Oliverio for Supervisor 2018

Independent - Transparent - Fiscally Responsible

Vicious Attack of Pierluigi Oliverio Unwarranted

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Ones’ good name and reputation is a most prized possession.

It is unconscionable for any person or entity to maliciously endeavor to destroy another persons reputation
The lack of integrity the public special interest groups showed recently when they maliciously sought to destroy the reputation of Pierluigi Oliverio, candidate for Santa Clara County Supervisor, is a disgrace. The “hit pieces” compared a man of honor to a predator.

The Mercury News, that actually endorsed another candidate in this race, spoke out eloquently against the public employee groups shocking and untrue attack on Pierluigi Oliverio (5/20/18 editorial).

It is hard to believe that Mr. Oliverio’s opponents would condone such disgusting tactics-but do so by remaining silent. All candidates have to campaign on political records and differences, but one’s reputation is precious. It is shocking that the union leadership would allow such an attack. This speaks volumes about them as individuals. Money rather than what is true must be very important to them.

We all admire those honorable people who work in local government. We trust them and are grateful for their service. We hold them in esteem and teach our children to respect them. It is hard for us to believe that they could have known about this disgusting and completely untrue attack on Pierluigi Oliverio. So with that said, why haven’t the opposition candidates and the union membership come out and condemned this material?

Keep in mind it may be Mr. Oliverio today, but it might be you or your family tomorrow. We have to restore honesty, decency and integrity in politics by electing representatives that do not condone this kind of tactic.

To paraphrase: Pierluigi said, why would anybody who honestly wants to represent the people ever agree to run for of ce if only those who represent special interests are left unscathed. We are the folks who pay the taxes to support the city and county. It is time for us to speak up for what is right.

The #MeToo.. movement is very serious and courageous and far too long in coming but should not be used as a weapon for unscrupulous personal gain. Soon those who have a real case of abuse will not be believed. As women and mothers we are frightened that anyone could make any unsubstantiated or untrue statement against a male member of our family
that causes them to be condemned, maligned and considered guilty in the public arena. Horrifying.

The public employee leadership and those they represent who wrote, approved and funded the flyer that dishonestly discredited Pierluigi Oliverio should hang their heads in shame.

Sincerely,

Lisa Berry
Rebecca Morici
Barbara Campisi
Barbara Ross
Claudia Folzman
Marcia Giachetti
Mim Bloom
Diana Merino
Debra Bohn
Donna Nicoletti
Jing Li

Op-Ed: How to make Santa Clara County government more effective

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Residents should hold supervisors accountable for how efficiently core services are deployed to meet stated goals

Federal, state, county, city, school and special districts all have distinct and important roles to play in community governance, and each body has a primary set of responsibilities. Elected officials, and especially candidates, will often urge action on hot issues outside the responsibilities of their office or the office they seek. While this may be good politics, it is bad government. The public is misled, the staff is distracted, funds are wasted, and core responsibilities are neglected.

While serving as a member of the San Jose City Council for 10 years, my office team prided itself on constituent service. Together we would answer each resident personally and managed over 17,000 separate constituent cases. Some of the cases concerned issues such as mental illness, homelessness, and drug addiction, all of which are core responsibilities of the county. There is an understandable amount of confusion among residents as to which level of government bears the responsibility for such issues: What is obvious to the political insider may not be apparent to the average resident.

Cities within Santa Clara County work diligently to overseethe responsibilities of a city, including police, street paving, and neighborhood parks. However, cities do not have the same charge as counties. County government is vested by the state Legislature with “the powers necessary to provide for the health and welfare of residents within its borders.” While this does include overseeing the county jail, county hospital, and social welfare programs, it does not include the ability to approve or deny construction of new housing or commercial developments, traffic congestion mitigation, school test scores, or the price of water.

As homelessness, opioid addiction, and the need for mental health programs grows, the demand for county core services increases. According to CalPERS own data, county pension costs will double in the next six years, thus shrinking the funds that are available for county services. When coupled with a growing weariness among residents to further tax increases, a “something’s gotta give”scenario quickly emerges. I believe the solution lies in a renewed focus on the specific issues under the county’s purview, and avoidance of taking on issues that would be more appropriately handled by other levels of government.

