BY DAVE PRICE
Daily Post Editor
Talk about insult to injury for San Mateo County taxpayers.
Sheriff Christina Corpus will be allowed to retire with full pension and benefits even though she was fired by the Board of Supervisors for corruption.
Corpus submitted her resignation letter a few hours after the supervisors fired her on Tuesday.
Her pension will be 90% of her final year’s pay. According to records the county provided to Transparent California, a nonpartisan operation that keeps track of government compensation, she makes $701,310 in total pay, including $466,058 in cash and $235,252 in benefits.
The county should try to take back the money.
The county has spent millions of dollars on her lawyers, who defended her during the firing hearings. And the county will pay millions to settle the lawsuits brought by employees who were harassed, intimidated and falsely arrested by Corpus.
The county has a simple way to collect this money. The supervisors can take one of the many lawsuits filed against Corpus and decide to waive punitive damages. If the county waives punitive damages, the other defendants in the case, such as Corpus, would have to pay those damages out of their own pocket.
In lawsuits, actual damages are often small, but the punitive damages produce the big numbers you read about in the headlines.
If Corpus doesn’t have the money in the bank, foreclose on any real estate she may own. Garnish her wages, should she ever get another job.
It’s disappointing to hear that Supervisor David Canepa doesn’t want to try blocking Corpus’ generous pension payments. Is Canepa on the same team as Corpus?
Editor Dave Price’s column appears on Mondays.
Let’s hope “Sleepy” Steve comes in with some criminal charges against Corpus. A felony conviction would end her ability to draw her law enforcement pension once and for all!
Re: her pension I believe Corpus would forfeit her salary increase after the time she was elected sheriff and proven corrupt.
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Totally agree with Mr Price’s opinion, and how to get the money “back” from Corpus. It makes no sense to reward wrongdoing for the remainder of her life! How old is Corpus? How many years will taxpayers owe her 90% of $700,000-plus??!
Outrageous! And at least one County Supervisor indicated he was caught off-guard with Corpus’ scheme to retire before she was technically fired–and save her pension. There was plenty of time to read up on the process–7 months!
Given what her corruption and misdeeds have cost the County, this seems fair. You broke the rules, you’re on your own…
How about making her pay court costs for this absurdly long mess?
It is completely ridiculous that she has this retirement package after all the horrendous criminal actions SHE committed along with her cohorts! She should be stripped of her pension and benefits. She has cost the County MILLIONS and is continuing to do so! Every dime the County paid to defend her needs to be repaid by HER! She was found GUILTY.