BY ADRIANA HERNANDEZ
Daily Post Staff Writer
Christina Corpus had a golden parachute when she lost her job for corruption as sheriff of San Mateo County.
She will get $402,338.28 a year in pension and health care benefits in her retirement.
Corpus, 55, of San Bruno, retired Oct. 15, just a day before the Board of Supervisors voted to fire her for several reasons including hiring her alleged boyfriend to a top-level job despite his lack of experience.
In retirement, she will receive family medical benefits worth $75,307.44 a year.
Corpus said she retired a day before she was fired so she could keep health insurance for herself and her children, aged 16 and 14, according to court documents.
“My 14-year-old is severely autistic and requires special medical and educational services,” she said in a court declaration.
In retirement, she receives $27,252.57 a month or $327,030.84 a year, according to the county’s pension agency, SamCERA.
Her pension benefits will be adjusted in April for changes in the inflation rate. How much will her retirement cost? Adding her pension benefits of $327,030.84 and her medical benefits of $75,307.44, she will cost $402,338.28 a year.
Tax-free pension?
And she may be able to get more money from taxpayers.
Law enforcement officers who claim to be disabled can receive a tax-free pension. Originally, the benefit was for officers who were wounded in the line of duty. But by 2005, 80% of the chiefs in the CHP were retiring with medical pensions that were tax-free, according to an investigation by the Sacramento Bee. The retired officers were claiming they suffered from irritable bowel syndrome or stress, two maladies that are difficult for doctors to document.
After the Bee’s story was published, politicians promised reforms, but it is still possible for retired law enforcement officers to get tax-free pensions.
The agencies handling Corpus’ pension have refused to say if she has been granted a medical pension. However, a tax-free pension would significantly increase the cash she receives every month.
Public-sector pensions are based on years of employment, an employee’s final salary or final three years of salary, and other specifics in the pension plan the employee has selected.
‘They don’t deserve me’
Corpus moved up through the ranks in the sheriff’s office for over 20 years and made $384,246 in total pay plus $253,871 in benefits in 2024, according to records from Transparent California, a nonprofit, nonpartisan website that tracks public-sector pay.
Corpus was fired by the board on Oct. 14 after a tumultuous two years and nine months in office. Investigations showed she had given her alleged boyfriend the job of chief-of-staff and she engaged in intimidation and retaliation of employees. She was accused of arresting one of her critics and demoting others.
On Corpus’ last day, she told ABC7’s Dan Noyes, who had become her unofficial spokesman, that she retired “under duress” so she could retain her medical benefits for herself and her children.
She said, “I’ll be OK. They don’t deserve me.”
Interesting how nobody in San Mateo County government tried to claw back these benefits. I guess that once you’re in the County Family, you’re always in the County Family.
Will Corpus really get $400,000 a year in pension and health benefits? It seems the article is silent in exploring what may happen to her pension and health benefits if she is charged with, and ultimately convicted of, committing any crimes while working, prior to her retirement. For example, the kidnapping and false imprisonment of a union leader under color of authority. What might SamCERA share with the Post if that were to happen, hypothetically?
Wagstaffe will never charge her with anything. You’re naive if you think she’ll go on trial for a felony. The county always protects its own.
When is the criminal indictment coming? If found guilty of criminal wrongdoing, wouldn’t that affect her pension?
Take a look at Measure K slush fund article.
Want to bet that she filed for unemployment even though she supposedly resigned.
WHAT A JOKE!
So was she fired or did she retire? Seems like it can’t be both.
“My 14-year-old is severely autistic and requires special medical and educational services”
So does every pretentious bay area family, it’s either that or confused on there gender/identity… they’re the longstanding flavors of the month.
Dumb question, but here goes:
Does her 14 year old’s (alleged) autism qualify Corpus for a tax-free disability pension?
If not, why does she feel compelled to disclose the (alleged) fact that her son is so disabled? What is in it for her? And what am I missing here?
She is a criminal and a grifter! This is OUTRAGEOUS!!!
She gets voted out for corruption, miss handling, budgets, negligence, violating civil codes, and protocols she has multimillion dollar suits against her and the county still wants to pay her for excellent work with the $400,000 a year pension?
It definitely pays to get elected sheriff. Look at the salaries of all public employees on the web. I was a news reporter in Contra Costa County with six years of college and 20 years of experience and I looked up the category in county government to find the title of county worker that matched my salary: File Clerk 2, no college, training or experience required.
What a disgrace. Thanks Supervisor Mueller for dreaming up a convoluted process for firing Ms Corpus which led to layers of hearings and no doubt millions expended in attorney’s fees for outside county lawyers, not to mention Corpus’s own massive expenditure of attorney’s fees for herself. Then after all that, she is allowed to resign thereby protecting her pension . Incredible. A number of our local politicians have let us down. Is anybody watching how hardworking taxpayer money is wasted not just by this charade but by things like portions of Measure K ? Sadly this is just the tip of the iceberg as the state of California has apparently failed to audit and monitor the use of public funds resulting in billions wasted or lost to fraud .Who loses in the end? All of us, over and over and over again.
By paying out a hefty pension, after what taxpayers have endured, this miserable outcome illustrates the level of official corruption in office that’s tacitly accepted by our elected officials at several levels, but also a major indication of the county’s biased institutional system of law and its unfair application within the community. Why else could Corpus be awarded a pension after failing the residents and voters, disgracing her public office, and her fellow officers? Tell me why we still need to vote for and pay for these protected crooks in office, and to pay for their incompetence for years to come.