San Jose Mercury News – June 26, 2019

Santa Clara County is the only local government entity responsible for helping the severely mentally ill, opioid addicts, and foster children. Yet our county government is considering spending $5 million on commissioning statues, and $125,000 for a single painting? The county does not operate a fine art museum, nor is it in the business of furnishing a villa, mind you.

Presently, each of the five county supervisors receives over $2 million a year to cover their salary and hire political staff. If supervisors really believe paintings and statuary are a spending priority, they should collectively pool and reallocate a portion of their generous personnel budgets to cover this discretionary spending.

By being more efficient with existing taxpayer allocations — and resisting the temptation to allocate funds better spent on community members dependent on social welfare programs — the county would honor its core mission to serve our most needy residents.

Pierluigi Oliverio, former San Jose Councilmember