"The employment termination was made under a contract provision previously agreed to by Mr. York and his attorney that gave the board the option to do so," he explained. "This decision was based on the results of the independent investigation, performance issues, and the board's responsibility to serve the best interests of the credit union, its members and staff."

To protect York's privacy, Widick said the credit union will not provide specific information about the complaint or the investigation.

"We can say that it (investigation) in no way involved members, the credit union's finances, stability or operations," he said. "With this change, the board also made an equally important decision to return the credit union's focus back to its original mission statement and service to members. CoastHills will no longer aggressively pursue revenue growth and expansion strategies if they do not clearly and directly benefit our member-owners. Moving forward, every strategic decision will be made through the very careful lens of what best serves our members' interests."

York reportedly claimed that he never saw the complaint or what it alleged. Efforts were unsuccessful to reach the former CEO for comment on Tuesday.

CU Times initially reported on March 5 that York was placed on temporary leave. The reasons for his leave were not disclosed.

Widick also said other statements reportedly made by York were not based on the facts.

For example, York reportedly claimed that four senior executives and an executive assistant were either being pushed out by the board of directors, were fired or had resigned because they supported the former CEO.

"Mr. York's claims about wholesale senior management changes are just one of the many inaccuracies in his statement," Widick said. "CoastHills EVP/COO recently resigned and there was a change in the HR department management as part of an organizational review to ensure we have the right team in place moving forward for a healthy, productive member-focused work environment. Other than these two changes, our existing management team remains with CoastHills."

York also purportedly said that on March 23, the credit union told the local media that he had been terminated.

"We are not aware of any local media coverage, and are somewhat mystified by what Mr. York is referring to in his statement," Widick said. "CoastHills has not published any press releases about this situation in an effort to protect Mr. York's privacy."

Via internet searches, CU Times did not find any recent local media articles that reported York had been fired.

"We are only commenting on the executive change at this point because Mr. York sent out a press release and we need to correct his inaccuracies," Widick said. "Mr. York's decision to personally attack board members and staff through the media is very unfortunate and unprofessional, and his statements are simply not supported by fact. While I will not speculate on his motivations, we are surprised and disappointed that he is aggressively working to damage CoastHills and its reputation, which only hurts our members and our dedicated employees."

York reportedly became upset when a board member repeatedly suggested to the whole board that the former executive's annual bonus be tied to a weight loss goal.  York claimed this was illegal and filed a harassment complaint against the board member.

"Regarding Mr. York's harassment complaint, the board and supervisory committee take very seriously any complaint they receive," Widick said. "As with any complaint, this complaint was received and investigated by the supervisory committee with the assistance of outside counsel."

Widick said he was unable to disclose the details of the harassment complaint or the supervisory committee's findings because the information is confidential.

"Regardless of Mr. York's accusations, we are deeply committed to protecting his privacy," he said.

York was appointed president of CoastHills in July 2004 and previously served as its executive vice president.

Under his leadership, the financial institution reached the $1 billion in assets milestone two years ago, becoming the second largest financial institution on California's central coast. In 2017, CoastHills revealed plans to build a $27 million headquarters in Santa Maria. Construction of the three-story, 91,000-square-foot building began last summer. The headquarters is expected to be completed at the end of 2018.

In 2015, York received total compensation of $569,332, which included $400,934 in base compensation, $48,702 in bonuses and incentives, $77,030 in other reportable compensation, $24,800 in retirement and other deferred compensation, and $17,866 in nontaxable benefits, according to the latest publicly available CoastHills' 990 IRS form.

What's more, the IRS 990 document also shows that the board or a committee approved York's $6.9 million collateral assignment split dollar plan, as well as two mortgages, a HELOC and a credit card.