Santa Clara County shuffled around some of its top brass, promoting a pair of deputy executives two months after appointing a permanent chief financial officer.

San Jose Inside has learned that the Santa Clara County Office of Education cut tutoring services for foster youth and filed questionable federal grant reports while wasting more than a half-million dollars that could have helped the county's most needy children.

Disgraced former county Supervisor George Shirakawa Jr. will spend the next year in jail for his pilfering of campaign funds. Judge Daniel T. Nishigaya on Friday sentenced Shirakawa, who pleaded guilty this spring to five felonies and seven misdemeanors, to a year behind bars, minus one day served. Following the ruling, he was immediately escorted out of court and taken into custody. A source within the county Sheriff’s Office tells San Jose Inside that Shirakawa will spend his time behind bars in Alameda County. He will receive probation for three years following his release.

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors approved $4 million in housing for non-violent convicts released under the state’s Three Strikes reform. Some of the money will pay for rental subsidies, case management for those living on the streets and shelter for their children. Cash comes from a one-time reserve funded in part by the state sales tax and car licensing fee set aside for housing released convicts after the state passed AB 109, a law that allowed those locked up on a third-strike offense to appeal their case as long as the third strike wasn’t a violent crime.

CFOs are dropping like flies—well, not this Fly—over at the County of Santa Clara offices. Last Friday marked the final hurrah in the tenure of Dave McGrew, the chief financial officer of Valley Medical Center (VMC) since August 2011. Word is McGrew was placed on administrative leave a couple weeks prior to his sayonara. While McGrew trotted out the boilerplate goodbye in an email to staff, citing a need for more time with his family, his admin leave was not voluntary, according to sources in the county. David Claude, the director of general accounting, will take over as interim CFO, which means the county now has temps staffing its two most important finance positions.

Families that faced eviction and homelessness were bought a little time Tuesday, when the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted to pull $1 million from reserves to cover a shortfall in the Section 8 housing subsidy program caused by the federal sequester.

After four months of negotiating, threatened strikes and sickouts, Santa Clara County reached an agreement Friday with its biggest union, whose employees agreed to chip in more from their own paychecks for healthcare in exchange for small raises.

UPDATE: SEIU approved a strike authorization with 96 percent of voting members in favor.

Santa Clara County workers marched down Hedding Street to the tune of Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Going to Take It” Monday evening, as SEIU 521 union members voted for the right to authorize a strike.The voting continues Tuesday as county officials and labor union negotiators have yet to form an agreement.

The office of Attorney General Kamala Harris has informed the county that Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen broke no laws when giving some of his top deputies extra admin leave to make up for lost wages. In a letter to County Executive Jeff Smith, who asked the AG to start a civil investigation in April, Alicia Fowler, a senior assistant attorney general in the Employment and Administrative Mandate division, wrote: “Based on all the information that the county provided to us, including extensive documentation and in-person interviews, we have concluded that there has been no violation of law.”

The company that provides Santa Clara County’s ambulance services is in need of rescue. In December 2010, the Board of Supervisors contracted with Rural Metro, which missed an important bond payment last week, leading industry insiders and county officials to worry that the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company may be headed towards bankruptcy. So what do the elected officials who supported the Rural Metro contract have to say about the current mess? Nothing.

Meeting just bi-weekly, and not at all in the month of July, the life of a Santa Clara County supervisor can be a punt-pass-and-kick competition when it comes to making tough calls. It’s no surprise then that supervisors decided to defer any decision on the fate of County Executive Jeff Smith, whose contract expired at the end of June.

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors enacted a new policy this week to make sure no one repeats George Shirakawa Jr.’s mistakes in failing to file campaign disclosure forms. It’s the latest in a series of reform efforts on the county’s behalf, some of which have come through new policies and others that are now being enforced.

After 11 years of shortfalls and $2 billion of gap-closing, Santa Clara County plans to adopt a budget that maintains services and even restores some debilitating cuts. The Board of Supervisors will spend four days this week hammering out last-minute details of the $4.6 billion 2013-14 budget, which must balance a $67 million shortfall.

The Government Attorneys Association (GAA) held a special meeting Friday, and sources tells San Jose Inside that if the county attorneys agreed upon anything, it’s that a “deep division” exists amongst the membership. The big question is how can this be resolved when the union’s leadership continues to focus on scoring fleeting political points.

Santa Clara County residents enjoy longer life expectancies and overall better health than the rest of the state and nation, but stark disparities based on wealth and race persist.

The Great Recession devastated shelters for battered women. And while government funding has declined, the need for such services has drastically increased. This issue will be one of many discussed at Tuesday’s county Board of Supervisors meeting, including a federal grant to develop news strategies to find long-term homes for foster children.