San Mateo County Sheriff Says She Won’t Resign as Election Sets Up a Historic Removal

Updated 4:18 p.m. Wednesday

Embattled San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus continued to refuse to resign Wednesday, even after voters overwhelmingly approved a charter amendment to give supervisors the power to remove her from office.

According to the election night results, more than 85% of votes cast were in favor of Measure A, the only item on Tuesday’s special election ballot.

In a statement, Corpus conceded that Measure A has passed, which she said now entitles her to “a public evidentiary hearing before a neutral and unbiased body.” She added that she and her lawyers “are confident” she will “be vindicated through a legitimate process,” calling her record in 23 years of public service “pristine.”

“I look forward to working with the new Board of Supervisors to discuss a collaborative strategy moving forward,” Corpus’ statement said. “With the passage of Measure A, I now have the opportunity to appropriately challenge and disprove the allegations against me and my administration.”

If the board ultimately votes to remove Corpus, it may be the first board to remove an elected sheriff in California history.

Calling it “an expedited recall,” Eliot Storch, secretary of the union representing San Mateo County deputies, told reporters on Tuesday night that the results showed that 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.”

After Measure A is officially certified on April 3, supervisors would need a four-fifths vote to remove Corpus, following written notice and a chance to address the allegations against her, which is likely to happen given that four out of five current supervisors endorsed the measure.

Ray Mueller and Noelia Corzo, the two supervisors who first called for Corpus to resign and pushed to get Measure A on the ballot, told reporters on Wednesday that the election still has to be certified and the board has to officially approve the election results — which may take up to 40 days — before Corpus is served with the necessary paperwork to begin the removal process.

“In the meantime, we want to assure residents that the county will implement clear procedures to ensure a public, impartial and lawful process,” Mueller said.

Corzo said supervisors are “mindful of the serious responsibility” that voters have “decisively entrusted” them with by overwhelmingly approving the measure.

“We deeply value the sheriff’s office and the important role it plays in ensuring public safety in our county,” Corzo said. “We want to assure our residents that the services of the sheriff’s office will continue uninterrupted throughout this process, and we will move forward as quickly as possible in the best interest of the people of San Mateo County.”

The election is the culmination of months of efforts to get Corpus to resign willingly, which she repeatedly refused.

Supervisors found Measure A to be the quickest path to remove the sheriff following a third-party independent report released in November that determined that “nothing short of new leadership can save this organization that is in turmoil, and its personnel demoralized.”

Those calling for Corpus’ removal cited the fact that she abused her power as sheriff by hiring her former campaign staffer and alleged romantic partner, Victor Aenlle, to a top, non-sworn position in her office, exerting authority over even assistant sheriffs and captains. The two denied being in a romantic relationship, despite several employees hearing remarks about it or allegedly witnessing them display their affection to each other in the office, according to November’s report.

The calls to remove Corpus came shortly after the publication of that report by retired Judge LaDoris Cordell, whom the county hired last year to investigate an “unprecedented” number of complaints against Aenlle. Cordell found that many of those complaints were merited and found the department needed new leadership. Since taking office in early 2023, she wrote, Aenlle and Corpus ran the department with “lies, secrecy, intimidation, retaliation, conflicts of interest, and abuses of authority.”

That included targeting Carlos Tapia — president of the deputies union and vocal critic of Corpus — by criminally accusing him of committing time-card fraud. District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe soon found there was no evidence to support the accusations, clearing Tapia of any wrongdoing.

The captain who was tasked with arresting Tapia, Brian Philip, would later allege in a lawsuit against Corpus and the county that accusing someone of time-card fraud was what “leadership of San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office [does] when it wants to retaliate against an employee.”

Instead of arresting Tapia, Philip resigned, making him one of the more than 100 sworn employees who quit the sheriff’s office under Corpus, according to the union.

The five supervisors who may ultimately vote to remove the sheriff aren’t the same five who approved putting Measure A on the ballot, as supervisors Jackie Speier and Lisa Gauthier took office after supervisors voted in December on the measure.

Still, Measure A was endorsed by Gauthier as well as Board President David Canepa, in addition to Mueller and Corzo, meaning Corpus’ ousting is likely on its way.

Such a move would be historic. Voters in San Bernardino County in 2001 and Los Angeles County in 2022 both approved charter amendments to give their supervisors the authority to remove their sheriffs, but neither board put the issue to a vote. San Francisco’s board did so in 2012, but it didn’t reach the threshold needed to remove then-Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi.

Leading up to the election, calls for Corpus to resign or be removed came across the county and beyond, receiving support from political and civic leaders at the local, state and national levels.

Other endorsements for Measure A included former and current members of the U.S. House, state representatives, the San Mateo County Democratic Party and leaders of nearly every city in San Mateo County. The county deputies’ union also formed a political committee to back the measure.

Financially, the measure received little attention. According to available financial disclosures, the “Recall Sheriff Corpus” campaign raised $2,000, with half that coming from former state Sen. Jerry Hill and the other half from former Redwood City Mayor James Hartnett. The “Stop the Political Power Grab” campaign against Measure A reported raising nearly $2,500 in the form of a loan from Corpus herself, which went to campaign signs.

Corpus, who did not respond to a request for comment, had challenged the measure in a lawsuit alleging the board overstepped its power, but a judge ruled last week that the election would move forward because county officials followed proper protocol.

Storch, the deputies union secretary, said the election was one way to allow citizens to respond to the accusations against Corpus.

“They deserve someone who is not going to be committing these abuses, who is not going to be corrupt and who’s not going to be causing all these problems, so much to the point that we had to have a special election just because of them,” Storch said, adding that he was worried Corpus “might take this as yet another opportunity to start retaliating, given what the results look like.”

The county’s last results update of Tuesday night showed that of the more than 92,000 votes counted, 85.2% were in favor of Measure A. That tally does not include mail-in ballots received by Monday or later. There are nearly 445,000 registered voters in San Mateo County, although voter turnout is likely to be low in a special election with only one measure on the ballot.

The next batch of results will be released Thursday afternoon, according to the county election office.