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BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Caltrain’s former CEO is organizing a voter recall of Sheriff Christina Corpus, who has refused to resign after the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors released a report that says her office is dysfunctional and corrupt.
Jim Hartnett, also an attorney and former Redwood City mayor, is organizing a group to gather signatures, Supervisor Ray Mueller said on a phone call yesterday.
“There are residents in the county who are coming together and already have started to make pledges of donations and time in order to help facilitate a recall,” Mueller said.
The campaign would need to get 43,646 signatures, representing 10% of registered voters in San Mateo County.
The recall question would go on the November 2025 ballot, Mueller said.
At the same time, supervisors are pursuing a March ballot measure that would give them the authority to remove the sheriff with cause. They’ll officially place the measure on the ballot on Tuesday.
But the measure is untested, and Mueller said yesterday that it could get slowed down by a lawsuit.
Corpus has said the March ballot measure is an attempt by the Board of Supervisors to take over her office.
“If you want a sheriff out, you hold a recall,” Corpus said in a statement on Nov. 19. “This is a blatant attempt to go around the voters. They don’t want a recall vote because they know they will lose.”
Mueller said the recall is a way for the county to cover all of its bases, and he will be helping with both campaigns.
Mueller set up an email address, [email protected], for people to volunteer on a recall campaign.
Hartnett couldn’t be reached for comment yesterday.
Hartnett was on Redwood City Council from 1994 to 2009 and CEO of SamTrans and Caltrain from 2015 to 2021. He’s currently chair of the Redwood City Police Advisory Committee.
Hartnett’s wife is Rosanne Foust, who is also a former Redwood City mayor, and is head of the San Mateo County Economic Development Association.
Calls for resignation
Corpus, who took office in January 2023, has faced growing calls to resign from her sergeants, lieutenants and captains, federal and state representatives, San Carlos City Council and the Board of Supervisors.
Retired Judge LaDoris Cordell released a bombshell report on Nov. 12 that named Corpus’ chief of staff Victor Aenlle throughout the report and having an inappropriate relationship with Corpus. Both have denied any such relationship.
Aenlle has shown a paranoid obsession with loyalty and made unilateral decisions that violated county policies and potentially broke the law, Cordell said.
“Nothing short of new leadership can save this organization that is in turmoil, and its personnel demoralized,” Cordell said.
Corpus said she’s being attacked because she goes against the status quo in the county.
“This moment challenges not only my leadership but the independence and integrity of this office. I will not step down, nor will I allow this institution to be politicized or influenced by special interests,” Corpus said in a letter on Tuesday.
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