League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA November 4, 2008 Election
	George M. Shirakawa Answers Questions Candidate for County Supervisor; Santa Clara County; Supervisorial District 2

The questions were prepared by the Leagues of Women Voters of Santa Clara County and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. What experience and training would you bring to this office?

I am running for the Board of Supervisors because I have dedicated my life to serving my community. Our community deserves the best qualified and most experienced person to represent them. I'm honored that our community has elected me to the Franklin-McKinley School Board, East Side Union High School District Board of Education and the San Jose City Council. The residents have confidence in me and they know I will fight to make sure the County of Santa Clara

As a San Jose City Council member for 8 ½ years and as a School Board Member for 8 years, I have extensive experience in neighborhood improvement, strengthening families and improving and supporting education. I have fought for many programs and assets to the community. A few examples are; I worked hard for a privately funded Medical and Dental clinic at the Franklin-McKinley School District to serve our students who had no access to care. I fought for the 250 bed and 20 unit family emergency shelter in District 7 when no one was willing to take on this controversial issue. I made the City sue absentee landlords who took advantage of poor families by forcing them to live in roach and rat infested dilapidated apartments at a high rental rate. I made the City of San Jose sue gang members who terrorized neighborhoods in order to remove them from the community so they would no longer occupy our neighborhoods, just to name a few.protects our children and families, provides the best health care and services and ensures our community is safe.

2. What are the particular needs of your district?

My top priorities for the County are to support our employees by providing the best pay and benefits as possible so they can continue to provide great service to our customers. I am committed to looking for innovative ways to increase revenue and strengthen our relationship/partnerships with cities, schools, service providers and the community. I will continue the hard work of Blanca Alvarado in Juvenile Justice Reform, Women's issues and Strengthening Families.

Currently, District 2 receives approximately 52% of all program & service resources. I will work with my fellow board members, constituents and service providers to continue to provide much needed services to our underserved community. I will work hard to make sure we utilize our assets, like the Fairgrounds, to ensure we have long term revenue sources in order to meet our program needs.

3. On what projects should the Board of Supervisors concentrate?

The Board of Supervisors must continue to look for innovative ways to increase our revenues. With no budget relief in sight and multi-year budget reductions, we have cut our services to the "bone". The Board has to make sure our County Operations are efficient and do not duplicate/waste resources. It is critical to use our assets for long term revenue and we must position ourselves to state our "case" to the taxpayers/voters of our community.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' responses are not edited or corrected by the League.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: July 31, 2008 17:21
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