A landslide of notes, quotes and dust motes

In any event, her view is unchanged. In a statement she issued yesterday — continuing a pattern of trying to upstage statements by her critics — Corpus dismissed the results of Tuesday’s landslide approval of Measure A and said, quite simply: “I will not resign.”

Any number of people predicted a landslide passage of Measure A. But the 85% vote of approval, undoubtedly the largest margin of victory for anyone or anything on a countywide ballot, surprised nearly everyone.

In her statement, Corpus tried to paint the election as something less than a legitimate message from voters, since it took place “in an off-cycle where barely 20% of the registered voters participated.” This is just one more way she is opting to ignore the blunt and unequivocal electoral reality — she lost and the voters want her gone.

The numbers are inescapable: 78,319 people voted yes as of Tuesday’s voting report. For weeks, Corpus has used another number — 82,622, the total vote she received when she ran for sheriff in 2022. In her own contorted reality, she may well miss the point — the number of Measure A yes votes is uncomfortably close to the number she repeatedly cites as her affirmation in 2022. Who knows? There may be enough votes yet uncounted to reach the total she garnered three years ago.

BOLDLY GOING: The county is through the looking glass now. The Board of Supervisors will have to create a quasi-judicial process for ruling on Corpus’ future. Undoubtedly, it will include formal charges, evidence-gathering and public hearings, including sworn testimony.

The process cannot just be fair — it has to appear fair. Here the board has a problem. Three of the current supervisors, Ray Mueller, Noelia Corzo and David Canepa, have called for Corpus to resign and voted to put Measure A on the ballot; new Supervisor Lisa Gauthier endorsed Measure A.

Corpus said she is “entitled to a public evidentiary hearing before a neutral and unbiased body,” which sounds like she will show up at a board hearing, until you read it closely. The betting here is that she will not testify under oath before the board. Meanwhile, county insiders, to put it mildly, are eager to subpoena the sheriff.

SUMMERTIME, AND THE LIVING IS EASY: This is not going to end neatly or swiftly. It will be 40 days before the board officially accepts the certified election results. Only after that is it likely the board will create and formally adopt a hearing process. It could include an independent panel or individual conducting the process. It will take weeks — maybe months.

BET ON THIS: Lawsuits. Lots of lawsuits. By Corpus. By her sidekick, the good doctor, Victor Aenlle. And by dozens of sheriff’s employees, some of whom already have filed claims against the county, the first step toward a lawsuit. Echoing across the months are the words uttered by then-Supervisor Warren Slocum when this scandal first burst into public: This will cost the county millions and millions of dollars.

JUST ANOTHER DAY: Yesterday morning, Corpus held a meeting of her command staff, but, according to sources, she made no reference to the election.

SHE IS STILL SHERIFF: At least for now. This has more than a few staff members very uneasy about how Corpus might conduct herself in the coming months that she still is in charge.

Eliot Storch, secretary of the Deputy Sheriff’s Association, addressed this very question on a live Election Night edition of The Game podcast.

Sheriff’s Office staff is “very concerned that Sheriff Corpus is going to use this as an opportunity to retaliate against people. It’s extremely concerning. … The fact that the numbers are what they are is a little more concerning because she might take the opinion she has nothing to lose — she might as well try to burn this place down on her way out.” Asked if he meant that she might literally damage the Sheriff’s Office, Storch said, “I hope not literally.” But, speaking for his colleagues, he said he is fearful the sheriff will see the current circumstances as an “opportunity to really retaliate and mistreat people who have been vocally against her.”

Mark Simon is a veteran journalist, whose career included 15 years as an executive at SamTrans and Caltrain. He co-hosts a podcast/videocast that can be found at TheGamePeninsula.com, and he can be reached at marksimon@smdailyjournal.com.