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Santa Clara County Executive Jeff Smith, left, listens to Dr. Gulshan Bhatia as she gives Smith the tour of the Lenzen Health Clinic on Thursday, April 29, 2010. (Karen T. Borchers/Mercury News)

We never understood how George Shirakawa Jr. got away with bad expense reports and nonexistent campaign accounting for four years as a Santa Clara County supervisor. But based on Karen de Sá's report in Sunday's newspaper, the reason turns out to be simple:


Oh, disregard for the law by county employees who were supposed to enforce it played a part. Then there was the occasional intervention of aggravated cluelessness that loomed large in this trail of blunders. But rampant incompetence pretty much sums it up.

Neither County Executive Jeff Smith nor his bosses, the remaining four supervisors, seems to appreciate just how bad this is.

Smith's contract is up in June. The supervisors should delay that vote until the fall, when a new District 2 supervisor will be in place. By that time Smith needs to convince the public that managers and department heads he has in place understand the law and will live up to the public trust. Anyone who doesn't needs to go.

By the way, about acting Registrar of Voters Shannon Bushey: If she's on the list of possible appointees to the permanent job, hit the delete button now. Bushey signed 16 letters to Shirakawa saying he would be reported to the Fair Political Practices Commission and the district attorney, but she never did it, even though it was required by state law.


Inept or illegal decisions in at least three departments -- the registrar's, the Department of Revenue and the Controller-Treasurer's Office -- left Shirakawa unchecked as he spent $130,000 in taxpayers' and campaign contributors' money on gambling and other personal expenses. The community has to demand better because it's not clear the current board members appreciate the problem. They now have passed amended rules totaling 252 pages, but guess what: They're a waste if the people enforcing them are clueless. The rules in place before were fine.

Fortunately there's an election June 4 to replace Shirakawa, who resigned in March and pleaded guilty to five felonies and seven misdemeanors. The District 2 candidates can perform a public service by airing this matter thoroughly in their campaigns and pressing the current board to raise the bar.

We feel a responsibility to strengthen county management because we supported last fall's ballot measure for a county sales tax that went into effect Monday and is administered by county staff. Cindy Chavez ran the campaign for the tax, and Teresa Alvarado supported it. They are the main contenders for District 2, and they should feel that same responsibility.

De Sá's reporting for Sunday's story was based on interviews and on copies of emails, like the mind-numbing note from the revenue collections director who put enforcement on hold while she figured out if Shirakawa was still in office. Really.

Smith says nobody told him about Shirakawa's problems. But some managers knew. Why aren't heads rolling?

Acting Registrar Bushey said her office had stopped reporting problems like Shirakawa's to law enforcement in 2002 because officials were not "responsive." That's no excuse for violating the law, and it's even more lame now that Ann Ravel runs the FPPC and Jeff Rosen is DA.

Then there's Finance Agency Director Vinod Sharma, who apparently was briefed on some of Shirakawa's problems by an underling and never told Smith. Rationalizing his department's failure to catch Shirakawa's bad spending reports, he told de Sá: "Out of a $4 billion budget, $30,000 is not a material amount. The controls are generally working."

Bzzzzt. Wrong analogy. That's $30,000 in tax money he missed for one employee. The county has 15,000. If 1 percent get away with anything remotely comparable, we're talking millions.

Passing reams of rules without understanding how this happened is like flinging open a car hood and replacing random parts without first figuring out why the thing doesn't run. It's pointless, and it's expensive.

The supervisors, if not Smith, need to hold people accountable.