A previous employee of CoastHills is now suing the company for wrongful termination just months after a CEO was placed on leave, and then later fired.
According to the Santa Barbara County Superior Court, Lisa Nissinen-Harlow is suing CoastHills Credit Union in Santa Maria after being fired from the senior vice president of human resources position.
The lawsuit states Nissinen-Harlow was placed on leave, then fired, on the "pretext that she did not catch a cyber security issue that the chief information officer did not catch" and "there was excessive turnover in her department, which included the death of an employee, another employee’s decision to take a job closer to home, and an employee’s decision to change careers."
Nissinen-Harlow was fired shortly after CEO Jeff York was let go. The lawsuit claims he lost his job after a board member defamed him at a public event and made compensation propositions surrounding his weight loss. York was placed on temporary leave after an investigation into that claim opened in March.
We reached out to York for a statement on the situation, to which he told KSBY he had no comment. No other details about York’s termination were given.
We also reached out to CoastHills Credit Union on Saturday, but have not heard back yet.
