Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors

Shirakawa Sentenced to One Year in County Jail

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.

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Shirakawa Under Investigation

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.

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Teresa Alvarado Concedes Race

Although a worker at the Santa Clara County Registrar’s Office said this afternoon that there are still a few ballots straggling in, Teresa Alvarado has thrown in the towel in her bid for the District 1 Supervisor’s seat. “I finished just 62 votes short of a second-place finish. Clearly, every vote counts,” she wrote in a statement. Although the gap between Alvarado and former City Council member Forrest Williams was just a few dozen votes, former Los Gatos mayor Mike Wasserman trounced both candidates in the primary by over 14,000 votes.

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