OPINION
BY DAVE PRICE
Daily Post Editor
San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus got a big surprise last week.
Last Monday, she sent an email to her entire staff saying the criticism of her chief of staff, Victor Aenlle, is coming from a “select few.”
Later in the day, her deputies and sergeants voted overwhelmingly to declare they had no confidence in Aenlle. The vote was 306 in favor to 12 opposed.
Aenlle’s critics aren’t a few bad apples, they’re 96% of the sworn deputies who voted.
Did she not know how her staff feels about Aenlle? How could she have missed this?
And, if you go by her email from last Monday, she feels Aenlle is innocent of all of the complaints filed by her employees. She says those complaints “simply are not true.” She didn’t say whether she investigated any of those complaints, however.
But Corpus won’t have the last word on this. The Board of Supervisors has hired retired judge and former San Jose police auditor LaDoris Cordell to investigate the complaints.
But oddly, Aenlle remains on the job during the investigation. Often police are put on paid leave during investigations. I guess the rules are different for him.
Dave, love is blind my friend.
They say that love is blind. In some cases, it is willfully blind. Does the Sheriff’s Office have rules about supervisors having relationships with subordinates?
Check out the Sheriff’s Policy and Procedures: Chapter 10, Policy 1025 – “Nepotism and Conflicting Relationships.”
The Sheriff you can trust but shouldn’t and cute little doctor Vicky PHD Esquire Chief of Staff and their band of merry morons which include undersheriff Borat and captain foxy as he likes to call himself. One of the sheriffs minions was videoing who was at the DSA/OSS press conference so he could report back to her and the cute little midget doctor. When are the Board of Supervisors going to do what needs to be done. Does the sheriff and doctor Vicky have to have more than 50 HR complaints? It’s time to call this experiment of a sheriff the disaster it is. Anyone that hires a 100 percent clown like Perea shows no one wants to work for her. No one wants to work for her. Remember 3 Captains and an undersheriff have left and remember that’s after the dictator got rid of an undersheriff and two assistant sheriffs when the voters screwed up and voted her in. I voted for Bolanos so i don’t feel any remorse. The taxpayers should be furious. She is spending money on trips and an empty building like she is Bill Gates. Except it’s not her money. It’s all taxpayer money. When your taxes go up remember this comment. A sheriff you can trust. That’s hilarious.
For the San Mateo SO sworn and professional staff that have been around before Sheriff Corpus, during the administrations of Sheriff Horsley, Munks and Bolanos can attest that while they may not have agreed with all of the policies, programs or selections for promotion, we were all mostly very proud to be San Mateo SO employees. Never in the history of the agency was there ever discussion of a vote of no confidence, filing PERB complaints and even county HR complaints were a rarity. The sworn staff that campaigned for or supported Corpus felt that the time had come for a change. Those that actively campaigned for Corpus have each told me that in retrospect, it was a mistake. Several of the Corpus supporters that were expected to take senior positions in the sheriff’s office decided to decline those positions because they told me they were already seeing the negative impact that Aenelle was having on the Sheriff’s decisions and policy implementation. They felt that it was improper to bring in a civilian with almost no law enforcement experience on to the executive team. So now l, fast forward to today. A vote of no confidence in Chief of Staff Aenelle, discussions by many members of the SO about similar votes of no confidence against the Sheriff and Undersheriff. We have PERB complaints, records numbers of HR complaints and law suits naming the Sheriff. and Aenlle. Add the legitimate concerns about potential corruption in the Redwood City substation and Half Moon Bay SAL facility transactions, and reports of rampant budget overruns associated with final construction and furnishing of the new headquarters. Who among us thinks that things at the SO are better today than when Bolanos, Munks, Horsley or Cardoza served as Sheriff. Christina, if you are like most of us, the proudest day of your life was when you pinned on a San Mateo Sheriff’s Office badge. If you still have any love for this agency or respect for the professional, please demonstrate some honor and integrity by resigning now so we can begin rebuilding a once great law enforcement agency.
Not only this, but Corpus let Aenlle hire Undersheriff Parea after they pushed out Undersheriff Chris Hsiung. Since then it’s been an environment of terror and the sad thing is she is elected and will continue to get away with this likely for years. Unless someone can provide enough evidence Corpus and Aenlle are in a relationship. Her soon to be ex-husband doesn’t want to expose the evidence he has for the sake of their family. But she is corrupt.
I’m a big supporter of Dr Vicky esquire chief of staff and his boss sheriff corpus. I’m one of the 12. I know that being part of the dirty dozen is career suicide but I’m big on self preservation. I go with the wind.
Corpus hand picked two of her closest supporters to get their picture taken with Trump last week. While the 96% were out doing the actual work required to protect the president. The special 12 were on easy assignments.
Keep cleaning house Sheriff Corpus..the residents of San Mateo County elected you to change the ‘good old boy’ culture of those in the Department. With Carlos they were able to thrive with their Trumpism,sexist and anti-immigrant mentality.Look at some of the Deputy Association posts on facebook..they think ron desantis is great. Interesting that the SM Supervisors never investigated the previous Sheriff given all the issues and settlements paid out during his tenure. Sheriff Corpus the residents of San Mateo County have your back! We are a progressive, Democratic county that elected you to change the culture of the Sheriff office.
