projects a downward fall in tax revenue leading to declining services that we already know.
It is possible that Mendocino needs a more diversified economics/business model to balance the tax revenue shortfalls along with more cooperation with its strongest economic centers (like Ukiah). Mendocino County is difficult to govern and that’s putting it lightly. Wine is in the past as consumption has been falling (along w/ subsidized water being no longer an option for the local AG industry). Cannabis is increasingly competitive with new players in the market and too many growers not being serious about legalization. Mendo Cannabis missed the boat.