Santa Clara County is dealing with unaffordable housing, inaccessible child care, homelessness and a mental health crisis. One leader wants to build coalitions to solve the region’s most pressing problems. Supervisor Susan Ellenberg touted her agenda of “building together” on Tuesday in her first State of the County address as president of the Board of...
Full transcript: Santa Clara County Supervisor Susan Ellenberg’s 2023 State of the County
Editor’s Note: This is a transcript of Santa Clara County Supervisor Susan Ellenberg’s full 2023 State of the County address. Thank you. Thank you to everyone here tonight, filling the chambers, the breezeway outside and even the adjacent auditorium. I’m feeling the love! Thank you to everyone watching remotely. Thank you to all the elected...
Santa Clara County ambulance service scrutinized
Santa Clara County will soon solicit a new contract for ambulance services, and one local fire chief is pushing to change the model. In a letter sent to the county’s Health and Hospital Committee last November, San Jose Fire Chief Robert Sapien lambasted the county’s current structure, where a private company is contracted for ambulance...
South Bay reentry program changes lives of formerly incarcerated
Mark Ashford has been in and out of the criminal justice system for 26 years, never staying out for more than five months at a time. A few years ago, everything changed with the help of a support program and reentry services. “It is possible for people to change,” Ashford, 46, told San José Spotlight....
Silicon Valley lawmakers lobby Biden for federal storm aid
Local leaders want federal aid for Santa Clara County residents who’ve been excluded from financial assistance after the recent storms. With more than $50 million in damages countywide, state Sen. Dave Cortese and Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, along with local Congressmembers Jimmy Panetta, Ro Khanna, Anna Eshoo and Zoe Lofgren, have written letters urging President Joe...
Santa Clara County has low rates of COVID, flu
Santa Clara County experienced a triple health threat this winter—flu, a respiratory virus and COVID-19—but county officials and medical experts said overall infections remain low and are subsiding. The county’s seven-day rolling average of COVID cases is 238 as of Wednesday compared to 5,308 this same time last year, according to the county dashboard. Roger...
San Jose experiences a ‘Black exodus’
Signs of segregation may not be as brazen as the days of Martin Luther King Jr., but Black leaders in San Jose say racism still rears its head and is why the Black community keeps shrinking. It’s something Silicon Valley Minority Business Consortium CEO Walter Wilson calls the “Black exodus.” Thousands of Black residents have left over time...
Silicon Valley mother-daughter duo committed to public service
It started with stuffing campaign envelopes together as a family. Decades later, mother Rosemary Kamei and daughter Ellen Kamei are both serving in local government. Rosemary, a likely pick for San Jose vice mayor, won the District 1 seat for City Council last June. District 1 is based in West San Jose and includes the Winchester...
Santa Clara County shutters hybrid meetings—for now
Santa Clara County is eliminating hybrid committee meetings in favor of an in-person only format, which residents said could reduce community engagement. County CEO Jeff Smith told the Board of Supervisors during the Jan. 10 meeting that a lack of resources makes it infeasible to continue providing hybrid services for every committee meeting. The general board...
Mixed progress for Silicon Valley’s English learner students
Santa Clara County’s English learner students, part of the largest group in the nation, saw mixed progress during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Santa Clara County school districts with the largest populations of English learners, data reviewed by San José Spotlight showed three districts had a drop in test scores while the others saw an increase. The...