Keep cleaning house? That statement is as absurd as it is comical. Corpus and Aenlle are closet MAGA. Only switched parties during the campaign for political reasons. It doesn’t matter what party you are from, San Mateo County deserves a Sheriff we can trust and sadly, it isn’t her. Brushing off multiple HR complaints and grievances from deputies and staff is reprehensible. She has been very dishonest to the public. Moral is at an all time low and this affects public safety. What’s going on at the Sheriff Office is worse then the public knows. We hold out hope the investigations will uncover it.
You do realize that Corpus and Aenelle are mini Trumpers?! You can’t be this blind.. but then again, most Trump supporters are blind to the truth. Corpus is anti-woman.
They made sure they got photo ops with Trump last weekend in Woodside.
Keep cleaning house?? She’s no different than Thump. She hires, she fires. “You’re fired!”
Aenlle isn’t on leave during the investigation. If a deputy is the subject of an investigation, he’ll get to remain in duty too? So Aenlle gets to remain at the office, allowing him to destroy evidence and intimidate witnesses? This doesn’t seem like a real investigation.
If you haven’t realized this- the sheriff was advised by public relations to post social media with positive titles and her name ie seat belts, half moon bay latino relationships, child care, 30% women by 2025, new recruits. She ignoring complaints and violating laws she will find out what retaliation means. When you search for san mateo or sheriff the negative posts get muddied in the waters. Repost! Resend! Do not let these corrupt people get away with this.
They are trying to figure out when to place Fox in an Assistant Sheriff position next to mess with everyone more. Soon there will be a group of beasts terrorizing the SO. Beware! File a class action make them change!
Why don’t you read the complaints Progressive and see how the Sheriff is allowing these crazy males Victor and Dan to bully females, ignore state and federal employment laws and misappropriating money on travel, dinner dates and random events. If that doesn’t boggle your progressive mind what will. The County deserves more than a someone that speaks Spanish and ignores personnel complaints at any cost. Golly gee can Victor Aenlle and Dan Parea get away with doing anything, retaliating and bullying, hostile behaviors. Wake up- stand for your hard working deputies and personnel and stop ignoring this CORRUPTION. Disgusting woman- why oh why can’t you see how Victor is playing you land lying about his status – he hides everything and makes up lies. Or else the executive team would have nothing to hide behind, would not run away and address complaints. This is unstable, unacceptable, unfathomable. Environment of evil.
Board of Supervisors read this
Any California county can remove its sheriff. For charter counties, removal may be done by recall, either by charter provisions or charter amendment, or potentially under existing statutory law. As an alternative to a recall, a charter county may empower its governing body to remove the sheriff for official misconduct. But a county is not necessarily limited to just one procedure for removing a sheriff: it may provide for recall, governing-body removal, or both — or still another procedure. Multiple means of removing a sheriff are not conflicting, or mutually exclusive.[21] So while general law counties must use the state’s existing recall procedure (and are probably limited to that remedy), charter counties like Los Angeles have far greater flexibility, to use the recall or some other removal procedure. The bottom line is that California sheriffs are not exempt from removal before their term expires.
—o0o—
Senior research fellow Stephen M. Duvernay contributed to this article.
[1] Penrod v. County of San Bernardino (2005) at 190 (noting that when performing law enforcement functions a sheriff is a state actor and immune for 42 U.S.C. § 1983 liability purposes. See Venegas v. County of Los Angeles (2004). The same state/local status issue applies to a few other officers. A district attorney is an elected local officer that for some purposes is a state official. See Pitts v. County of Kern (1998) at 345 (district attorney represents the state, not the county, when preparing to prosecute and when prosecuting crimes). And for recall purposes Court of Appeal justices are deemed state officers, whereas “judges of trial courts shall be considered county officers.” Elec. Code § 11001; Persky v. Bushey (2018) at 820.
[2] Gov. Code § 24000(b).
[3] Gov. Code § 24009(a); 24205(a). Section 24009(b) provides an optional procedure to make some elected county officers into appointed positions, but it expressly exempts “those officers named in subdivision (b) of Section 1 of Article XI of the California Constitution” — which includes sheriffs. Accordingly, a county sheriff cannot be converted into appointed position. Gov. Code § 24009.
[4] Gov. Code § 3020: “State officers elected on a statewide basis, members of the State Board of Equalization, and judges of state courts are subject to impeachment for misconduct in office.”
[5] Cal. Const., art. II, §§ 13–18.
[6] The statutory recall procedure applies to all elected county officials, which includes sheriffs. Elec. Code § 11004: “For the purposes of this division, a ‘local officer’ is an elective officer of a . . . county.”
[7] General law counties possess only those powers expressly conferred upon them by the California constitution and the legislature. Younger v. Board of Supervisors (1979) at 870. Charter counties hold “all the powers that are provided by this Constitution or by statute for [general law] counties.” Dibb v. County of San Diego (1994) at 1208. The Dibb opinion at 1206–08 describes in detail the differences between charter and general law counties, and between charter counties and charter cities.
