Another kind of deficit

“I am frustrated by the delay,” Mueller said in a comment at this week’s board meeting, formalized in a subsequent news release. “Supervisor Canepa, a few weeks back, you stated that you didn’t care how long this process took. Respectfully, I disagree.”

I always like these one-word caveats — respectfully, honestly, frankly.

Anyway, the meaning was not lost on Canepa, who said in a brief phone interview yesterday, “Make no mistake about it, this is uncharted territory. All of us on the board understand this should be a fair process. Supervisor Mueller knows very, very well that this was a decision made by the board.”

Mueller, who declined further comment, appeared to be asserting that Canepa was responsible for a delay in the process. Canepa replied, “To suggest one member can delay the process is not factual or true. … We have gone through this process together and Supervisor Mueller should know this. Not one person makes this decision.”

And there you go.

The board has to make this decision — at least four of them if they want to fire Corpus. It serves everyone better if they make this decision expeditiously, but certainly, and more critically, as a unified body.

Right now, they seem to be operating as a series of sole proprietorships. Behind the scenes, there is no sign they are working together, or even that they like each other.

As a body, the board is less than four years old and maybe they need time to build their own political identities and working relationships. But the challenges are not waiting. Meanwhile, there has been a virtually unprecedented string of 4-1 votes on spending issues, with Supervisor Jackie Speier the dissenter. Closely watch board members interacting at their meetings, even on video, and you can see disdainful body language and eye-rolling.

The spiffy and environmentally advanced new county building, celebrated last week at an elegant event stage-managed by Canepa, even seems to invite distance between the supervisors. In their old facilities, the supervisors had small offices, cheek-by-jowl with one another. They often walked down a short hall to talk to each other. Supervisors became good friends, went to lunch together, enjoyed one another’s company and openly supported one another for re-election.

As now, supervisors were rivals for attention and the opportunities for higher office such attention might permit. But they had a unified view of what was good for the county and it was important to them that they work together.

The board offices in the new building are spacious. It is easy to imagine that the space between them will prove more than feng shui.

Last week’s ribbon-cutting for the new building was grafted onto an observance of the 169th anniversary of the formation of San Mateo County. This vast area was slated to remain part of San Francisco. Internecine political warfare led to the creation of a new county and independent governance was wrestled from the claws of some corrupt San Francisco officials.

Ever since then, San Mateo County has struggled with what county historian Mitch Postel calls “the identity issue.” People here do not identify with the county, or even their city of residence.

All of which has invited the rest of the region to dismiss San Mateo County’s concerns and to belittle the area as vapid, wealthy suburbs. The board really is the only entity positioned to assert the needs and identity of San Mateo County.

The decision on the sheriff is just one crisis facing the board. It will resolve itself one way or another, even if it means waiting out Corpus until her term expires in 2028. When it is all over, the county still will be where the vast majority of government-sponsored social services are delivered. Looming ominously is a state funding shortfall expected to be in the many billions, not to mention millions upon millions of dollars this Corpus mess is likely to cost.

This would be a good time, and the Corpus matter the right opportunity, for supervisors to begin talking to one another — to assert, not their independence, but their unity.

It will come in handy later.

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.