Voters in Gilroy, Morgan Hill and the southern edge of San Jose are staring down a high-stakes local race with very real consequences for their everyday lives. In the June primary, incumbent Sylvia Arenas is fighting to keep her Santa Clara County District 1 supervisor seat against Morgan Hill school board trustee Rebecca Munson, just as the county prepares to decide which clinics, child-welfare programs and housing services survive deep budget cuts.
Munson, elected to the Morgan Hill Unified School District board in 2024, is pitching herself as the fiscal watchdog in the race, campaigning on accountability, housing and public-safety reforms. According to the Munson campaign site, she spent 14 years in the classroom and 18 years in banking, and she is calling for audits and agency reviews to wring more efficiency out of county operations. The county’s official list of qualified candidates confirms Munson will face Arenas on the June ballot, per Santa Clara County Elections.
Arenas, first elected to the District 1 seat in 2022, is running on her record, pointing to neighborhood investments and the re-establishment of the County Office of Economic Development as evidence she can deliver for South County, according to KQED. She has argued that preventive behavioral health services for youth must be protected and said any budget cuts should be made with a scalpel. Arenas highlights child-protection reforms and keeping local clinics accessible as pillars of her work on the board.
Budget crunch threatens South County services
County officials are sounding the alarm about a severe fiscal crunch, sketching out hundreds of position cuts and possible clinic consolidations to close a funding gap in the hundreds of millions of dollars. As reported by San José Spotlight, Santa Clara County is staring at roughly a $470 million shortfall even after voters approved a sales-tax increase. The board has already signed off on $183 million in mid-year reductions to the county hospital system, according to NBC Bay Area…