After Ousting Embattled Sheriff, San Mateo County Supervisors Name Her Replacement

San Mateo County supervisors on Wednesday named Gilroy police official Ken Binder as the county’s next sheriff after ousting Christina Corpus from office in a first in California history.

Binder received votes from all members of the Board of Supervisors, except for President David Canepa.

“I will be a sheriff that is approachable, reasonable and will always listen,” Binder said in his closing statement to the board. “I will work hard to defend all of the people of San Mateo County and ensure that everyone feels safe. And that no one has to decide whether calling 911 in an emergency is the best course of action for them.”

Binder is the current interim police chief for the city of Gilroy. Previously, he was with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office for 26 years, rising from deputy to undersheriff.

During Wednesday’s supervisors meeting, Binder was questioned about his time working under longtime Sheriff Laurie Smith, who was found guilty of corruption and willful misconduct in 2022. Binder, then undersheriff, became acting sheriff after Smith stepped down amid the trial.

“She had never asked me to do anything unethical or immoral … I would never follow an unlawful or immoral order,” Binder said. “If there’s a lawful and moral order, then I will follow the chain of command.”

Binder stood out among fellow candidates, David Lazar, who worked in the San Francisco Police Department for decades, and Brian Wynn Huynh Travis, police chief of the Solano Community College District, as someone with experience with jails and more rural areas.

Binder’s predecessor, Christina Corpus, was elected sheriff in 2022 and faced a long campaign to oust her.

Once considered a promising new figure in policing, Corpus came to be embroiled in scandal, with an independent investigation commissioned by the county finding that she ran a department plagued by “lies, secrecy, intimidation, retaliation, conflicts of interest, and abuses of authority.”

She was accused of having a relationship with her chief of staff, Victor Aenlle, using racial slurs as a captain, and, most recently, demanding the arrest of deputies union leader Carlos Tapia for alleged time-card theft — an arrest that the district attorney’s office said should not have happened in declining to prosecute the case. Tapia accused Corpus of targeting him for being a vocal critic of her office.

Amid the turmoil, several members of Corpus’ leadership team resigned from her office.

After voters granted them the power to do so, San Mateo County supervisors pushed Corpus out as sheriff on Oct. 14. Two weeks later, the board announced that it would appoint a new sheriff to replace Corpus instead of holding a special election.

The new sheriff would have the chance to run for reelection in 2028, which Binder expressed interest in if he is “doing a good job and the community and the board trusts me.”

“The process has been an odyssey,” Supervisor Jackie Speier said. “We have been through a holy hell as a county, and there is great interest in moving forward with clear-eyed intention to rid the department of corruption and an environment of recriminations and toxicity.”

Several supporters of Corpus spoke during public comment on Wednesday, insisting that the supervisors do not have the authority to remove her from office and calling the move unconstitutional.

Binder received an endorsement from the San Mateo County Organization of Sheriff’s Sergeants during public comment.

The San Mateo County Deputy Sheriff’s Association, on the other hand, did not endorse any of the candidates, despite saying that all of the candidates represent “a significant improvement in leadership over what the membership has had to endure for the last several years.”

According to a statement from the union, which had pushed for Corpus’ removal, the lack of an endorsement “is not a reflection on the candidates” but “a reflection on the tight timeline afforded for this process, which has made it impossible to thoroughly vet each of the candidates to make a full and fair assessment of them.”

In a second statement after Binder’s appointment, the deputies’ union said it “welcomes Sheriff Binder. We look forward to working collaboratively with him as we begin rebuilding the agency.”

KQED’s Juan Carlos Lara contributed to this report.