Because the proceedings to take away San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus from workplace enter essentially the most vital stage, the secrecy should finish.
The potential unseating of a high-ranking elected official from workplace must be performed in public, with full transparency, not behind closed doorways.
On Wednesday, the Bay Space-based First Modification Coalition threatened litigation if the county doesn’t open the removing hearings to public view.
The coalition demand letter is correct: The county has established a quasi-judicial continuing that requires sunshine. A public course of is the morally, ethically and legally right course.
Voters earlier this 12 months gave the county Board of Supervisors the ability to take away Corpus from workplace if she violated the legislation or uncared for her duties. And so they entrusted the supervisors to arrange a good course of for evaluating the sheriff’s efficiency.
Honest to Corpus. And honest to the general public. Voters didn’t grant the supervisors authority to conduct star chamber proceedings hidden from public view.
It’s time for the county to cease attempting in charge Corpus for the secrecy. County supervisors set the foundations. It’s as much as them to make sure transparency.
Because the U.S. Supreme Court docket dominated in a landmark 1980 case on court docket entry, “the appearance of justice can best be provided by allowing people to observe it.”
Up to now, nonetheless, that’s not what has occurred. The Board of Supervisors solid a public vote to take away Corpus from workplace, however the foundation for that vote — the investigations and a probation officer’s listening to that led as much as it — have been stored secret by the county.
(A lot of what we all know thus far in regards to the county investigation and listening to has been from court docket paperwork within the parallel lawsuit Corpus filed attempting to cease the county motion.)
We now method essentially the most vital portion of the county removing course of. Corpus has appealed the supervisors’ resolution, triggering proceedings earlier than a retired decide who will function a listening to officer and finally challenge a suggestion again to the Board of Supervisors.
Throughout that enchantment listening to, Corpus’ authorized crew can current no matter proof she may need rebutting the accusations towards her and, for the primary time, query her accusers.
Corpus has demanded the listening to be held in secret. It’s troubling that an official would declare she deserves to maintain her elected put up however doesn’t need the general public to listen to the case towards her or her protection. County officers have refused to offer a straight reply on whether or not they’ll accede to the sheriff’s demand.
Because the First Modification Coalition factors out, Corpus’ authorized justifications for sealing the proceedings are skinny at greatest and overridden by the general public curiosity in transparency.
“The Removal Hearing at issue here,” the coalition writes, “‘walks, talks and squawks’ very much like a judicial proceeding — a type of proceeding that has been presumptively open for centuries and is at the heart of the First Amendment right of access.”
Because the Supreme Court docket mentioned, “People in an open society do not demand infallibility from their institutions, but it is difficult for them to accept what they are prohibited from observing.”
Initially Revealed: July 18, 2025 at 11:37 AM PDT
