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Uploaded: Friday, March 1, 2013, 12:35 PM                                             

Santa Clara County Supervisor Shirakawa resigns
Will plead guilty to felony perjury, misuse of public funds

Posted by anonymous, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Mar 1, 2013 at 1:35 pm

It's about time. I have been shocked to read all sorts of things about this person's time in office. This is an important county and we need topnotch officials. Having a gambling addiction or whatnot is no excuse for the charges I have read about in local news media.

Posted by Book'em-Dano!, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Mar 1, 2013 at 2:23 pm

It will be interesting to see if the other Supervisors have anything to say about this, or if they are just going to sit there, on the dais, pretending that there is "nothing to see here folks".

There should be an analysis of this situation done, to determine if this guy was able to squiggle thru the cracks in the system, or if he was nailed as quickly as possible.

Posted by palo alto mom, a resident of the Embarcadero Oaks/Leland neighborhood, on Mar 1, 2013 at 2:46 pm

Finally!

Posted by Not an issue, a resident of the Community Center neighborhood, on Mar 1, 2013 at 3:45 pm

Wasn't Liz kiss also recently involved in some credit card hanky pansy while supervisor?

Funny how the weekly never reported it ( she did buy ad space in the weekly for her last run for the council)

Posted by Donald, a resident of the South of Midtown neighborhood, on Mar 1, 2013 at 6:13 pm

It's about time. His whining and covering up was an embarrassment to everyone. At least he is finally going to do the right thing and plead guilty.

Posted by Alan, a resident of the Leland Manor/Garland Drive neighborhood, on Mar 1, 2013 at 9:33 pm

If George were not a well connected politician, he would have been in jail years ago. Thanks S.C. 'leaders' for sticking your heads in the sand until excessive news coverage shamed you into action.

Posted by Hmmm, a resident of East Palo Alto, on Mar 2, 2013 at 12:14 pm

Every county is important enough to not warrant this type of corruption, anonymous. Shirakawa's always been a selfidh tool, riding the coattails of his daddy's accomplishments. Watching the other supes on the news last night was laughable, w/their fake sympathy & pretending to not know he was corrupt.

Have you paid any attention to the shenanigans of San Mateo County supes? How about the crooked DA & the child porn-watching head of probation? The court-appointed shrink who molested numerous kids? The sheriff busted in a cathouse raid?

Posted by Michael, a resident of Menlo Park, on Mar 2, 2013 at 9:46 pm

With the indictment on Shirakawa, we have another example of the politicians behaving badly. His apology is as phony as his financial reporting. Otherwise he would not have spent four months denying, deflecting, and disparaging the press and his supposed critics.

My question is why is he only facing a year in prison? That seems incredibly lenient. Why is the DA overseeing the plea bargain? Is not there an obvious conflict of interest here? Yes they investigated, but should it not go to the state AG’s office? The DA and his assistant must personally know Shirakawa, have worked with him over the past 5 years. Are they the best people to investigate and decide on a plea bargain? Besides the election and embezzlement issues here, what about all the tax returns he must have filed and lied on, state and federal?

Also, what negligence is there in the DA’s office in not catching Shirakawa before this? The not filing of campaign finance reports would seem to be a simple thing to monitor. Why did not the DA catch this before? What about county election officials? Why did not they do their job?

Where is an investigation of county finance officials who did not do their job in protecting public funds by allowing Shirakawa to get away with filing false expense reports, allowing county money to go to donations, and casinos? My whole adult working life I have had to file expense reports and original receipts are always required, otherwise I have to eat the expense. It is common sense. This is why Shirakawa’s crimes are so blatant and why someone in county finance should be facing criminal negligence charges as well.

I also think the other board of supervisors needs to atone for their negligence and the public needs to understand their role, since they apparently knew and allowed this behavior to continue. From top to bottom, there was no integrity, no one doing their duty, and ultimately no accountability. The DA and the supervisors are just hoping this will go away.

For those who live outside of Santa Clara county, look at your own local governments. In San Mateo, we had a sheriff detained at an illegal brothel while on the county dime and the probation chief arrested for child pornography. The question is what else is out there and who are policing the political class? Local, state or Federal?