Shirakawa and others..............

George Shirakawa got what was coming to him , but
what about the rest?

George Shirakawa Jr pleaded guilty 12 times,  But who else is guilty of abusing the public office ? Tip of the iceberg, and it will go nowhere. Too many people in power taking 'campaign contributions' has been going on a long time. So why punish Shirakawa when the whole house needs cleaning out?  And if an election were held today, he'd probably be re-elected. Wake up Santa Clara County! Hold your elected officials accountable and stop re-electing people who have misused public funds and then say "Oh I am sowwy for being bad, I won't do it anymore." According to the Mercury News : The District Attorney's Office investigation concluded that Shirakawa gambled away more than $100,000 in political and public funds over the past five years -- a pattern of "prolonged deception" aided by a secret slush fund, untraceable cash, forged signatures and false and perjured campaign filings. George Shirakawa Jr. never should have been elected a county supervisor. He's made a shambles of his tenure, lurching from one embarrassment to another -- an office budget out of whack, a personal bodyguard job to an old friend, campaign payments to relatives, and now a repeated failure to file election statements.Hypocrisy is amazing.. ** chuck Reed stole over $40,000 gave it back and not a word was said. Most of the media outlets under pressure removed any work of his theft. The District attorney turned a blind eye to the entire event. But in this case they unleashed the hounds to go after George. right or wrong why is the District attorney not investigation every single elected official in the county. One look at Pete constant and you can see he has charged the city for thousands of dollar worth of meals. It us rumored that he even made the city pay close to $100,000 for medically supervised weight lose which he claimed was caused from eating to many big mac's. Figone routinely charges the city for food which amounts to theft. This is not about right or wrong it is about political posturing. This is simply tatic to endure shirakawa is out of the way come the next election. If the DA had an integrity he would investigate all of them and charge Chuch Reed for his past thefts..... that is what justice demands and the voters should expect no less. In November, Shirakawa won a second term as supervisor after running unopposed while the district attorney's office investigated his alleged spending of campaign and public funds over the past decade. Sinunu-Towery said taxpayers funded Shirakawa's casino trips, golf outings and lavish meals."His actions brought a lot of shame to the political community and this county," Sinunu-Towery told the Associated Press. "We hope it sends a strong message that we won't tolerate corrupt government.

"It's just a pathetic story," Sinunu-Towery said.

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

** Although Shirakawa, belatedly, reimbursed the county for some of the expenses -- so far $7,049 -- it is illegal to "borrow" from public funds, even if an elected official later reimburses those expenses."

The Mercury News did not have this opinion when Councilman (now Mayor) Rufas Reed did it. he was allowed to pay back the money he used inappropriately. Not long after, his father-in-law (a honcho at Mercury News) helped him cause a scandal with Ron Gonzalez. Gonzalez was relieved of Mayorship and Reed was elected in his place, running on a platform of "sunshine" and accountability. Although Reed payed back the taxpayers for his indiscretions, he should be put in jail next to Shirakawa.