The amount of money budgeted for county expenditures is finite, and when new services are proposed, it means that cutbacks will be required elsewhere. In other words, we cannot simultaneously fund a brand new county department while also funding existing mental health service programs to desired levels. Before any new “nice to have” service is funded, each supervisor should consider first whether or not the county is currently meeting its core obligations to residents to the best and most efficient extent possible.

I realize this may not be the most exciting issue, but candidates making false promises about what they plan on doing while in office adds to distrust in government and leads to justifiable voter cynicism. While it may be interesting to hear how candidates feel or what they plan on doing about noncounty issues over which they have no control, voters would be better served by engaging candidates on their specific ideas on how to improve critical county core services.

Residents should hold supervisors accountable for how efficiently core services are deployed to meet publicly stated goals. Doing so would prevent “mission creep,” and would ensure that precious tax dollars are not wasted on non-essential services and unsustainable pension benefits. In other words, county supervisors should “stick to their knitting,” and focus solely on core responsibilities. Doing so would make them the diligent stewards of taxpayer dollars we all expect from our public officials.

Pierluigi Oliverio served 10 years on the San Jose City Council and is a candidate for Santa Clara County supervisor in District 4. He wrote this for The Mercury News.

Op-Ed: Helping the mentally ill is good for public safety

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After every mass shooting, we have a public discussion about mental illness, but what about the rest of the time?

25 to 40% of police calls nationwide are related to the behavior of someone who is mentally ill, and such instances include a higher risk of injury and death to those involved. This is a constant concern for families of the mentally ill. My brother has suffered from schizophrenia his entire adult life.

The County of Santa Clara is the only local government entity responsible for care of the mentally ill. I believe the County should have a laser-like focus on treating the severely mentally ill, which could be accomplished by prioritizing county spending, implementing state law, and advocating for changes in policy. This focused direction would help those who cannot help themselves, and in turn free up police to patrol our neighborhoods and improve public safety.

When it comes to mental health, government often tries to treat 100% of the population, and follows the “diagnosis of the day”. Taxpayer funds are often spent on feel good programs that do not always produce the results we need. For example, there are no programs that can prevent schizophrenia, but we do know that medication for schizophrenics can eliminate manic behavior. Rather than trying to treat the entire population, we need to focus on treating the severely mentally ill, which makes up 2 to 4% of the population. When we encounter someone eating out of a garbage can that believes they are on the planet Pluto, this is the person we must help, and not necessarily someone who claims trauma due to political events.

Our County government has expanded to include programs and services that were never intended, taking away funds from core services such as mental health.  I believe every time a new request to spend money is brought before the Board of Supervisors, we must ask: is it more important than treating the severely mentally ill? In many cases, I believe the answer from everyday residents would be no.

Implementing existing state laws locally would also help. Laura’s Law, signed by Governor Davis in 2002, has never been implemented in Santa Clara County.  This law allows a judge to compel individuals deemed severely mentally ill to undergo free professional treatment. Other California counties using this law have reduced homelessness, incarceration, and hospitalization, all of which decreases the cost to local government.

We should also advocate changing policy on how we house the severely mentally ill. We need to investigate bringing back facilities dedicated to caring for such individuals. With the closure of such facilities, the severely mentally ill often have a sad choice between homelessness or incarceration. This also fails our society at large, which has to frequently experience the manic behavior of the severely mentally ill in our public spaces. Knowing that such policy changes take time, the County should look at options, both public and private, for providing more beds for these individuals.

Unfortunately, the ongoing construction project (Valley Medical Center expansion) is five years late and approximately $250 million over budget. This fiscal incompetence closes the window on opportunities to further help our community and hampers the ability to add facilities where the severely mentally ill could be cared for professionally.

During my ten years on the City Council, I voted to spend taxpayer funds responsibly, and focus on essential services. We must prioritize helping the severely mentally ill, as doing so would also benefit society at large, improve our bottom line, and assist families who often carry the lifetime responsibility of caring for a sick family member.

Pierluigi Oliverio served 10 years on the San Jose City Council and is a candidate for Santa Clara County Supervisor in District 4. He wrote this for The Mercury News.

Op-Ed: Tired of trash along roads? Get Santa Clara County inmate crews to clean it up

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(Patrick Tehan/Bay Area News Group)

Our streets are filthy. I cannot recall a time when there has been so much trash on our roads. Traveling extensively for work I am amazed how other thoroughfares in the state and country are so clean, in contrast to Santa Clara County. This blight is highly visible, and seems worse than ever with no realistic solution in sight.

