Many Contra Costa residents
don't even know the county has a civil grand jury, never mind what it does.
That's because the 19 volunteers who are empowered by the Superior Court to
stand watchdog over government agencies serve their 12-month terms largely in
obscurity.
They work behind the scenes
in examining the efficiencies and best practices of city and county operations,
typically putting in 30 hours a week for stipends of $60 or less. Late in their
terms, they release findings with suggestions, to which agencies must respond.
The reports are well-researched, meticulous in detail and touch important
topics, yet they often escape the public notice they merit.
For instance, five weeks ago,
the grand jury reported that county residents are missing out on more than $54
million annually in federal food subsidies. The study cites figures for 2012,
showing that less than 60 percent of the county's 116,074 eligible residents
applied for CalFresh (food stamp) benefits.
The program is open to
families whose gross income does not exceed 130 percent of federal poverty
guidelines ($1,984 for a family of three), but many people seem unaware. The
grand jury report encourages county officials to do a better job of publicizing
these benefits.
Another report, released more
recently, challenges the established notion that pension benefits cannot be
reduced for public employees hired before 2013, when the Public Employee Pension
Reform Act went into effect. That belief hinges on a 1955 California Supreme
Court ruling that prohibited public employers from reducing benefits. But that
ruling came before the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act of 1968 established collective
bargaining as the framework for establishing all employee benefits. Pensions
are a benefit, so why shouldn't they now be negotiable?
Yes, it would take some
bargaining -- unions rarely give away anything they already have -- but dim
hope is better than none. Reduced benefits might be a welcome option if
insolvency were shown to be the alternative. The grand jury said county
supervisors should at least pursue a legal clarification of this possibility.
Perhaps the most timely
report, in the wake of the demise of Doctors Medical Center, is grand jury
report No. 1507: Opportunities for Change in the County Health and Human
Services System. It urges officials to explore merging the county health care
system with a large private or public counterpart, noting that Contra Costa Regional
Medical Center, not unlike DMC, "receives low reimbursement rates and
serves struggling communities," and has "difficulty recruiting staff
and upgrading facilities."
The grand jury points out
that the county currently is contributing $30 million a year to keep its health
care operation afloat, and county population is projected to grow by 350,000 in
the next 20 years. Increased demand will bring increased expenses,
necessitating a long-range plan. It cites a recent merger between the UC San
Francisco Medical Center and John Muir Health as a model that affords
"increased patient access to a larger variety of physicians, hospitals,
outpatient facilities" and enables the network to share costs.
Sure, it'd be a complex
undertaking, but DMC's closure shows what can happen to stand-alone hospitals.
There's a lesson to be learned.
The civil grand jury may not
get the notice it merits, but it's not for lack of ideas.
June 3, 2015
San
Jose Mercury News
By
Tom Barnidge, Contra Costa Times Columnist
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