California’s Fair Political Practices Commission confirmed Friday that it is investigating George Shirakawa Jr.’s failure to file campaign disclosure statements for the past four years. Shirakawa is president of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, which oversees a $4 billion annual budget.
The campaign law violations were detailed Wednesday in a cover story in the weekly newspaper Metro. Older filings listed payments totaling more than $50,000 to the mother of one of Shirakawa’s children and two of his daughters, each of whom were given campaign positions.
Shirakawa provided some handwritten notes to Metro detailing some of the expenses incurred during the lapsed reporting years. Among the expenses was a “staff retreat” for seven of his political hires in Reno.
In July, Shirakawa’s $90,000-a-year county paid driver and longtime friend Alex Flores was reassigned to the county jail after a request to send Flores to Las Vegas for a three-day bodyguard training course.
Shirakawa ran unopposed this June and was re-elected for another four year term as county supervisor, a position which pays $215,000, as of 2011.
Fair Political Practices Commission enforcement chief Gary Winuk told the San Jose Mercury News that Shirakawa could be prosecuted by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office if evidence supports the violations, including family payments, reported by Metro. “Virtually all of the violations could be criminal,” Winuk said.
So a candidate like John Mlnarik should not be allowed, under FPPC rules to use his law office funds for his campaign, to pay precinct walkers, and to merge law firm advertising for his campaign thus skirting the spending limitations. George, if you get a lawyer, refer him to Mlnarik, he might be next.
I’m not defending John Mlnarik. I don’t know him, but…
The Santa Clara Weekly has been running 1/2 page color ads on the inside of the front page for the Mlnarik law firm. Those ads feature lawyers in the firm – not the firm’s owner, who is a candidate for city council. I haven’t seen any ads for the law firm that are advertising for the owner’s city council candidacy. How is running ads for his law firm any different from all of the ads frequently run in the Weekly for the Gillmor real estate company, when Lisa Gillmor is running for council? (Yes, I know, she’s unopposed so will be elected, but the principle is the same – a candidate is a business owner with a business named after the candidate (or in Ms.Gillmor’s case, named after her father who started the business.) Yes, it’s fortuitous that Mlnarik owns a small business which he started and named after himself.
If you think the law firm’s ads are a FPPC violation, file a complaint with the FPPC. Just google the FPPC to find the complaint form.
Do you have evidence that precinct walkers are being paid by the law firm rather than by the campaign? Campaign finance filings are due this week on October 5th (they should be made public on that day.) Santa Clara (city) campaign filings are quickly uploaded to the city’s website by the city clerk’s office, so you can see Mlnarik’s FPPC 460 form with contributions and expenses for yourself. In my driving about town on a regular basis, I’ve personally seen John Mlnarik in the late afternoon and evening going door to door talking to voters. He’s spending boatloads of hours campaigning and talking to voters. Are his campaign workers volunteering, or are they paid? Again, if you think there’s a FPPC violation, please file a complaint with the FPPC.
A white pages search shows no one named Noreen De Christo in Santa Clara or anywhere else in the bay area. Could you perhaps be Santa Clara’s notorious cyberbully, who is angry because John Mlnarik’s campaign won’t hire him as a campaign consultant, and took down the cyberbully’s endorsement video from Mr. Mlnarik’s campaign website?
Again, file a complaint with the FPPC instead of making unproven allegations online.
You can always tell a greedy person. It extrudes through every aspect of their life. Shame on you, Mr. Shirwakawa.
The only disappoint is that the Metro didn’t start this ball rolling before Gorgeous George’s re-election.
Criminal charges should be filed because this guy is a fraud. He basically stole those campaign contributions from people to pay his delinquent alimony from years past.
I wonder if he and his chief of staff are still laughing.
Great Job Metro. You keep digging and you can launch the same kind of case on Constant and his connections to Garden City card room and construction. Shirakawa and Constant…..Birds of a feather……..
