San Mateo County’s Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to remove Sheriff Christina Corpus from office late Tuesday.
It’s the first time in California history that a sheriff has been removed via ballot measure.
Removing Corpus, who is accused of violating the county’s policy on nepotism and conflicting relationships, isn’t as easy as firing her. To remove her, the San Mateo Board of Supervisors needed voter approval to amend the county charter that then gave them the power to cut Corpus from the payroll.
The 5-0 vote also marked the first time a board of supervisors removed a sheriff from office in the state’s history.
“Today is the end of a tragic, destructive, and grossly expensive chapter in San Mateo County history,” Supervisor Jackie Speier said. “I had high hopes for Sheriff Corpus … so it’s tragic to see her time as sheriff come down to this.”
Speier added that in her view, “Sheriff Corpus lost her sense of purpose.”
Corpus, who pitched herself as a candidate who would shake things up in the sheriff’s office, has 14 days to appeal and has indicated she won’t go without a fight. She claims she was targeted by the “old guard in power” who worked to undermine everything she did. She was elected as a reformer but was met with resistance at every turn, followed by outright hostility, she claimed.
Her critics said she had an affair with a subordinate and then used her power as sheriff to go after anyone she didn’t like or those who challenged her authority, including ordering the arrest of the president of the sheriff’s deputies’ union and retaliating against a captain who refused to conduct the union president’s arrest because he believed it violated state law.
Six cities in San Mateo County have called for her resignation.
“I have sacrificed my peace, my marriage, for this job,” Corpus said Tuesday. “If I lose my position today, I will walk out with my head held very high. I never bowed to intimidation.”
Last week, retired Superior Court Judge James Emerson found cause to remove Corpus after a two-week trial that included testimony portraying her short tenure as chaotic at best. Emerson found that Corpus did have a “close personal relationship” outside the boundaries of a professional one.
Corpus’s legal team, which includes Tom Perez, a one-time member of former President Barack Obama’s Cabinet, made a half-hour presentation arguing against the legality of her removal.
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“Culture change is hard,” Perez, former Labor Secretary and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said. “From Day One, there were folks who didn’t want her to succeed.”
San Mateo County is one of the richest in the nation. Taxpayers have been footing Corpus’s legal bills, but if she is indeed removed in two weeks, she would be responsible for what is likely to be hefty legal costs moving forward.
