San Mateo County’s particular election to provide non permanent authority to the county Board of Supervisors to take away the county sheriff can proceed, after a authorized problem to halt it failed.
Sheriff Christina Corpus sued in January to cease the particular election for Measure A, which is scheduled for March 4. Early voting is already underway.
The county Board of Supervisors referred to as for the particular election in December after an unbiased evaluation by retired Choose LaDoris Cordell of Corpus’ conduct raised a number of allegations of misconduct, together with making a paid place for somebody she was accused of getting a private relationship with, and retaliatory actions, together with ordering a subordinate who was a critic to be arrested.
Corpus has not been charged with any crime by the county district lawyer, nor did the 400-page report level to a particular legal allegation. The report did counsel that she ought to step down based mostly on what the retired decide stated was an administration that engaged in “lies, secrecy, intimidation, retaliation, conflicts of interest, and abuses of authority.”
On Tuesday, San Mateo County Superior Court docket Choose Nicole Healy stated the election might proceed. The county stated in a press launch Wednesday that Corpus declined to problem the tentative ruling, making it closing.
“Sheriff Christina Corpus is a fighter and has done so her entire career as a woman in law enforcement. We will continue to fight this power grab in the courts at the appropriate times and every step of the way,” he wrote.
Measure A would enact an modification to the county constitution that might give the county Board of Supervisors the ability to take away the elected sheriff for trigger. It could require a vote of 4 out of 5 supervisors. The authority would expire on the finish of 2028.
The measure has drawn widespread endorsement from cities within the county, together with the cities of Belmont, Redwood Metropolis, and South San Francisco, together with San Carlos, Millbrae, and San Mateo. These jurisdictions’ metropolis councils handed votes of no confidence within the sheriff, who has resisted calls to resign.
Choose Healy stated in her ruling that she was not addressing the contents of the report the county requested, however was solely ruling on whether or not the particular election might go ahead. Corpus has filed a separate $10 million declare of racial and gender discrimination in opposition to the county.
San Mateo Sheriff Christina Corpus solutions questions on public security, officer retention, and group service throughout a large ranging interview with the Peninsula Press on the Sheriff’s Workplace in Redwood Metropolis, CA on Oct. 26, 2023. (Peninsula Press by way of Bay Metropolis Information)
“The issue presently before the court is a narrow one. The court is not addressing the methodology, substance, merits, or findings of the report submitted by Judge LaDoris Cordell (ret.) to the Board, nor is the court making any findings or determinations regarding the allegations addressed therein,” Healy stated in her ruling.
Mazzucco highlighted Healy’s opinion that the opposite authorized questions raised by Corpus weren’t “ripe” for judicial evaluation till the Board of Supervisors had acted to take away her, utilizing a authorized time period that defines when authorized motion could be introduced based mostly on established info, not hypothetical actions.
Ballots have been mailed out beginning Feb. 3 and will have been acquired by registered voters who requested them. Early mail-in voting started that day, and in-person early voting started on Feb. 22.
Mail-in ballots should be postmarked by election day and acquired by March 11.
Voters can vote in-person at any of the county’s voting facilities.
As of Wednesday, 72,476 mail-in ballots and 192 ballots solid at voting facilities had already been processed, in keeping with the county.
