Shirakawa's decisive vote in ambulance deal prompts Santa Clara County scrutiny

May 18--In December 2009, Santa Clara County Supervisor George Shirakawa Jr. flew into the San Diego airport, rented a Grand Marquis and headed to a marina Marriott for a five-day taxpayer-funded trip.

With the county's vital ambulance contract soon up for bid, Shirakawa and his chief of staff, Eddie Garcia, asserted that they were conducting a tour of the "WestMed" ambulance service, according to documents they would later file with the county justifying the $1,742 in expenses.

But the now-disgraced politician and his former right-hand man never visited Westmed, whose headquarters is in Hayward -- 475 miles from San Diego and just 25 miles from Shirakawa's San Jose office. Instead, they stopped by the San Diego

offices of Rural/Metro, an Arizona-based company that had just declared its interest in taking over Santa Clara County's highly lucrative ambulance contract.

Just weeks before the trip, Rural/Metro hired Shirakawa's former lobbying partners to help the company navigate the local terrain. Ten months later, Shirakawa cast a deciding vote to hand Rural/Metro the $375 million contract, a move that was controversial then and remains controversial now. The company is under fire for slow response times, and its paramedics are threatening to strike. Meanwhile, Shirakawa is set to be sentenced next month for squandering county funds and campaign contributions on his entertainment and gambling habits.

It's unclear what role, if any,

Shirakawa's visit to Rural/Metro had on the company winning the county's highly contentious ambulance contract, but in an email to the district attorney in March, County Executive Jeff Smith expressed concern with any deciding vote that Shirakawa cast during his four years in office.

Kirk Hanson, executive director of Santa Clara University's ethics center, agreed. "I hope the county is examining all decisions where Shirakawa's votes were decisive," he said. "And if there is specific misbehavior, I think there's grounds for reconsidering."

Shirakawa's influence and connections would have been valuable to any firm trying to wrestle the ambulance deal away from American Medical Response, the company that held the contract here for half a century.

Before the East San Jose Democrat ran for supervisor in 2008, the longtime politician was a consultant for the well-known lobbying firm Saggau-DeRollo, which represented Rural/Metro before, during and after the bruising contract talks.

Two days after their visit to Rural/Metro, Shirakawa and Garcia used the county credit card to have lunch in San Diego with the company's San Jose-based lobbyist, Dustin DeRollo, who said last week that he was in town on another matter and had nothing to do with Shirakawa's visit to Rural/Metro.

While it's typical for local governments to send staff members with expertise to scout businesses vying for big contracts, it's unusual for elected officials who ultimately vote on the deals to go.

"Certainly it would seem unusual to visit one (side) and not the other," as Shirakawa did, said Barbara Pletz, who served for 20 years as San Mateo County's Emergency Medical Services administrator.

Norman Kline, a member of the California Common Cause board, noted that "whenever you have a city council person or a county supervisor meeting in private with people who are going to benefit from their decision, that should raise red flags."

Indeed, just six weeks before Rural/Metro signed a five-year agreement with the county, the company made an unusually large donation -- $50,000 -- to the local Democratic Party chapter.

Tom Saggau, who advises his clients on political contributions, said the timing of that donation was in no way suspect. "If they write a check," he said, "it's certainly not to garner support or influence legislative action."

Shirakawa, the sole county board member to visit Rural/Metro, also accepted a $250 campaign contribution from the company's public affairs director, $769 from the company's political action committee, and a $50 ticket to a chamber barbecue from the company after it won the contract. In 2012, the PAC also gave $1,006 to Shirakawa's senior policy aide and $769 each to Shirakawa and Supervisor Dave Cortese, who also voted in favor of the Rural/Metro contract.

While there was nothing illegal about those donations, Smith, the county executive, became concerned in March after District Attorney Jeff Rosen filed corruption charges against Shirakawa that revealed he took illegal cash contributions from still-unknown donors. In an email to the DA obtained by this newspaper, Smith wrote: "I am worried about the legal integrity of Board actions IF George took such donations from parties before the Board. In particular, contract decisions where George was the decisive vote."

It remains unclear why the twice-elected supervisor identified Westmed instead of Rural/Metro when he documented his publicly funded business trip, which took place one day after the company announced it would bid on the county contract.

Shirakawa, 51, has declined interview requests since his March 1 arrest but responded in a brief email: "Westmed. Huh???" He responded with a second email acknowledging the Rural/Metro meeting and saying: "If there was reference to any other company, then it was a result of human error."

County officials also had originally described a clerical error. But when pushed by deputy county counsel Susan Swain at a reporter's request, one of Shirakawa's former District 2 staff members, Marisa Ybarra, "now recalls that she was informed to put Western Med on the documents," Swain said in an email.

Rural/Metro officials strongly decry any notion they tried to win Shirakawa's influence, and they insist he asked for both the visit and a campaign contribution.