[8] Elec. Code § 11000.
[9] Cal. State Assn. of Counties, County Structure & Powers.
[10] Elec. Code § 11000.
[11] Elec. Code § 11004.
[12] Muehleisen v. Forward (1935) at 19; see also Dimon v. County of Los Angeles (2008) at 1281; Curphey v. Superior Court (1959) at 265 (manner of appointment or removal of a county officer is not a matter of statewide concern but of local concern, the county has control over it under its charter); Becker v. Council of City of Albany (1941) at 705.
[13] Muehleisen at 20.
[14] Los Angeles County Charter, art. IV, § 13.
[15] Even our suggestion above that a charter county that, like Los Angeles, might use the general statutory recall procedure, does not apply to Los Angeles, because its express and specific charter requirement that county officers hold office until their successors are elected probably rules out recourse to the general statutory recall procedure.
[16] Penrod at 190 (emphasis added).
[17] 84 Ops.Cal.Atty.Gen. 88 (2001).
I worked there for 20+ years. Gone long ago. When she was elected, the really good guys like Kunkel, Kearnan et all quit from taking Asst/Under Sheriff positions. For a reason. Like all of us know, Rule #1 is NEVER, EVER go out with a work person in a relationship, it is sucide. But dont make it worse by having the most abysmal of all personalities as your BFF (apologies to my Hispanic friends!) a little petite squirt, intellectually challenged (it’s really dangerous in Silicon Valley to claim something you dont have, esp a non awarded PhD from a non existant Univ, hey ! I am an astronaut !), Hispanic w little guy syndrome and a rude, nasty, mean dirtbag to boot. Hey Vicky, wanna chime in about that Hawaii vacation with you and her a year before the election and her divorce from a certain LT in OES/ESB who resigned, due to her ? Her ex. Oh and her commms, other than some hired social media moron ? Zero, nothing, no replies to email, FB, vmail, Tik, Insta.. Good for you on your social media ice cream socials with 4 yr olds. Keep on crime fighting and supporting the guys, who by the way HATE you and Mini V, as we call him.
With today’s firing of Assistant Sheriff Monaghan, who was only member of the Command Staff to still have a legitimate connection and good will with the rank and file, the self-inflicted tragedy of Corpus is nearly complete. She truly does not care at all about the Office of the Sheriff. She’s off on some blind fantasy trip with the little man with the big ego. They’ve both risen so far, so fast. Like Icarus. And like Icarus, their egos are what will be their ruin, burning their wings, and making the fall spectacular to watch. Corpus has lost ALL credibility. For a while, I thought she was just being naive, but at this point, the “C-word” (corruption) needs to be considered.
Corpus fired Monaghan because he didn’t go along with the corruption. He was dismayed in regard to how Christina was Aenlle’s puppet rather than a Sheriff in charge.everything she says or does is crafted by this divisive
tyrant who pretends to be her protector .Many warned her but she wouldn’t listen. It’s always been about him and his ego . He USED her . First Latino Sheriff elected and she allows women to be mistreated in her office . Bravo Christina.
She let us all down but more importantly we need to look at the scope of the damage they have done and the public has a right to know . We can fix this by getting new
leadership. Good men and women with the qualifications are ready and waiting .
Mueller , she’s not as nice as you thought ,right ? Thank you for seeing the light. We are counting on you and the rest to save the integrity of the once great San Mateo County Sheriff Department.
As the first Latina Sheriff elected in San Mateo County, Christina made history. Initially, I thought she was a bright , intelligent woman and was honored to support her . I deeply regret this .
Please don’t let her gross incompetence and lack of judgment deter us from electing another female Sheriff in the future . We have many more competent and deserving woman better then this.
Should not matter if the Sheriff is a man or a woman, the most qualified candidate should get the job. Sorry if that offends the lefties. We pay taxes and a lot of them, lets hire people based in their merit, not what is between their legs.
In pertinent part, CA Govt Code §3060 reads, “An accusation in writing against any officer of a …, county, …, for willful or corrupt misconduct in office, may be presented by the grand jury of the county for, or in, which the officer accused is elected or appointed.”
In pertinent part, CA Govt Code §3072 reads, “Upon a conviction and at the time appointed by the court it shall pronounce judgment that the defendant be removed from office.”
If retaliatory termination from employment, without regard for California Labor laws, and the nature of the pending HR complaints being investigated by Judge Cordell are sufficient “willful misconduct” by either the Sheriff, her Chief of Staff, or both of them, then perhaps the Board of Supervisors will pursue a Grand Jury Investigation following the investigation of Judge Cordell. These would appear to be some of the potential courses of action available, based on the circumstances known at this point.
What in the name of “Madea Goes to San Mateo jail,” is going on here. This whole story reads like a script from a Tyler Perry movie. Woman rises to the top rank of an agency. Mystery man appears in her office that no one recognizes. The newly appointed woman tells everyone that he is in charge. Madea barges in the room and yells, “Who the hell are you and what witchcraft do you have over this woman!”