County Supervisors Advance Charter Amendment to Ask Voters for Power to Remove Sheriff

Redwood City - The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors today unanimously took a major step toward asking voters for the power to remove the elected sheriff from office in what they said was an extraordinary but necessary move to protect public safety and taxpayer dollars.

If passed at a second reading on Dec. 3, a charter amendment proposal will be placed on the March 4, 2025, ballot for approval by San Mateo County voters. The charter amendment would authorize the Board of Supervisors to remove an elected sheriff for cause, which means violation of any law related to the performance of sheriff's duties, flagrant or repeated neglect of the sheriff's duties, misappropriation of public funds, willful falsification of official statements or documents, or obstruction of any investigation into the conduct of a sheriff.

Such an extraordinary move could take place only after a four-fifths vote by the Board of Supervisors and only after giving the Sheriff written notice and an opportunity to be heard publicly. These safeguards mean the Board could only apply the charter amendment to a sheriff that egregiously violates the public trust and the oath of office.

In addition, the proposed amendment has a sunset clause of 2028 at which time the Board's authority to remove the sheriff will end. The Board said that caveat is to assure voters its unusual request is not a power grab but a narrow and temporary response to the current sheriff who an independent investigatory report concluded retaliated against employees, uttered racial and homophobic slurs and essentially handed control of the office to her civilian chief administrative executive of administration with whom she is having an inappropriate relationship.

The Board currently lacks authority to remove an elected sheriff, even in cases where a sheriff engages in wrongdoing.

"Honestly, March is not soon enough. Let me be clear: public safety is at stake right now," said Supervisor Noelia Corzo. "With the trust of the voters comes great responsibility and it's not anything that any ethical elected official uses to personally benefit themselves. Our sheriff was elected by the people and the people will make the decision."

Supervisor Ray Mueller, who brought the proposal to the Board with Corzo, said the Board must act quickly because "the case against the sheriff continues to get stronger." As an example, he shared that the County received forensic confirmation that the homophobic slurs attributed to the sheriff in the report were in fact sent from her phone. Corzo also said that as recently as October, according to the report, the sheriff's executive director of administration pushed to acquire suppressed rifles for the command .

The Board urged the public to read the 400-page report themselves and explained that while an election may carry a large price tag, the millions of dollars in expected lawsuits stemming from staff who claim to have been harmed by the Sheriff's Office will far exceed the cost of the election.

The Board said while voters could also launch a recall effort to remove the sheriff, it would be a heavy lift to gather the nearly 45,000 signatures to place the removal question on the ballot.

"Our duty as the Board of Supervisors is to offer solutions to the community," Corzo said.

The measure that would go before voters as a yes/no question:

Shall the measure amending the San Mateo County to grant the Board of Supervisors authority until December 31, 2028 to remove an elected Sheriff from office for cause, including for violation of law related to a Sheriff's duties, flagrant repeated neglect of duties, misappropriation of public funds, willful falsification of documents, or obstructing an investigation, by a four-fifths vote of the Board of Supervisors, after written notice and an opportunity to be heard, be adopted?

Judge LaDoris Cordell's full report as well as associated news releases and videos of news conferences and the special Board of Supervisors meeting is available here.

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