On the 11th floor of the Rusty Bucket, the ugly Santa Clara County government building at First and Hedding streets, County Executive Jeff Smith has assembled a formidable superstructure for a sprawling bureaucracy.

You might not pay attention to county government unless you need its services — jails, courts, mental health, Valley Medical Center. For an organization its size, the county operates in relative obscurity. A few numbers, however, might grab your interest:

Smith has seven deputy county executives who each make more than $200,000. He has a chief operating officer who makes more than $350,000. He has hired several people with political backgrounds, including former San Francisco Supervisor David Campos.

But it is the background of this structure that most interests me. Fundamentally, this is a story of money, power and politics. Three big themes shape what is happening:

A) Financially, the county is booming. With 19,000 employees and a $6.5 billion budget, the county is the largest employer in the valley. And it is growing. Smith does not have to sweat when he adds senior staff.

Why the boom? First, Gov. Jerry Brown’s 2011 decision to end redevelopment means that tax money that used to go to redevelopment agencies is now funneled to counties and schools.

Second, Obamacare means many more poor patients treated at Valley Medical Center now have insurance. The county can redirect the general fund dollars that used to go to the hospital.

And last, the county has been successful in passing ballot measures that bring in more money: In 2012, voters approved a one-eighth cent sales tax for county programs. Last November, they approved a $950 million bond to create housing for the homeless and low-income.

B) Smith is centralizing power. Smith has fashioned a superstructure that dwarfs that of his predecessor, Pete Kutras, who made do with a chief operating officer and three deputy county executives. In general, Kutras and previous county executives gave more authority to department heads.

Under Smith’s structure, deputy county execs Sylvia Gallegos and Garry Herceg supervise various department heads, including those who deal with the environment, land use and jail diversion. Rene Santiago and John Mills are responsible for whole agencies (health and hospitals for Santiago; employee service agency for Mills).

Deputy exec Martha Wapenski manages the criminal justice departments, while Leslie Crowell is responsible for what Smith calls a “countywide transformation effort’’ called “The Center for Leadership and Transformation,” an effort to change the culture to focus on efficiency.

Finally, the county executive says that ex-S.F. Supervisor Campos, who was recently hired at $245,000 per year, will focus on implementing Measure A, the county bond for low-income housing. Campos will also work on reorganizing purchasing for the county.

“Remember, our budget is larger than all of the cities in this county combined,’’ Smith told me by email. “We provide many more services than San Jose or any other city.’’

Of course, that was also true during Pete Kutras’ tenure. It’s fair to point out that the county has embarked on some new programs, like the Measure A bond for low-income housing. But Smith acknowledges he runs his office differently than his predecessor, funneling decisions to the 11th floor.

“Being a ‘control freak,’ I have designed the senior staff in order to facilitate communication directly to my office and vet issues, concerns, and operations within the group,” Smith wrote me.

C) The office has a political cast. I mean that primarily in the sense of resumes: Several of Smith’s key appointments, including Campos and special assistant Steve Preminger, the former head of the local Democratic Party (hired on at $131,000 yearly), have political backgrounds.

No big surprise here: Smith himself, who made $380,000 in salary and other pay in 2015, is a former Contra Costa County supervisor. Mills and Gallegos are both former supervisorial chiefs of staff (Mills for Ken Yeager, Gallegos for former Supervisor Blanca Alvarado). COO Marquez is a former county counsel and appellate judge.

That can have advantages in dealing with the supervisors, particularly an activist board that regularly throws off new ideas for programs (Supervisors Cindy Chavez and Dave Cortese do this particularly).

For the most part, I believe Smith has hired good people. But the county executive should be the truth-teller in county government. The danger is that the 11th-floor operation can act too much like another political office, dodging the heat rather than acknowledging mistakes.

Smith’s office, for example, did not emerge as a beacon of integrity in the Preminger-organized Christmas toy giveaway that benefited some county employees. It was a fount of excuses.

Is the superstructure on the 11th floor good or bad? I’ll let you make the call. But the next time county government asks you for money, you might remember that they are not hurting. They’re building an empire.