The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors intends to hire an outside investigator to look into allegations by Sheriff Christina Corpus that the county’s top executive has overstepped his bounds.
In a two-sentence statement issued Tuesday afternoon, Supervisors Ray Mueller and Noelia Corzo said the board is committed to “a full, transparent and independent investigation” into Corpus’ allegations.
“The Board has also directed the County Attorney’s Office to notify the California Attorney General’s Office of matters related to the Sheriff’s Office,” the supervisors said.
They did not specify who might handle the investigation or when it might begin, nor did they say which allegations would be investigated.
They also did not say if the county will ask the Attorney General’s Office to open a formal investigation.
A county spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Corpus’ allegations surfaced over the weekend, when she sent a letter to the supervisors alleging that County Executive Mike Callagy has interfered in her office, is undermining her authority and abusing his power.
Corpus said Callagy inserted himself into her decision to fire Assistant Sheriff Ryan Monaghan and alleged Callagy once told her she needs to tell him “when and who I date within the county.”
In response, Corzo and Mueller issued a statement saying the board stands behind Callagy, who they said “rejects the sheriff’s claims as false and defamatory.”
A third investigation involving the Sheriff’s Office
The investigation into Corpus’ allegations would be potentially the third involving the Sheriff’s Office, county administrators and/or the unions representing rank-and-file deputies initiated in the past few weeks.
The unions — the San Mateo County Deputy Sheriff’s Association and the San Mateo County Organization of Sheriff’s Sergeants — initiated one of the investigations by filing unfair labor practice complaints with the California Public Employment Relations Board.
They allege the Sheriff’s Office changed its minimum staffing level policy without union input and refused to meet about an expiring overtime policy.
They also claim Corpus attempted to sow distrust between members of the union and its leadership and that her chief of staff, Victor Aenlle, tried to convince union members to recall their own board members, among other things.
For his part, Mueller has suggested that Corpus might have fired Assistant Sheriff Monaghan in retaliation for cooperating with another investigation, also initiated by the Board of Supervisors, into the discord at the Sheriff’s Office.
Corpus strongly denied the allegation.
A spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office did not immediately return a request for comment.
