Measure A: San Mateo County voters to decide if supes can have power to fire sheriff

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - San Mateo County voters on Tuesday will decide how to handle the fate of Sheriff Christina Corpus by deciding whether to give the board of supervisors the power to fire her.

Measure A is the only item on the ballot.

It's not a vote to remove the sheriff from office – that would be a recall.

Instead, voters are being asked if they want to temporarily change the county charter to give power to the board of supervisors to fire an elected sitting sheriff.

Calls for Corpus to resign have gone on for months, after a more than 400-page report  detailed allegations of abuse of power and corruption. 

Corpus is also accused of creating a toxic workplace environment, which includes using homophobic and racial slurs and having a relationship with a colleague she later promoted to assistant sheriff.

Several Peninsula cities have asked for her resignation and made statements enacting votes of no confidence.

Among those supporting the measure are the unions representing the sheriff's deputies and supervisors. They accuse her of wrongly arresting one of their leaders for calling out her corruption. The longer she stays in office, they said, the more public safety takes a hit. 

"The morale of the Sheriff's Office is as low as I've ever seen it," Sgt. Sean Harper of the Organization of Sheriff's Sergeants said. "People are anxious and afraid, scared to get arrested." 

Corpus continues to deny the allegations and claims she's being targeted for being a woman in power, specifically the first Latina sheriff of the county.

Her lawyer, Bradley Gage, said he plans to file a challenge in court if Measure A is approved. 

"We think it's an unconstitutional election," he said Tuesday morning. "We think it's discriminatory because it goes into effect now, targeting one person, and one person only – the first female Latina sheriff and it ends after her term is over in 2028." 

Gage also said that he believes the measure is a waste of taxpayer money and will be subject to a number of legal challenges "that will be taking place, pretty much no matter what happens." 

Gage said that this saga started when certain unnamed people were unhappy with certain unspecified actions taken by the sheriff "to help get rid of corruption" and by "folks who were upset that they weren't promoted." 

If passed, the sheriff could be removed from office – with cause – if four out of five county supervisors vote that way. Measure A would also expire in 2028, which lines up with the end of the sheriff's term in office. 

Menlo College political science expert Melissa Michelson says this is one way to remove the sheriff from office and a much faster method than a recall. 

"The board of supervisors thought that this was a dire circumstance, such an unusual circumstance, that waiting for the recall to get on the ballot was going to wait too long, that it was too important to try to get permission to remove Sheriff Corpus as quickly as possible," she said.

According to county election officials, about 19% of eligible voters have cast a ballot. Officials don't expect the turnout for this one measure to be much higher than that.

Polls close at 8 p.m.