Greedy people look greedy and do greedy things; stuff their mouths, stuff their pockets….
Let us look at some differences here. For the record, I voted for Judy Nadler, supported John McLemore, and NEVER have voted for Lisa Gillmor for anything. I am writing in Judy Nadler for that seat. I believe Judy would understand why a single woman would have an unlisted number. What page i the White Pages is Taxpayer listed? I am supporting Bill Collins in Santa Clara, because he had a wonderful theory, get the professionals out of government. It was the professionals that came up with this bad debt deal for the stadium.
Now for Mlnarik.
If he is using his law firm phone as his campaign phone number, then I think he is using his law office.
Two, while Collins was making good points, Mlnarik accused Teresa O’Neill of having a domestic partner, which is untrue. So if he lies at a campaign forum, how is that ok?
Now, from what I saw, Mlnarik precinct walkers are walking around town with their law firm polo shirts. This is not campaigning and advertising?
My neighbor who is also voting for Collins saw the Mlnarik speech. He spent a ton of time talking about the services his law firm provides. About fifteen seconds were about the campaign, and how wonderful the stadium will be. The construction is done by Devcon where Kristin works.
Gillmor and Associates, never will hire them. However, they have been advertising for over three years while Mlnarik with same colors started advertising when he filed for candidacy.
Finally, look at the Chamber interview. I have no desire for vote for a chamber candidate, but if you see this interview, Mlnarik completely rejects every thing the chamber goes for. However, in his you tube videos, Mlnarik claims the chamber recruited him. His signs? Banners completely larger than the law allows. I am not going to back Planning Commissioner O’Neill at all, as she voted for the stadium. Santa Clara voters can really bring a Northside supporter by electing Collins. As for Mlnarik, he is a lawyer seeking a loophole, seeking a way to lie. Ps, I signed petitions against the debt idea, and voted against the stadium. So while Taxpayer is observing Mlnarik meet hundreds of voters (is he or she a stalker?), and criticizing single women for being unlisted (why would he or she be trolling white pages), Santa Clara residents will be voting for Collins! If you want my address, Taxpayer, feel free to ask, and then explain your stalking.
The Merc and now Metro have some sort of axe to grind with Shirikawa. That is the real story here here – I wonder what it might be. It is really amazing the lengths both entities go to highlight the man’s personal appearance.
I don’t know much about the guy but he has pissed someone off in a way that Reed or Figone or Constant or any of the other local pols haven’t since they receive little if any scrutiny and certainly no attacks on their physical appearance. Larry Stone may be on deck – compare the fairly flattering photo that accompanied his SJI Q&A vs the disheveld look in the most recent piece.
Pretty sad that SJI begs for credibility while it routinely lowers the bar.
So it was The Merc & Metro that prompted Shirakawa to not file his donations & accounting for those elections just so they could gang up on him in these articles?
Mr Shirakawa runs in a political circle that takes bullying and intimidation and now entitlement to new heights but it’s the paper and reporters fault for having an axe to grind? Personal character is more important than the jabs at his appearance. When you’re a public figure it is commonplace to tie appearance to their politics. It happens all the time (think of the jabbings that Gov Christie gets on his appearance especially after mean spirited speeches)If you behave like a bully and pick on others then its more likely that when you get jabbed back its going to have some sting. Mr Shirakawa should be concerned, there are a lot of people overweight but he seems to be near explosion at this point and at several county meetings he sweats and huffs & puffs in a way that indicates his health is in peril. He should spend a little time and effort in getting his house in order from his campaign finances to his waistline.
I never said the Merc and/or Metro were to blame for Shirakawa’s omissions. I am curious why he is singled out for scrutiny and why the grotesque caricature that accompanies this piece. I said I didn’t know much about him you said he runs in a circle that takes bullying entitlement and intimidation to new heights – you must know something that I obviously don’t AND that the so-called “reporters” at the Merc and SJI haven’t reported.
