Riverside County supervisors are fed up with the civil grand jury's conflict with county counsel. But maybe the panel isn’t at fault.
Riverside County Supervisor John Tavaglione had a lot to say about the past civil grand jury when the Board of Supervisors met last week to consider the county’s responses to the watchdog panel’s recommendations.
He called it unprofessional, confrontational and disrespectful.
In the previous 10 years, Tavaglione said, when he talked to the grand jurors, he sat down with them at a conference table. “You feel like you’re sitting down with your colleagues,” he said.
This year, Tavaglione said he was treated differently. Instead of a conference table, he sat in a witness box, “like a suspect, or a witness in a crime.”
“That’s the mentality of this last grand jury,” he said.
Hold your horses.
Before you castigate the grand jurors – a group of civic-minded folks who give up a year of their lives to probe the inner workings of county government – think for a moment about what else changed.
There’s a new county counsel, Greg Priamos.
And there’s a new law on how testimony is taken.
In the golden days Tavaglione was recalling, witnesses were not allowed to have a lawyer present. Now, they may – but only if their testimony is given under oath.
Did Tavaglione have a lawyer present this year? If so, he would be sworn in and sit in a witness box. But that would be his choice.
According to the California Grand Jurors Association, “most grand juries do not routinely place interviewees under oath.” This one was no exception.
The new law created the conflict, not the grand jurors Tavaglione publicly bashed. I sought a phone interview with him last week, but he was out of town and we couldn’t connect.
Priamos took office on July 29, 2014, a few weeks after the 2014-15 grand jury was impaneled. He’s pushing his office as the official lawyer to represent county officials before the grand jury.
Priamos also suggests department heads inform his office ahead of time about grand jury visits, document requests and testimony requests, another change from prior years. The grand jury called it interference. It certainly makes their job more cumbersome and time-consuming.
Cassie MacDuff
Riverside Press-Enterprise
Published: Aug. 23, 2015 Updated: 9:42 p.m.
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