Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Every year, the Mendocino County Superior Court recruits Mendocino citizens to volunteer for a one year appointment as civil grand jurors. The Mendocino County Civil grand jury, composed of 19 members plus alternates, performs important citizen oversight of local government. Cayman News spoke with Kim Turner, the executive court officer, about the importance of the civil grand jury.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: We're recruiting for the incoming 25, 26 grand jury, which will start July 1. Every year, the court and panels and the grand jury provide service for an entire year and looks at a variety of different topics. So I made a list of the things that the grand jury has, has reported on and I think have been taken to heart, especially by the county of Mendocino. The grand jury has the power to investigate any local governmental entity, whether it's a county, a special district, a school district, a city. But the vast majority of the reports are directed at the county of Mendocino. And in the last couple of years, they did a comprehensive look at the Family and Children Services program in HHSA and also at the county human resources, which since the pandemic, many local governments are struggling with employee recruitment and retention. So they looked at some of those factors and some of things like pay equity and, you know, issues of conflict compensation, issues of representation. And so those reports were well received by the county of Mendocino. The board actually accepted many of the recommendations of the grand jury and is implementing changes in those departments to address some of the deficiencies that were noted in those reports.
[00:01:41] Speaker A: A Pew Research center study in 2024 found that though government trust had improved slightly in 2023, only 22% of the American public trusted the government to do what was right most of or more. Turner stated that the civil grand jury can provide much needed transparency to county residents.
[00:02:03] Speaker B: Well, the grand jury is an amazing vehicle for that very thing. So unlike boards that are appointed by politicians or other types of entities, the grand jury is a much more organic process, and it's comprised of ordinary citizens who are interested in their communities and interested in government. So the fact that the grand jury steps up, that 19 members take on a variety of, of topics and then report out to the community, those reports are always published, they're public, and they, I think, really shine a light on these functional areas of government, some of which are working well, Sometimes the grand jury writes a report and says, you know, this particular organization is running pretty smoothly. We found this little thing here or that little thing there. But overall, you know, the public should have confidence in this particular agency or entity. Sometimes they find that there are problems that they didn't even intend to discover. The reports can be lengthy and there can be a number of recommendations. But this is the beauty of the grand jury, is that the local citizens are actually doing the legwork and determining how they think government is functioning on their behalf.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: Turner said serving on the civil grand jury is a stimulating process to ensure that the Mendocino county government is fulfilling its potential to serve its citizens responsibly and its mission to provide critical services to all Mendocino residents. Highlighting civil oversight as intended by the framers of the California Constitution the framers.
[00:03:35] Speaker B: Of the California Constitution really enshrined in the Constitution the idea of citizen oversight. It goes right back to the bedrock of our California constitution, this idea of serving and giving back to your communities and making sure that the community is responding to its citizens.
[00:03:52] Speaker A: When asked about the topic selection of the civil grand jury's focuses, Turner said.
[00:03:58] Speaker B: It comes from a variety of sources. It can come from letters that the grand jury receives from private citizens. It can come from grand jurors themselves who may have an area or an issue that they've heard about in the community that they want to look into. It could be something topical where, you know, a particular department has been in the press a lot recently, and the grand jury wants to do a little more of a deeper dive into whatever that issue may be. So the grand jury has complete discretion as to what it what topics it decides it wants to investigate.
Court and the the judge in our court is Judge Ann Moorman, who is sort of the liaison for the grand jury. If they have legal questions, if they have questions of ethical questions or propriety questions, they can certainly go to her with those questions. The only entity that the grand jury cannot investigate is the court itself. The grand jury, by law, is not permitted to investigate the work of the court. And I'm sure that's because of the ethical concern about the court is appointing the grand jury. So you can't have the grand juries investigating the court.
[00:04:59] Speaker A: Those volunteers selected to serve agree to fulfilling the time obligations that Turner says varies during different parts of the process.
[00:05:08] Speaker B: The process starts with an orientation in July. So once we have assembled our new grand jurors, we need 19 people to empanel the grand jury. So we're looking for applicants right now. You can volunteer yourself. You can contact a neighbor, a friend, a relative and ask them to volunteer. It is a significant time commitment at different points, points of the year, 20 hour a week kind of a job at the beginning. Then it's maybe 10 to 15 hours a week in the middle. And then as you get toward the end of the grand jury's year, when you're report writing, it can be 20, 25 hours a week at that point.
[00:05:46] Speaker A: Each civil grand jury determines not only their topics of investigation, but how the civil grand jury body works.
[00:05:53] Speaker B: So every grand jury has its own, I'm going to call it, personality. So some of them operate on a majority vote kind of a process. Some of them oper census process. Some of them have four persons that are really like a sort of a formal leadership structure. Some of them are an informal leadership structure. So we are never in the room, and we do not participate in helping the grand jury determine what it's going to investigate. And that process is a closed and confidential process. Each grand jury comes up with its own method of evaluating the various topics that they might investigate and then determining how many they're going to take on, what the breadth and scope of those investigations is going to entail.
[00:06:35] Speaker A: According to Turner, the varied skills of the 19 selected jurors are an attribute to the civil grand jury.
[00:06:42] Speaker B: What we find is, with 19 people, we always have folks that are good writers. We have people that are really good at looking at spreadsheets. We have people that are really good at analyzing information.
Definitely a collaborative process and a team effort. So I think people naturally find the things that they're good at, and they focus on those things. The things like, if you're not a strong writer, then there is always a strong writer or two or three on the grand jury that will do the report writing part of this. But there are plenty of other things to do, plenty of other legwork to be done, field work in the community to be done. And we're just looking for people that really are interested in good government, are interested in making sure that our government is responsive to its citizens, and they bring that kind of noble charge to the grand jury.
[00:07:30] Speaker A: Those interested in learning more about the process or in volunteering for the 25, 26 civil grand jury can find additional information online.
[00:07:39] Speaker B: So if you are interested in applying, you can go either to the county of Mendocino's website or to the court's website. The application is available online. You can either complete it online and submit it, or you can download it and print it and handwrite it and bring it on in or mail it in. We are accepting applications all the way up until June 20th this year, and the application period opened this week. So please encourage yourself, your friends, your family members, your neighbors to consider serving it is a time commitment, but I think it is really well worth the time and effort. And if you talk to any of the grand jurors who have served in the past, I think they would tell you it's a rewarding experience.
[00:08:21] Speaker A: The application may also be obtained in person at the court located at 100 North State street, room 303 in Ukiah, or by calling the grand jury at 707-463-4320. Reporting for Gamma News, I'm Lisa Music.
