Santa Clara County Public Defender

Newsom's May 14 May Revise contained no dedicated trial-level PD funding line answering the May 5 Capitol-rally $15M/yr × 3-year CPDA ask. For Santa Clara — already cutting 3 non-attorney positions in the FY26-27 Recommended Budget and operating at 235% over felony RAND and 375% over misdemeanor RAND — the May Revise silence means no state backstop arrives before the late-June county BOS budget adoption. Behavioral Health is losing 110 positions in the same county package. Silver's office remains the anchor case study in the May 13 CalMatters statewide investigation.

The CalMatters statewide investigation on California's public defender crisis — syndicated across at least nine outlets — uses Santa Clara County PD as a leading anchor case study. Article launches AB 2605 (Arambula/Schultz) which would require every CA county to report PD workload data every two years. AB 2605 cleared Assembly Approps 11-0 the next day. Santa Clara's 235%-over-RAND felony caseload (139 cases per attorney vs. 59 standard) and 375%-over-RAND misdemeanor (713 vs. 150) cited prominently as evidence of the structural crisis the bill targets.

Board of Supervisors held three budget workshops May 11, 12, and 13, 2026 at 1:30 p.m. on the FY26-27 Recommended Budget. PD Damon Silver appeared to advocate against further attrition, citing 46 felony attorneys handling 6,400+ cases (139 per attorney) and 19 misdemeanor attorneys handling 13,545 cases (713 per attorney) — exceeding ABA/RAND standards by up to 400%. Final adoption scheduled by June 30, 2026.

Santa Clara County Public Defender Damon Silver — five days after the County Executive's May 1 Recommended Budget that cut 3 non-attorney positions while preserving attorneys — joined 17 other CA chief public defenders at the State Capitol to demand $15M/year for three years for post-bar attorney positions. Silver specifically cited that 80%+ of CA criminal defendants are indigent. Assembly unanimously passed ACR 159. The state-level ask layers on top of Santa Clara's local FY26-27 budget where Silver had publicly thanked the County Administration but flagged that the PD office still operates at 4x RAND caseload benchmarks.

Follow-on coverage of Santa Clara County's $787M deficit budget confirms 3 non-attorney positions deleted from PD Damon Silver's office, all attorney positions preserved, and Board of Supervisors expected to adopt the budget by end of June 2026. Behavioral Health is losing 110 positions in the same package — useful comparator showing PD office relatively spared in this round. Public workshops and hearings continuing through mid-May.

County Executive James Williams' May 1, 2026 Recommended Budget for FY 2026-27 deletes 3 non-attorney positions in PD Damon Silver's office but preserves all attorney positions. County faces $787M deficit and $1B in projected annual federal funding losses. Workshops and public hearings set for mid-May. Office had already lost 33 PDs in 24 months; PD attorneys handle 139 felony cases / 713 misdemeanor cases — exceeding RAND benchmarks by up to 400%.

PD attorneys describe workloads that squeeze out investigations, client visits, and serious court preparation. Some lawyers taking medical leave or walking away. 46 felony attorneys handled 6,400 cases (139 each); 19 misdemeanor attorneys handled 13,545 cases (713 each). DA office receives 2x+ the funding of the PD office.