Many residents share their desire for clean roads with their governmental representatives, but removing litter never seems to be a priority. It is seen as a “first world problem,” or a mere quality of life issue. While it is certainly not life threatening, it can be demoralizing, and can lead to lost pride in our community.

Some would advocate using volunteers as a solution. I believe volunteerism can achieve specific goals. In San Jose, I championed allowing volunteers to help our parks and libraries, against opposition from some public employee unions. The results were fantastic.

Our Municipal Rose Garden transformed from a disgrace to the number one rose garden in the country. Library volunteers assist in re-shelving books, which enable libraries to extend their hours without the standard increase in spending (2014 city auditor report).

As bullish as I am on volunteers, I don’t believe they can be responsible for cleaning our roads countywide.  We need something permanent and ongoing. Thus, I propose expanding the use of county jail inmates and alternative sentencing to clean our roadways of litter, weeds, and graffiti.

I believe county inmates should devote their days to improving our community, under supervision of county personnel. It would not only clear our blighted roadways, but would also provide inmates with important life skills, responsibility, civic engagement and a sense of purpose that could reduce recidivism once inmates return to the general population.

There are two primary obstacles to this solution: liability and funding.  While it is highly unlikely that inmates dressed in bright orange vests would be hit by a passing vehicle, governments must be prepared for even the rarest of occurrences.

Instead of using Santa Clara County tax dollars for programs outside of the county’s primary responsibilities, I think we should dedicate precious funds to pay for the necessary liability insurance, and for staff to supervise inmates in a professional and safe manner.

This is not a new idea, but its use is limited.  What I am proposing is vastly expanding the use of the approximately 3,000 county jail inmates to clean public areas year round.

Critics may claim that making inmates clean the roads will take work away from existing government employees. Nonsense. There is no shortage of dirty roadways in our area, and effective solutions will require an “all hands on deck” approach.

Others may view picking up litter as cruel and unusual punishment. My short answer to that is: rubbish (pun intended). Inmates are underutilized resources within county government, and we should deploy them in a productive capacity immediately.

CalTrans alone spent $67.5 million to pick up litter in 2016, which does not include the cost to counties and cities. Not utilizing inmates to clean roadways is wasting a valuable resource.

I believe this program should roll out first with county expressways such as Almaden, Lawrence, and San Tomas, in addition to the Burbank and Cambrian county pockets. Keeping these areas free of litter should bring with it an elevated sense of pride in the community as a whole, and an increased positive engagement of our inmate population as well.

Doing things differently in county government can bring about results that are favorable to all, and demonstrate a commitment to residents.

Pierluigi Oliverio served 10 years on the San Jose City Council and is a candidate for Santa Clara County Supervisor in District 4. He wrote this for The Mercury News.

Letter to the Editor: Labor bill would hurt Santa Clara County

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State legislation AB1250 would negatively impact Santa Clara County.  It would not only increase the cost of county government unnecessarily, but would also inflict harm on our most vulnerable residents.

Fortunately for taxpayers and recipients of county services, the bill stalled ​this month , but will likely be reconsidered in January. Passage would remove the flexibility of county government to partner with trusted non-profits that provide social services for our most needy residents. These established partnerships help more people and save money.

This legislation only serves one interest group: public employee labor unions.  AB1250 would grow county government employee ranks, thus increasing union dues, which can then be spent on negative political campaigns. This bill would hurt the poor.

County government should strive to efficiently help those who cannot help themselves rather than potentially raising taxes yet again. Thank you to ​the Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits  for highlighting this outrageously bad bill.

Pierluigi Oliverio
Former member
San Jose City Counci

Letter to the Editor: Use competitive bidding instead of raising S.J. taxes

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In regards to the discussion about the city of San Jose considering yet another tax increase to pay for park maintenance, I have a better idea. Rather than raising taxes again, government should implement solutions that maximize each tax dollar to deliver the most bang for the buck.

In 2013, during my tenure on the council, the city of San Jose permitted parks that are less than two acres to be maintained by a private landscaping company. The amount required to maintain these small parks by city employees was $4.2 million, while the private landscaping company cost was only $1.3 million, which is a 3-to-1 cost savings. This shows that by using competitive bidding, government can increase fiscal efficiency, and do more with fewer tax dollars. The substantial savings can be allocated to the parks department or into other city services, such as paving roads or pedestrian safety projects.

Pierluigi Oliverio
Former member
San Jose City Counci