To read full text of Mike Wasserman’s State of Santa Clara County speech, click HERE.
New board president seeks to educate about county
Published in the Feb. 5, 2014 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Staff Report
Mike Wasserman
Newly inaugurated Santa Clara County Board President Mike Wasserman announced he will use his one-year term to address the problem of homelessness in the county and also to improve efforts to inform the public about services the county government provides residents.
In his Jan. 28 State of Santa Clara County address, Wasserman, who represents the South Valley as the county’s District 1 supervisor, took the theme of “Real Life Help” to describe many of the services the county provides with its $4.2 billion annual budget and more than 16,000 employees. But he said in his estimation, about 90 percent of residents do not know what the county does. He would like to change that in 2014.
“I think you would agree that most people have a much better understanding of what Congress, the state legislature, their city council, or their school board does, than what the county does,” he said in his half-hour address. “It is often said that county government is an invisible layer of government. I would agree. But a level of government of our size and with a workforce that touches so many lives daily, should not be invisible to its residents.”
He stressed that even though the general public will never have a full understanding of what the county does, he will make it a goal to do a better job of highlighting the county’s services so that residents can better get the help they need.
Wasserman also stressed his 2014 resolution to raise the profile of the county government’s efforts to solve the problem of homelessness in Santa Clara County.
“Let’s face it, our most vulnerable residents, men, women and children, are those living on the streets,” he said. “Earlier, I acknowledged the good work done to help protect the homeless when the weather turned cold. Those efforts clearly saved lives. But we need a solution to the problem because, unfortunately, addressing homelessness when it becomes a crisis each year often means we are too late.”
The average chronically homeless person costs taxpayers about $60,000 a year, and the solution costs about half that, he said. One path to a solution is the county’s priority to provide permanent supportive housing. The county’s partnership with organizations such as Destination Home has helped 1,500 formerly homeless people improve their lives by obtaining or maintaining permanent supportive housing, he said.
Another area of homeless concern for Wasserman is foster youth. “Many young people are exiting the foster care system without the ability to live independently,” he said. “This year, we will begin addressing this challenge by launching two supportive housing programs specifically targeted for these vulnerable youth.”
In his address, Wasserman also addressed the projected $25 million dollar deficit in the general fund that the county faces in the next fiscal year. He promised that number will “change” as the economy strengthens.
“The good news is that this is a much smaller deficit than any year over the past decade,” he said. “Despite the encouraging signs of economic recovery, there remain major areas of risk for our organizations, as needs consistently outpace resources.”
Wasserman said he was “proud” to announce that Standard & Poor’s recently raised the county’s bond rating to a triple A, the highest rating possible.
To read the full text of Wasserman’s speech, visit Morgan Hill Life’s website page: www.morganhilllife.com/mike-wasserman-2014-state-of-santa-clara-county-speech.