Any "allegations of impropriety between Rural/Metro and former Supervisor Shirakawa" would be false, and any "defamation" would be met with "immediate action," corporate counsel Jennifer Holsman Tetreault wrote in a May 2 letter to this newspaper.

In an interview, the company's California director of public affairs, Michael Simonsen, said: "Rural/Metro had absolutely nothing to do with him coming to San Diego." Instead, he said, Shirakawa's office contacted him to request an in-person meeting at the company's San Diego headquarters, which took place at Simonsen's office on Dec. 4, 2009, and lasted an hour.

"We talked about the system in San Diego, introduced him to our partners in the fire department, talked about our partnership in San Diego and how we run the EMS system here and showed him around the office," Simonsen said. "It's more of an administrative office."

Simonsen said he only gave Shirakawa a campaign donation because the supervisor asked for it. "If I had known that my measly $250 contribution was not going to be used in support of his campaign and was going to be used for other things, then I certainly wouldn't have written that check," Simonsen said, referring to Shirakawa's gambling troubles.

DeRollo, the former lobbying partner, expressed similar frustration. "I'm not just disappointed, I'm very angry that George's actions are hurting a lot of people and could damage people's reputations," DeRollo said. "That's another unfair outcome of his behavior."

As Shirakawa was touting the Rural/Metro deal to his colleagues, San Diego's city attorney was accusing the company of billing irregularities, involving potentially millions of dollars. In 2011, San Diego nullified its contract with Rural/Metro before reaching a settlement. It now is exploring options that include seeking a new provider.

Rural/Metro won Santa Clara County's business in December 2010 by offering a far less expensive service than American Medical Response. The 3-2 decision came after a bruising battle over who would provide 911 service to the nearly 2 million residents in the county.

At a Dec. 14, 2010, public meeting, Shirakawa declared his support for Rural/Metro, and he hailed the vetting of the only two contenders as fair. "The process certainly was very independent," he said. "No one can say they weren't involved in a process that has a lot of credibility."

The county later released an announcement quoting Shirakawa saying, "During these tough economic times, we not only have to be stewards of county resources, we also have to consider how our decisions will impact what residents will have to pay for services."

So far, the impact has been dubious. After just a year and a half, the county informed Rural/Metro in January that it had breached its contract by failing to arrive within 12 minutes on 90 percent of calls in two specific months. County officials now say additional violations could cost the company its contract.

At a meeting Wednesday before the county's health and hospitals committee, Simonsen said that "we understand that 90 percent is 90 percent, and we must meet those goals," adding, "we of course want to be above that."

Looking back now, county officials are perplexed by Shirakawa's connections with Rural/Metro.

Former Supervisor Liz Kniss, who together with Supervisor Ken Yeager voted against the contract, said she had no idea whom Shirakawa was really visiting on that San Diego trip.

"You'd never see anything like that from the other supervisors," she said. "It was not only unacceptable, but so many things were fishy."

The owner of Westmed said he has no idea why his company's name was used by the now-convicted supervisor.

"I have no business operations of any sort in San Diego County, not ever," Westmed President Erik Mandler said. As to bidding on the Santa Clara County contract, he added, "we never even considered it."

Contact Karen de Sa at 408-920-5781.

Timeline

2004-07: George Shirakawa works as a consultant on retainer for the lobbying firm Saggau-DeRollo and is a partner and co-owner with them in two separate LLCs.

November 2007: Saggau-DeRollo registers Rural/Metro ambulance company as a new client.

Dec. 1, 2009: Rural/Metro declares its intent to bid on the Santa Clara County ambulance contract.

Dec. 2-6, 2009: Shirakawa visits San Diego on a taxpayer-funded trip and spends one hour Dec. 4 with his chief of staff, Eddie Garcia, at the Rural/Metro administrative office.

Feb. 10, 2010: County supervisors receive Shirakawa's "Travel Memo" describing a trip to "meet and tour with WestMed Ambulatory Services and personnel."

Dec. 14, 2010: Shirakawa casts a decisive vote as Santa Clara County supervisors, in a 3-2 decision, approve a five-year contract with Rural/Metro.

Nov. 1, 2010: Rural/Metro donates $50,000 to the county's Democratic Central Committee.

Aug. 25, 2011: Rural/Metro gifts Shirakawa a $50 ticket to a local fundraiser.

March 14, 2012: Rural/Metro's public affairs director gives $250 to Shirakawa's campaign.

May 25, 2012: Rural/Metro's political action committee donates $1,006 to Shirakawa's senior policy aide, Andres Quintero, and $769 each to Shirakawa and Supervisor Dave Cortese, who also voted in favor of the Rural/Metro contract.

March 1, 2013: Shirakawa is arrested and announces he will plead guilty to charges of corruption and abuse of public funds.

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