San Mateo County Voters Appear to Back Measure Allowing Supervisors to Remove Sheriff

Update, 10:15 p.m. Tuesday: San Mateo County voters appear to have overwhelmingly approved a historic measure to give the Board of Supervisors temporary authority to fire Sheriff Christina Corpus.

If it passes and the board removes Corpus, it could be the first elected body in California history to oust a sworn, elected law enforcement officer.

According to preliminary election results, more than 85% of votes cast were in favor of Measure A.

Calling it “an expedited recall,” Eliot Storch, secretary of the union representing San Mateo County deputies, told reporters that the results showed voters “recognize that swift action was necessary to stem the turmoil that has engulfed the sheriff’s office.”

“Although Measure A might have been unusual, Sheriff Corpus’ unprecedented corruption and her contempt for the guardrails of accountability forced the community’s hand,” Storch said. “Today’s vote was simply democracy in action.”

Original story: Corpus hasn’t even completed her first term as the county’s first female and first Latina sheriff, but calls for her resignation have abounded from inside her department and across the county.

In November, a scathing 408-page report concluded her leadership was beset with “lies, secrecy, intimidation, retaliation, conflicts of interest, and abuses of authority” and said, “nothing short of new leadership can save this organization that is in turmoil, and its personnel demoralized.”

Several lawsuits have echoed similar concerns about her and her office’s former executive director, Victor Aenlle, who was alleged to have been in a romantic relationship with Corpus.

Those in favor of Measure A say it’s needed because Corpus “created a retaliatory and abusive work environment, used racial and homophobic slurs, and effectively handed control of the office to an unqualified individual with whom the sheriff had an inappropriate relationship,” according to the ballot item.

Those against it, however, call it “a political power grab” that “strips voters of their power to elect an independent sheriff.”

Measure A doesn’t directly remove Corpus from office, but if voters pass it with a simple majority, it would grant supervisors the authority to do so with a four-fifths board vote through 2028, when Corpus’ first term would otherwise end. After 2028, that authority would expire unless renewed by voters.

Offenses for which the board could remove the sheriff include violating the law in a professional capacity, “flagrant or repeated” neglect of duties, misappropriating public funds, falsifying documents, or obstructing an investigation. The board could vote to remove Corpus after she’s been served with a written notice and an opportunity to be heard.

Corpus chose not to be interviewed by retired Judge LaDoris Cordell, whom county officials hired last year to investigate an “unprecedented” number of complaints against Aenlle. He was Corpus’ campaign manager before she created the unsworn position of executive director with an annual salary of almost $247,000. She requested pay raises for him three separate times, all of which the county denied.

Cordell found there was substantial evidence that Corpus and Aenlle were in an extramarital romantic relationship, which both deny, despite allegedly publicly displaying affection in front of employees, being seen traveling to Hawaii together, and Corpus describing Aenlle to one employee as “jealous and protective.”

Hours before Cordell’s report was released, Carlos Tapia, president of the San Mateo County Deputy Sheriff’s Association — and a vocal critic of Corpus — was arrested by his fellow deputies on suspicion of time-card fraud, which the district attorney later found there was no evidence to support.

Then-Capt. Brian Philip was tasked with arresting Tapia, but he resigned in protest. He’s since filed a lawsuit against the county, alleging that making accusations of time-card fraud is what “leadership of San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office [does] when it wants to retaliate against an employee.”

Philip was one of several people Corpus recruited to help lead her office who would soon quit in protest or publicly call on her to resign.

Unions representing sergeants and deputies in the Sheriff’s Office have endorsed Measure A, as have U.S. Reps. Anna Eshoo and Kevin Mullin, as well as Supervisor Noelia Corzo-Solorzano, who helped lead the charge to get it on the ballot.

Voters have until 8 p.m. Tuesday to return their ballots. Those postmarked by election day must be received by March 11 to be counted. The county elections office reports that 78,751 mail-in votes were cast as of Friday — about 18% of all registered voters.

Officials will start posting return results beginning at 8:10 p.m., 10 minutes after drop boxes and vote centers close.

Should San Mateo County voters approve Measure A and supervisors ultimately oust Corpus, it may be the first time in state history that an elected board removes an elected law enforcement official from office.

Supervisors had floated the idea of a recall campaign against Corpus, but they opted for the charter amendment because it would be quicker, with election day coming only three months after supervisors voted to place Measure A on the ballot. A recall vote would have had to wait until 2026.

However, even recall elections against sheriffs are rare, as the last known successful one was in Plumas County in 1976, according to available records.

California sheriffs are rarely removed from office outside of a regular election, in which they often enjoy strong incumbent advantages. When they do lose reelection bids, they’re most often replaced by challengers from inside their own departments, just as Corpus did in the 2022 primaries when she defeated her former boss, Carlos Bolanos — who faced internal allegations of favoring campaign donors when issuing concealed carry gun permits.

Charter amendments are also rare. Only 14 of California’s 58 counties are charter counties, meaning they have greater autonomy over their elections and elected officials. A 2001 opinion (PDF) from then-Attorney General Bill Lockyer affirmed that a county charter can give supervisors more options to remove a sheriff, district attorney or other elected official for cause.

Corpus had previously alleged the board lacked the authority to put a charter amendment before voters, but last week, a judge ruled that the board had acted within the law and that Corpus was not protected from removal.

Similarly, voters in two other California charter counties have granted their boards the authority to remove their sheriff — San Bernardino County in 2001 and Los Angeles County in 2022 — but neither went through with using that power. L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva lost his reelection bid as the Board of Supervisors was seeking to remove him.

San Francisco’s board attempted to remove then-Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi in 2012 after he pleaded guilty to one count of misdemeanor false imprisonment of his wife, but the board fell two votes shy of the required 9–of–11 majority to have him removed.