Humboldt County pays $250,000 to settle wrongful termination claim

Humboldt County will pay $250,000 to settle a wrongful termination claim brought by a former employee who said she reported sexual harassment. The payout turns the case into more than a workplace dispute: it is now a public-expense item for county taxpayers.

The earlier claim identified the former employee as Dianna Rios, who had spent nearly four years as an Economic Development Coordinator for Humboldt County. Her allegation, that she was punished after raising sexual-harassment concerns, put the county’s complaint-handling system and retaliation protections under scrutiny.

The settlement means the county chose to end the dispute with money rather than keep fighting toward a trial outcome. That kind of resolution does not prove every allegation in the case, but it does show the county decided the cost and risk of continuing were higher than closing it now. For residents who fund county government, the figure is concrete: $250,000 paid out of public money to resolve a claim tied to how a county workplace responded to harassment complaints.

The case also raises questions about what county leaders and Human Resources knew, when they knew it, and whether reporting channels worked as employees were supposed to. In a government office, a sexual-harassment complaint can test whether supervisors act quickly, whether Human Resources investigates independently, and whether the worker who speaks up is protected from retaliation.

County policy records show Humboldt County had a formal Harassment and Discrimination Policy in place under policy number HR2025-001. The document lists an original issue date of June 7, 2016, and a revision date of Oct. 7, 2025, along with resolution number 25-146. Those details do not explain what happened in Rios’ case, but they do show the county had written anti-harassment rules on the books before the settlement was reported.

The July 28 settlement follows a May 13 story that framed the dispute as one of firing after a sexual-harassment report. Taken together, the public record shows a county employee complaint that moved from allegations of retaliation to a six-figure payment, with Humboldt County now left to explain how its policies were applied and what, if anything, changed to keep future complainants from facing the same outcome.