In the spirit of full disclosure let me admit up front that I served on the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury from 2014 to 2016. I was privileged to be the foreperson in 2015-2016 and I currently train new civil grand juries for the California Grand Jurors’ Association. This work has been magnificently rewarding.
The 2018-2019 Civil Grand Jury is about to finish its year-long work. A brand new jury will be impaneled at the end of June. As a 45-year resident of Humboldt County and one who personally knows the hard work of the grand jury I need to give a heartfelt thank you to the current group of outgoing members.
Your year is almost over. Soon your reports, your findings and recommendations will go public. You will have investigated departments, agencies and issues in the spirit of making life better for the citizens of Humboldt County. You will release reports that point out problems with local governance and you will make recommendations on how those agencies can address those problems. You will also compliment those agencies you investigated and found to be doing a good job.
Various government agencies are required by law to respond to your reports. Those agencies are legally free to agree or disagree with your findings and recommendations. Many will disagree. By the time those responses become part of the public record your term will have expired and a new and independent grand jury will be impaneled. You will not be able to respond. You took an oath of confidentiality for life. You cannot share any information not included in your reports. The public needs to know that. We all need to honor and respect that.
In fact let me humbly suggest that we all need to become better informed about the civil grand jury system — and that includes the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors!
At their Jan. 8 meeting, the supervisors voted to grant themselves a raise. The self-evaluation process the board went through was by all accounts a difficult one. Supervisor Rex Bohn publicly stated he would not be accepting the raise although he believes it to be justified. Supervisor Estelle Fennell stated she believed the raise was justified and referred to the decision as a “question of fairness and equity.”
The supervisors’ unease with voting on their own salary increase may have been best summed up by Supervisor Mike Wilson, who went on record acknowledging the board’s discomfort: “This is one of the odd parts about this job — it’s super uncomfortable and weird, imagine yourself having to publicly talk about your wage in this context.”
I do not know nor do I want to express an opinion on whether the Board of Supervisors should have granted themselves a raise. I simply do not know. What I do know however is that, publicly, the supervisors created the impression they had no recourse — they were uncomfortable being in the middle of this process but had no alternative.
What I also know is this is not true! Actually the Board of Supervisors did have an alternative.
Penal Code 927 states: “A Grand Jury may, and when requested by the Board of Supervisors shall, investigate and report on the needs for increase or decrease in salaries of county-elected officials.”
I do not intend to suggest that our county supervisors deliberately misinformed or misled us. My personal hunch is they simply didn’t know they had the option of asking the grand jury to investigate and make a recommendation on such salary increases. I’m not sure they are any better informed about the functions and purpose of our civil grand jury system than the general public.
The Board of Supervisors is accountable when we hold them accountable. The local Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury is designed to facilitate that accountability. The better we understand how the civil grand jury functions the easier it becomes to hold our elected officials accountable.
Again, congratulations to the outgoing grand jury, on behalf of the citizens of Humboldt County — thank you, and the next time our board considers giving itself a raise, (and they will), maybe, just maybe they will consult with the civil grand jury.
John Heckel writes on behalf of the Humboldt County Grand Jurors’ Association. This monthly column about the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury is provided by the Humboldt County Chapter of the California Grand Jurors’ Association (HCC-CGJA). For information on the jurors’ association, email us: hcccgja@gmail.com.
June 8, 2019
Eureka Times-Standard
By John Heckel
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