Leave it to Larry Stone, the county assessor, to call it like he sees it when the vast majority of his fellow elected officials have danced around the issue of Supervisor George Shirakawa’s flagrant misuse of taxpayer money.

It is high time San Jose joined the big leagues and moved to a strong-mayor form of government. The recent response by City Manager Debra Figone to Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio’s public suggestion on who should be the police chief is simply another example of the bush-league government system that regulates elected officials to second-class status.

The list of people to reimburse the county for meals Supervisor George Shirakawa expensed to taxpayers has now grown to eight. Included in the updated list are Shirakawa’s lobbyist friends Tom Saggau, Dustin DeRollo and Joe Guerra, as well as San Jose Councilmember Xavier Campos.

The day after a county audit demanded George Shirakawa reimburse $12,772 in improper charges with his county-issued credit card, the president of the Board of Supervisors threw out a checklist of reasons why the media would make up “straight-up untrue” reports about his fraudulent expense reports, misuse of taxpayer money and missing campaign disclosure forms.

A culture war is being waged between some San Jose police officers and Independent Police Auditor LaDoris Cordell. Judge Cordell has taken issue with a T-shirt that was designed for officers in an elite tactical unit that is equipped with assault rifles. Cordell, who called the shirt’s design “a thug logo,” features the acronym SJPD, a human skull with two assault rifles crossed in the background and the motto “Usus Ferocitas,” which in Latin can translate to several meanings.

We can argue over whether it is a fiscal cliff or slope, but the real challenge for America in the coming decades is improving the mediocre results of public education. The facts show that we are in a precarious position as a nation and as the largest state—11 percent of America’s children are enrolled in California schools.

San Jose’s Transportation and Environmental Committee approved a proposal Monday to have the City Council consider banning expanded polystyrene (EPS) takeout boxes in all restaurants. This is, more or less, the same proposal the city considered last year before turning down a $100,000 offer to study the issue more.

Planning departments across the USA commonly create “specific plans” and/or “master plans” for certain streets and neighborhoods within a city. San Jose, not unlike other cities, has many of these same plans. Most of the time these plans are put together with the best of intentions, but they end up sitting on a shelf due to their inherent lack of practicality or feasibility.

Nonprofit agencies are expected to serve the public good, be mission-driven and operate like a business. We nonprofits need to be compassionate, yet focused on obtaining successful outcomes. To end homelessness, the direction is clear: Move the homeless into housing quickly and provide ongoing support services. However, emergency services are still needed for homeless individuals—a meal when someone is hungry, warm clothes and a bed during cold winter months.

Folks at the North Pole have been inundated with holiday wish lists from local politicos. Following are some of the requests they have received.

County Supervisor George Shirakawa issued his first public comments regarding his reported misuse of taxpayer money in an email Wednesday to constituents. In the letter, Shirakawa uses a myth/fact juxtaposition to clear up “a complicated issue that can’t be explained with sensationalized headlines and scandalous printed ‘sound bites.’”

I fear we are entering a new cycle of benign neglect of school reform, where the status quo continues and student achievement results do not match the urgency of the time. Yet there are some true reformers that should be mentioned.

Tonight marks the start of another series of community meetings designed to garner input about a prospective Police Chief. But what if the best choice is already right here at home?

A recent Mercury News editorial called on Supervisor George Shirakawa to resign based on the revelations reported by Josh Koehn in the Metro. Shirakawa’s actions included misappropriating taxpayer money, fraudulent reporting of expenses, misuse of campaign donations and failure to file the appropriate financial documents after repeated warnings. It is right and proper the Mercury News came to its conclusion based on the overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing. Supervisor Shirakawa should resign. But it is a painful conclusion, because I support George’s political agenda.

Supervisor George Shirakawa says he doesn’t want his board colleagues, county staff or the community to be distracted by the “political lynching” taking place in regards to media coverage of his fraudulent expense reports. At its bi-monthly county Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, Shirakawa tackled the issue head on by saying he would release a formal statement sometime in the future.

A tip came in Monday afternoon that Andrea Flores Shelton, formerly a deputy chief of staff for Supervisor George Shirakawa, would get the nod as Alum Rock school district’s new trustee. In the end, that’s exactly what happened. Now the question is whether or not opponents of the process will gather signatures for a special election to challenge her appointment.