Yes they must have an axe to grind – If it were simply the fact that Shirakawa hadn’t filed legally mandated forms then why not simply report that? Instead, the Journos got everyone fired up when they made much ado about NOTHING in reporting that he had or was getting a body guard at county expense . They made it sound like he was demanding it rather than reporting THE FACT that (1) it was the sheriff’s idea and (2) the bodyguard was assigned to the PRESIDENT of the Board of Sups regardless of the person holding the ROTATING position.
So lets compare say elected Mayor Reed who has a position similar to Council President Shirakawa – similar inthat they are both the head’s of the bodies the belong to SJ City Council and SCC BOS.
Reed has a bodyguard/driver at his beck and call 24/7/365 with more overtime than any private sector employee can tolerate and yes that bodyguard receives special training… Merc an Metro justify it saying “Reed has made many enemies… and threats to his safety are always possible “ EVEN THOUGH REED
HIMSELF SAYS HEIS NOT AWARE OF ANY REAL OR PERCIEVED THREATs TO HIS SAFETY!!! Yet Reed has a bodyguard while the County’s money would be better spent sending George to fitness bootcamp…
Reed has a long anecdotal history of being a bully against his opponents who ran against him for the school board, his opponents on the board after he was elected , candidates who opposed him in his elections to the San Jose City Council and Mayor, and now he is the Bully in Chief on the Council and in City employment. Reed’s supporters in public and media commend his behavior. All of this is “anecdotal” because was mentioned in passing if at all by the local media at a time when his brother-in law Robert Ingle was publisher of the MercuryNews.
Reed has also had ethical “lapses” where he first spent his own money on various memberships, subscriptions and sports/entertainment tickets and made contributions to variuos campaigns… THEN reimbursed himself using taxpayer money! Reed’s indiscretions came to light after he accused Cindy Chavez of using taxpayer money for similar purposes. Chavez was exonerated AND was able to prove REED’s dishonesty! Once Reed was found out he gave the oblgiatory “everybody does it” BS (Reed loves the sound of his own ethics horn…) followed by Reed repaying the taxpayer’s expense. But where did he get the money he used for the repayments? Was it his own or did he use donated campaign money? How much did he illegally reimburse to himself? $15K -$38k????
What would happen to you or me if we were caught with our hand in the till? Would we be allowed to pay it back and have it all forgotten? Would we afford George the same latitude?
We really never got an answer to those questions because the brave journo’s never took an interest in the things Reed was doing – he was after all “Mr. Ethics” after the embarrassing lapses of Ron Gonzales.
OK so Shirakawa didn’t file some paperwork he is legally obligated to file- bad Shirakawa! Suppose he files it (even if it is late). Does he get a pass like Reed and have the matter closed only or do we dive right into scrutiny of the details contained in the paperwork? Why all the focus on the County Board of Sup’s President” have any past presidents received the same? Why doesn’t “SJI” focus on the “SJ” City Council? Is there some sort of distraction going on here? Why Shirakawa and not Yeager or Saint Blanca?
It should be illegal for politicians to lend money to their own political campaigns and repay themselves with political contributions after they get elected. This prevents the public from knowing who is buying votes for public contracts before the election. One of the most telling lines in the article was the second from the last sentence where Shirakawa says “I can’t tell you a good excuse, because I probably would try to use it if I could.”
Fred Harper’s artwork for this article was excellent. Shirakawa’s chief of staff could be Court Jester based on his claim that his disclosure filings were lost in the mail. I suppose he expects us to believe that all the letters asking for the disclosure filings were also lost in the mail.
The Fair Political Practices Commission was apparently sound asleep until the news department at Metro conducted this investigation. Real journalism by people like Josh Koehn is one of the best defenses we have from a totally corrupt government. I hope Mr. Koehn will carefully examine the campaign disclosure forms of George Shirakawa Jr. and other local politicians to look for evidence that they steered public contracts to their campaign contributors. Thank you for this superb reporting!