In rare exchange, Santa Clara County child welfare leaders endure epic takedown from Supervisor Arenas

SAN JOSE — Santa Clara County Supervisor Sylvia Arenas had had enough.

She listened quietly during Tuesday’s board meeting as leaders of the county’s child welfare agency breezed through a slide show about the progress they’ve made trying to reform the agency since last year’s fentanyl overdose death of baby Phoenix Castro, a 3-month-old they’d refused to remove from her drug abusing father.

She waited for Damion Wright, the head of the Department of Family and Children’s Services...