EMBATTLED SAN MATEO COUNTY SHERIFF Christina Corpus can now add allegations of budget mismanagement to the list of grievances the county has brought against her.
The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors approved a resolution Tuesday directing the County Executive’s Office to oversee finances in the Sheriff’s Office because of its low reserves.
After a review of finances in the Sheriff’s Office, it was discovered that its reserves make up less than 0.5% of its 2025-26 fiscal year budget of $324.2 million, which is far below the county’s requirement of at least 4%.
Under the county reserves policy, when the reserves of a department make up less than 2% of its budget, the county executive is delegated to provide additional oversight over the department’s finances.
“The County Reserves Policy is consistent with our obligation to be watchdogs over our organization,” said Supervisor Jackie Speier, who sponsored the oversight resolution. “The Sheriff’s Office has not met the reserve requirement across two years.”
The policy requires that contracts of $200,000 or less in the Sheriff’s Office be approved by the County Executive’s Office, a department that Corpus has openly condemned in the last year, alleging that its head interfered with sheriff deputies’ unions activities.
Speier mentioned several examples of purchase requests, which were denied, that raised concerns over fiscal responsibility — a $700,000 television, $100,000 massage chairs, and a $70,000 table.
“Two of the most important responsibilities of the Board are oversight of county programs and prudent expenditure of taxpayer money,” Speier said. “We need to get control of this situation now, not later.”
On Sunday, Corpus sent a letter to County Attorney John Nibbelin requesting that the item be removed from the agenda.
“I am writing to urgently address a matter of serious concern that I only recently became aware of through social media,” she wrote in the letter. “A resolution has been placed on the agenda for the upcoming Board of Supervisors meeting that, if passed, would strip the Sheriff’s Office of its independent budgetary authority and transfer that control to the County Administrator.”
Corpus said that she was not notified in advance of the agenda item and was unable to provide input or an explanation.
She read the letter at Tuesday’s meeting with her attorney Christopher Ulrich.
She pointed to County Executive Mike Callagy for the budgetary woes in her office, a person who Corpus has made unfounded claims against including sexual discrimination, retaliation, and abuse of power.
“The most significant impact on the Sheriff’s Office’s ability to meet the 2% reserve requirement resulted from a decision made solely by the County Administrator to authorize double overtime,” she wrote.
In an independent investigation commissioned by the Board of Supervisors looking into the allegations made by Corpus, it was determined that Callagy did not unilaterally approve double overtime in the Sheriff’s Office and that Corpus was indeed involved in negotiations with the deputies’ unions about double overtime. Callagy was also cleared of the other allegations.
Callagy responded to Corpus’ claims at the meeting, explaining what occurred when double overtime was approved.
“This false narrative about the double overtime has got to stop. It has been debunked at every turn with evidence,” he said sternly. “We’ve got all those emails that show that the Sheriff was intimately involved in setting up the double overtime.”
‘A dangerous precedent’
She also argued that having the County Executive’s Office oversee Sheriff’s Office finances creates a conflict of interest due to tensions between Corpus and Callagy.
“This proposed transfer would set a dangerous precedent, erode the independence of an elected law enforcement office and concentrate power in a single administrator who has demonstrated clear bias and personal involvement in ongoing disputes,” Corpus wrote.
Callagy testified against Corpus last month during the administrative hearing for Corpus’ removal, one of the final stages in the Board of Supervisor’s quest to oust her from office.
Corpus is facing removal after voters passed Measure A in March, a ballot measure giving the Board temporary power to remove the sheriff from office for reasons such as neglect of duties and misappropriation of public funds. Measure A arose after an independent investigation by retired judge LaDoris Cordell revealed allegations that Corpus was having an affair with her chief of staff and created a culture of retaliation and intimidation in the Sheriff’s Office.
The Board denied Corpus’ requests that the item be scrapped or moved to a future Board meeting.
The resolution passed 4-0, with Supervisor Lisa Gauthier being absent.