Kenneth Binder was selected in a 4-1 vote by the Board of Supervisors to be the 27th San Mateo County sheriff, a move to bring the agency into a new era following decades of scandal and turmoil that accelerated in the last year.
Ken Binder was named San Mateo County sheriff Nov. 12.
Ana Mata/Daily Journal
Binder will be sworn into office at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 12, after an extremely expedited process to fill the vacancy within a month following the removal of Christina Corpus, who was ousted for conflict of interest, retaliation against employees and ordering the wrongful arrest of a union leader.
"It's a honor to serve, I'm looking forward to the opportunity as well as the challenges," Binder said.
Stabilizing the organization is Binder’s first focus, he said.
Binder is the former undersheriff of Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, and rose through the ranks of the agency for 27 years. He most recently served as the interim chief of police at the Gilroy Police Department.
Supervisors said Binder was the most qualified to fill the position due to his experience overseeing correctional facilities and leading a large metropolitan sheriff’s department.
“Experience matters. Trust matters. Stability matters,” Supervisor Ray Mueller said. “I believe in this moment, Ken Binder is the leader our sheriff’s department deserves and our community deserves.”
Binder said he would bring back Chris Hsiung to be his undersheriff. Hsiung was Corpus’ undersheriff before he left the organization frustrated with its leadership. Binder also said he has been in conversation with former Assistant Sheriff Ryan Monaghan, who also worked for Corpus briefly, before she fired him.
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Corpus’ tenure in the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office was historic — she was both the first woman and Latina to hold the office in San Mateo County as well as the first elected sheriff to be removed from office without a recall effort or civil grand jury procedure.
“We have been through a holy hell as a county, and there is great interest in moving forward with clear-eyed intention,” said Supervisor Jackie Speier.
The Board of Supervisors removed Corpus from office with a unanimous vote Oct. 14. On Oct. 29, the board opted to proceed with appointing Corpus’ successor rather than hosting a special election.
Applications for the sheriff job were open for a week and the Board of Supervisors had just another week to move through a selection process that included a town hall where candidates answered questions submitted by the public Monday, Nov. 10.
Binder will be the 27th sheriff of San Mateo County and will serve the remainder of the term until January 2029. He will be up for reelection in 2028.
Board President David Canepa opposed appointing Binder, preferring candidate David Lazar, former assistant chief of the San Francisco Police Department.
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