An open government defense group threatens to pursue a California county who is preparing to discuss dismissal of his sheriff elected behind closed doors.
The sheriff of the County of San Mateo, Christina Corpus, who serves one of the richest communities in the country, has faced calls for her withdrawal since an explosive report in November of a retirement judge noted that she had probably violated the Comté policy on nepotism and contradictory relations.
The report alleged that, by 2024, Corpus had “given up control” of the department to a subordinate. This led to a voting measure last year that voters adopted to empower the county supervisor council to remove it from the office, which they voted to do in June. Corpus called on, leading to the planned evidence of August planned.
As part of the referral procedure, the Corpus legal team asked that the return hearing was held in camera.
“The county should decline,” wrote the lawyer for the coalition of the first amendment Aaron Field in a letter to the Comté supervisors. “Sauté the press and the public from the referral hearing as a sheriff corpus asked it to violate the right of access to the first amendment to public procedures, undermined a panoply of unprecedented public interests to administer the referral audience in a transparent and unnecessarily interrupted citizens of San Mateo from a key phase of a process.”
The hearing is expected to start on August 18 and is expected to last around 10 days.
Calmatters initially filed a request for the opening of the return hearing of June to the public, a request which was refused. The coalition of the first amendment makes the same request for a referral hearing in August.
The referral of corpus – and its fight against it, in particular by without successful a prohibition order to stop the procedure – turned its department and the community for almost a year. Several cities of his county gave his administration votes without confidence, and the unions representing his deputies and his sergeants called for his withdrawal.
A spokesman for the County of San Mateo said that the county had received the letter from the coalition of the first amendment and would soon announce a decision.
“The county has constantly expressed his opinion that this should be an entirely transparent process, in particular the opening of the August appeal hearing for his withdrawal of his functions,” said San Mateo County spokesman, Effie Milionis Verducci. “However, sheriff blocked it.”
The department of sheriff is still in disorder, more recently, when Corpus has put on leave a sergeant of the sheriff of the county of San Mateo. This sergeant had testified a lot in a second survey of the county on Corpus. The union representing the sergeants of the Sheriff of the County of San Mateo opposed, alleging that the sergeant was put on leave in retaliation for his testimony.
Corpus denied that his actions had something to do with the report in a press release published on the Sheriff Office website.
“His temporary administrative leave is entirely not linked to any comments or cooperation he has been able to provide in the Keker report,” Corpus said in the press release.
Duara writes for Calmatters, where the article appeared for the first time.
