Humboldt Reaches Lawsuit Settlement With State Controller’s Office

Humboldt County supervisors have approved a settlement with the State Controller’s Office, which sued the county in May over the actions of its former auditor-controller Karen Paz Dominguez.

Paz Dominguez was accused of failing to file financial reports and budgets on time for two consecutive fiscal years. The Board of Supervisors issued a "vote of no confidence" in Paz Dominguez and executed a formal separation agreement with her earlier this summer.

Under Humboldt’s agreement with the state, the county will implement “a detailed action plan” for filing the overdue budgets and reports. Humboldt will provide three progress reports to the state and will pay $12,000 in forfeitures.

In addition to the settlement with the state, Humboldt has been working with the City of Eureka, which was planning to sue for millions in owed property tax funds due to disputed calculations from the auditor-controller's office.

"They were going to file a lawsuit and they're working with us, and we're gonna get through that," Supervisor Bohn told KRCR last month. 

Under an agreement with the city, Humboldt will give Eureka roughly $4.5 million to make up for the missing funds. 

Read more at the Local Coast Outpost.