Power of Board to Fire Is Upheld
The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors has the power to remove the sheriff or any other elected official with a four-vote majority, a state district court of appeal has ruled.
The ruling is a defeat for Sheriff Gary Penrod, who had challenged a county ordinance that allows the board, with the support of at least four of the five members, to remove any elected county official under certain circumstances. The law was part of the county’s original 1913 charter. The board amended the charter in 2002.
Penrod filed a lawsuit in San Bernardino County Superior Court in 2003, challenging the law. He lost that suit but appealed to the 4th District Court of Appeal in Riverside. He argued that the law would make it difficult for the sheriff to investigate wrongdoing among board members who could quash an investigation by firing the sheriff.
The court ruled Monday that the law was constitutional, noting that the board is barred from interfering with any investigations by the sheriff or the district attorney.
A spokesman for Penrod could not be reached Tuesday.
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