The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors fired one other salvo of their ongoing battle with Sheriff Christina Corpus on Tuesday after they voted to maneuver ahead with a constitution modification that may permit them to take away her from workplace.
The board voted 4-0, with Supervisor David Canepa absent, to approve the second studying of an ordinance inserting the modification on the March 4 poll so voters can resolve if supervisors must be allowed to develop their authority with the intention to hearth Corpus.
“I want folks to understand that our sheriff right now is serving a six-year term, we are wrapping up year two — there are four more years left before the voters would have an opportunity to vote on new leadership in the Sheriff’s Office without an intervention like a charter amendment election or a recall,” mentioned Supervisor Noelia Corzo.
Corzo and Supervisor Ray Mueller sponsored the laws inserting the query earlier than voters following a chronic interval of public recriminations aimed on the sheriff and her repeated, defiant denials.
Corpus is accused of retaliating in opposition to Sheriff’s Workplace staff, utilizing racist and homophobic slurs and giving an excessive amount of energy to her civilian chief of workers Victor Aenlle, who unbiased investigator and retired Decide LaDoris Cordell present in her 400-page report back to be in an inappropriate private relationship with the sheriff — an accusation Corpus denies.
An absence of ‘basic ethics’
Corpus has repeatedly refused requires her resignation which have come from the board and native, state and federal leaders resembling U.S. Reps. Kevin Mullin and Anna Eshoo, state Sen. Josh Becker, and Assemblymembers Marc Berman and Diane Papan.
Since Corpus took workplace in 2023, greater than 100 sworn workers have left the Sheriff’s Workplace and he or she was the topic of votes of no confidence from the unions representing her division’s deputies, sergeants and lieutenants.
“At the core of this issue is the reality that our current sheriff does not understand, follow or respect, not just county policy, but basic ethics around conflicts of interest and much more,” Corzo mentioned.
San Mateo County Supervisor Noelia Corzo seems in a Nov. 19, 2024, file picture. (Illustration by Glenn Gehlke/Native Information Issues. Picture through County of San Mateo)
Throughout the assembly’s public remark interval, attorneys for the sheriff, who mentioned they’ve been working for her for a couple of week, requested supervisors to postpone a vote on the constitution modification with the intention to give them time to answer the accusations in opposition to her, which they mentioned are unsubstantiated.
“We need to give the sheriff an opportunity to respond. This is premature for you to usurp the authority of the voters,” mentioned lawyer Thomas Mazzucco.
Whereas the supervisors voted to maneuver ahead with the poll measure, in addition they agreed to increase a proper invitation to Corpus to elucidate herself underneath oath in entrance of the board at its Dec. 10 assembly. Corzo abstained from the choice to ask Corpus.
“I’m, again, extremely concerned that even under oath, our sheriff will use this as a platform to continue to lie, so I’m going to abstain on this one,” she mentioned.
Corpus denies report’s ‘unfounded allegations’
Corpus didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Tuesday, however on Monday despatched the board a letter in opposition to their choice.
In it, she known as Cordell’s report “a salacious broadcast of unfounded allegations.”
“There are so many questions about how the County went about this despicable chapter,” Corpus wrote. “There will be a chance for these questions and more to come out in the public, but for now, the real question is whether the County’s actions to date and the proposed Charter Amendment can be a good justification to take away the voter’s choice.”
If permitted by a easy majority of voters within the county, the modification would permit supervisors to take away the sheriff by a four-fifths vote “for cause, including for violation of law related to a Sheriff’s duties, flagrant or repeated neglect of duties, misappropriation of public funds, willful falsification of documents, or obstructing an investigation.” It will additionally require supervisors to current their grounds for her removing in writing and to carry a listening to previous to a vote.
The constitution modification would expire on Dec. 31, 2028, thereby ending the board’s skill to fireside the sheriff.
