Santa Clara County DA forewarns safety impacts from looming budget cuts

SAN JOSE — South Bay residents could see “dire consequences” — fewer prosecutions in domestic violence and sexual assault cases, as well as limited ability to seek diversions in mental health and drug cases — if a major funding shortfall leads to big cuts at the district attorney’s office, the South Bay’s top prosecutor warned Tuesday.

Much like he did two years ago in response to a similar array of proposed job losses for his office, Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said that the community could suffer if his office faces heavy losses from budget reductions. The latest possible cuts, were they to happen, would result in large part due to a sharp clawback in federal dollars from the Trump administration.

“Public safety costs money. Justice is expensive. Money is finite. There is less money. And so, there will be less justice. Please listen carefully: There will be less safety,” Rosen said to his assembled staff and county leaders in the Board of Supervisors chambers, as part of his annual state-of-the-office speech. “What I urge all the people here, and in our community to understand, is that budget cuts to the DA’s Office are going to have tangible, negative, and dire consequences for the public safety of every Santa Clara County resident.

“Will people get hurt? Will they be killed? Will criminals go free? I don’t know,” Rosen continued. “What’s needed is clear-headed analysis of what this community wants and what it needs.”

He then stacked his office against other county budget priorities: “None of Santa Clara County’s amenities – parks, pools, schools, roads, sewers, and hospitals – are worth a dollar if the people who live here are not safe from crime.”

Rosen gave his speech amid a backdrop of running tension between him and the county administration recently inflamed by his contention that Measure A — a sales-tax increase approved by voters last year to add $330 million annually to county coffers — was misleadingly pitched to him as a way to stabilize funding and fend off cuts to county public safety infrastructure.

The four-term DA told this news organization last month that he felt “double crossed” when learning that all of the new tax revenue would go toward supporting the county’s healthcare system, which faces a projected annual loss of $1 billion in federal revenue, spurred in large part by reductions in Medicaid funding. Rosen has voiced frustration with the prospect of having supported Measure A and still bracing for heavy cuts to his office.

“The cuts we are facing mean potential and unprecedented layoffs,” Rosen said Tuesday. “No one here is expendable. No one. Are we better than other county employees? No. Of course not. All public servants have my respect and admiration. But these are objective financial decisions with real-world consequences.”

The extent of the feared budget cuts Rosen’s office faces was not fully detailed. His office was spared from any significant reductions in mid-year cuts made by the county this past week, which included the loss of 10 positions in the county Public Defender’s Office. The mid-year cuts involving the elimination of 365 jobs, about 85% of them vacant and more than half in county health care.

The remainder of Rosen’s speech outlined how funding cuts could reduce or eliminate his office’s bandwidth for community outreach and services, mental-health and drug offense diversion, and prosecutions of certain domestic violence and sexual assault crimes, and lower-level crimes including drunk driving, vandalism and theft.

If the anticipated cuts go through as feared, Rosen said, much of that work “will be gone, no more.”

At the end of his remarks Tuesday, after highlighting his prosecutors’ work from the past year, Rosen sought to keep their spirits up: “Our worth here will never be measured in dollars and cents … Our value lies in the 40,000 cases that we review, file and prosecute – with vigor – every year.”

“I don’t know what will happen in the coming months,” Rosen concluded. “Except this: You will fight like hell for this community. And I will fight like hell for you.”

This is a developing story. Check back later for updates.