https://www.siliconvalley.com/2022/07/08/top-santa-clara-county-officials-sidelined-efforts-to-hire-outsider-for-pricey-history-book/

A new report puts a price tag on the controversial local history book commissioned by Santa Clara County that turned out to contain paragraphs copied nearly word-for-word from online sources: over $1 million in taxpayer money.

And an email obtained by this news organization, which first discovered the copied paragraphs, sheds light on how county officials circumvented competitive bidding rules to steer the book project to the wife of a former county supervisor. County Executive Jeff Smith now concedes the project should have been competitively bid.