#santa-clara-county

#santa-clara-county

The FPPC wants to know if county government funds were used on Measure A campaign mailers, following complaints from the Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association and Libertarian Party of Santa Clara County.

In the 17th Congressional District, incumbent Rep. Ro Khanna is facing a challenge from tech founder Ethan Agarwal, a fellow Democrat. Agarwal is an opponent of the ballot initiative to levy a one-time, 5% wealth tax on Californians with more than $1 billion in assets.

Four Campbell teens are among the 97 artists whose work has been chosen for ArtNow 2026, the annual juried show at New Museum Los Gatos (NUMU) for high school students in Santa Clara County. NUMU received more than 600 submissions from 53 high schools on the theme Before/Between/Beyond.

In an alarming change that could force Cupertino, Saratoga and Los Altos Hills to slash millions of dollars from their budgets or raise local taxes, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office is revamping a long-standing contract that provides those cities with public safety services. The new contract could potentially raise police costs for those jurisdictions by about a third through 2027. While the cities assert the contract changes came as a surprise with limited transparency, the county argues that policing has become far more expensive and that these municipalities must now pay for the true cost of the services.

According to data shared with SFGATE by AirDNA - an analytics firm focused on STR companies like Airbnb - this year there were roughly 500 more listings added in Santa Clara County for the week of Feb. 2 compared with last year. The county had about 3,200 available listing nights for that week in February last year, but that has jumped to roughly 3,700 this year for the week during the Super Bowl.

Santa Clara County has paid $5.5 million to settle a lawsuit over its former chief pediatrician for foster kids, a one-time foster and adoptive parent accused of sexually abusing a boy in his care, according to his lawyer. The settlement agreement between the county and the former foster youth, a Northern California resident now in his 30s, is the first time the county has paid damages to one of Dr. Patrick Clyne's accusers and attorneys say more lawsuits are imminent.

An effort to develop housing at public transit stations in Santa Clara County has awakened after being dormant for decades - and is expected to rake in lease profits and fuel train ridership. VTA leaders next week will open the doors to their first new public transit-oriented apartment complex in 20 years, between the Willow Glen and Alma neighborhoods next to the Tamien light rail station. Complete with a child care center and improved transit plaza, the complex will offer 135 affordable apartments.

From Highway 101 to Monterey Road, traffic in Silicon Valley has become deadly for wildlife trying to move between the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Diablo Range. Now, a major project is underway to connect preserved open spaces in the South Bay and reduce dangerous crashes for drivers. Monterey Road is a death trap, said Fraser Shilling, a researcher at UC Davis who studies how wildlife interacts with roads.

The county received nearly $600,000 from the Emergency Solutions Grants Program, which can be used to fund shelter operations, outreach, homelessness prevention or rapid rehousing. Over the past five years, the county has received $2.5 million in these grants and largely used the money to fund rapid rehousing programs, which give people time-limited rental subsidies. "(These) funds are an important source of funds for our rapid rehousing program, assisting approximately 50 households a year to obtain and maintain permanent housing,"

The county originally had planned to lease the 1410 S. Bascom Avenue medical offices in a 30-year deal approved by the Board of Supervisors in 2022. But the multi-decade lease would have cost the county on average $25.5 million annually. In the agreement approved by the Board on Tuesday, the county will instead purchase the property using lease revenue bonds that will lower the annual payment to roughly $20 million. The county says the total savings amount to $112 million over the course of three decades.

In 2023, more than 8.4 million renter households nationwide were paying more than half their income for rent or living in severely inadequate housing. That figure has barely changed since the pandemic. For regions like Santa Clara County - where housing costs have long outpaced wages - this is not a warning sign. It is daily reality. Gov. Gavin Newsom's proposed budget reflects a state navigating fiscal constraints while continuing to prioritize housing and homelessness.

Larry Stone, who has been assessor for 30 years, decided to step down now rather than at the end of his term a year from now. Had he waited for the end of his term, the office of assessor would have appeared on next year's ballot along with many other races. Instead, by leaving now, he's creating a single-office, small turnout race, with the person he endorsed having a head start over outside candidates.

Silver, a 55-year-old North County resident, said he was appreciative of the support from county leadership, adding that his appointment preserves vital continuity in the office that will help them maximize their mission to help vulnerable and indigent people disproportionately ensnared in the criminal court system. The office has a long tradition of being very client-centered and focusing all decisions through the lens of what's best for the community and the specific clients we serve, Silver said in an interview.

More than a million ballots are in the mail. The first votes will be counted in less than a week. The Santa Clara County Assessor's runoff off election is jogging into the homestretch toward Election Day, Dec. 30. December 30? That's right. An election cycle that began more than five months ago in the bright sun of the summer solstice with the resignation/retirement of Assessor Larry Stone ends in the shadows of its winter counterpart.