Our policy projects
In our policy work, we team up with County leadership and staff to both improve existing County programs, and to develop new policies and programs where there is a gap. Read on for some examples of our major policy projects.
Improving services for county residents facing chronic homelessness and severe mental illness.
We partnered with the County Executive, the Behavioral Health Services Department, and researchers at UCSF and Stanford to change the way the County serves our most vulnerable residents. In 2015 and 2017, the County opened “Pay for Success” projects focused on serving chronically homeless and severely mentally ill members of the community. In a Pay for Success program, the government pays the service provider only if it can achieve measurable results to improve clients’ health and well-being, which are assessed by an independent project evaluator. This is unlike a traditional government contract, where the service provider is paid based on the number of hours or units of service it provides to clients, even if the clients do not have good outcomes. Pay for Success projects help ensure that tax dollars are spent only for successful programs that actually help the people they serve. Our work on these projects included negotiating two complex business transactions, making sure the County complied with state and federal regulations, and more.
Improving equity in pretrial justice
Our team counseled the County’s Bail and Release Work Group, which drove groundbreaking bail and pretrial justice reforms in Santa Clara County years before the issue got statewide attention. We examined local criminal justice practices and national reform efforts, researched best practices, and assisted the Bail and Release Work Group in coming up with an ambitious slate of policy reform recommendations. The policy reforms had two main goals: (1) reduce reliance on money bail and the for-profit bail bonds industry, and (2) ensure that people who can be safely released from custody while awaiting their criminal trials get released promptly and without an undue financial burden. The Board of Supervisors approved almost all of the policy reform ideas, and our Team assisted County officials in researching and carrying out the recommended reforms.
Advancing gender pay equity
In collaboration with the Board of Supervisors and the County Executive, our Team and our colleagues on the Labor & Employment team analyzed employee data and reviewed, revised and created policies and practices to advance pay equity for the County’s own workforce. The County employs more than 20,000 people in a huge variety of roles. Recently, the County conducted a pay equity study focusing on any differences in pay based on gender. The study found that the County had transparent pay policies and was fulfilling its commitment to gender pay equity in the County workforce (although the study was not able to assess pay based on diverse gender identity/sexual orientation categories due to lack of data, and also was not able to focus on intersectional analyses such as pay disparities by race and gender). County Administration, in consultation with our Office, is working on rolling out a pay equity strategic plan.
Holding drug companies responsible for safe disposal of unwanted medications and sharps.
In 2015, we worked with the County’s Consumer and Environmental Protection Agency on a Safe Drug Disposal Ordinance. Following the model of “extended producer responsibility,” the Ordinance required drug manufacturers to develop and carry out a drug takeback program so that Santa Clara County residents had safe and convenient places to dispose of their unwanted and expired medications. We followed up that work by developing a similar ordinance for sharps (needles, fingerstick devices typically used for at-home blood testing, and syringes used for at-home injectable medications). More information about the Safe Drug Disposal Ordinance is available here, and more information about the Sharps Ordinance is available here.
Supporting community members in clearing their criminal records
The Team worked with Stanford Law School, the County’s Probation Department, and other stakeholders on improving policies and practices to increase access to criminal record expungement. This work included eliminating expungement application fees, creating a clear information packet for prospective applicants, and other policy changes aimed at assisting community members with expunging their records.
Protecting victims of human trafficking
Our Team worked with County departments and community groups to develop protocols to protect Santa Clara County minors who are victims of human trafficking. The goal was to reduce both sex trafficking and labor trafficking by giving trafficking victims a safe environment and access to services tailored to meet their needs. We also worked with County departments and national stakeholders to develop regulations to prevent massage businesses from operating as fronts for commercial sexual exploitation or human trafficking.
Representing unaccompanied children in immigration cases
In 2014, our Team created a pro bono program to train and support volunteer County Counsel attorneys to provide pro bono legal services to children who fled to the United States without a guardian and who needed representation in immigration court. Without legal representation, these children were likely to be deported even if they had valid claims for protection or relief, like asylum. Our Office’s attorneys won relief from deportation for several children.
Protecting public health by reducing tobacco use and access to minors
For years, our team has worked at the forefront of public health initiatives to prevent and reduce use of tobacco products and electronic smoking devices—especially by children and youth. In 2010, the County adopted an ordinance that requires tobacco sellers in the County’s jurisdiction to meet certain requirements aimed at reducing children’s access to tobacco products in order to obtain a permit. In 2014, we drafted ordinances to regulate the sale and use of electronic smoking (vaping) devices. In 2015, the County became the first county in California to raise the minimum age of purchase for tobacco products to 21--a policy idea the State of California adopted the following year. And in 2016, to reduce tobacco access by children and youth, the County limited the sale of flavored tobacco products to adult-only tobacco sellers. Our team worked closely with the Public Health Department and Department of Environmental Health on each of these ordinances.