AN OPEN GOVERNMENT advocacy group is threatening to sue a California county that is preparing to discuss firing its elected sheriff behind closed doors.
San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus, who serves one of the wealthiest communities in the country, has faced calls for her removal since an explosive November report from a retired judge found that she likely violated the county’s policy on nepotism and conflicting relationships.
The report alleged that, by 2024, Corpus had “relinquished control” of the department to a subordinate. That led to a ballot measure last year that voters passed to empower the county Board of Supervisors to remove her from office, which they voted to do in June. Corpus appealed, leading to the scheduled August evidentiary hearing.
As part of the removal proceedings, Corpus’ legal team asked that the removal hearing take place behind closed doors.
“The county should decline,” wrote First Amendment Coalition attorney Aaron Field in a letter to the county Board of Supervisors. “Barring the press and public from the removal hearing as Sheriff Corpus has requested would violate the First Amendment right of access to public proceedings, undermine a panoply of compelling public interests in administering the removal hearing transparently and needlessly shut San Mateo citizens out of a key phase of a process.”
The hearing is scheduled to begin Aug. 18 and is expected to last about 10 days.
CalMatters originally filed a request to open the June removal hearing to the public, a request that was denied. The First Amendment Coalition is making the same request for the August removal hearing.
A year of turmoil
Corpus’ removal — and her fight against it, including unsuccessfully filing for a restraining order to stop the proceedings — have roiled her department and the community for nearly a year. Several cities in her county have given her administration no-confidence votes, and the unions representing both her deputies and her sergeants have called for her removal.
A San Mateo County spokesperson said the county had received the First Amendment Coalition’s letter and would announce a decision this week.
“The county has consistently expressed its view that this should be a fully transparent process, including having the August appeal hearing for her removal from office be open,” said San Mateo County spokesperson Effie Milionis Verducci. “However, the sheriff has blocked it.”
The sheriff’s department is still in turmoil, most recently when Corpus put a San Mateo County sheriff’s sergeant on leave. That sergeant had testified extensively in (a second county investigation into Corpus). The union representing San Mateo County Sheriff’s sergeants objected, alleging the sergeant was put on leave as retaliation for his testimony.
Corpus denied that her actions had anything to do with the report in a statement posted to the sheriff’s office website on Monday.
“His temporary administrative leave is entirely unrelated to any comments or cooperation he may have provided in the Keker report,” Corpus said in the statement.
This story originally appeared in CalMatters.