By Rich Treadgold, Guest op-ed column -
HOW WOULD YOU, as just a citizen of Marin, like to have a direct and immediate impact on the decisions made by the Board of Supervisors? This is the power of the civil grand jury.
Four months ago, the grand jury began an inquiry into the Community Services Fund program, a process that allots $65,000 annually to each Marin County supervisor. For the past 15 years the supervisors have distributed this money at their own discretion to any cause deemed worthy. Because such an arbitrary arrangement creates the impression of patronage and could easily be misused for political gain, and because it had been more than a decade since a civil grand jury had evaluated this unique practice of supervisorial grants, we citizen-jurors decided to conduct an inquiry into the fairness and effectiveness of the Community Services Fund.
Our four-month investigation included interviews with each supervisor, multiple meetings with members of the county administrator's office, consultations with the county treasurer and many discussions with numerous organizations and individuals who received grants. These conversations explored all facets of the Community Services Fund, including established and potential conflicts of interest. A comprehensive 50-page report, "Community Services Funds — A Revisit After 12 Years," was carefully compiled and distributed to local media outlets on Jan. 7, 2013. We found numerous systemic problems with the fund and recommended it be substantially redesigned or entirely eliminated.
A few days prior to our report being released to the public, the president of the Board of Supervisors set aside the public agenda of the weekly meeting and quickly proposed several changes to the Community Services Fund program. Then, without entertaining questions or discussion, the agenda was resumed.
Curiously, these newly proposed changes exactly matched six of the 12 recommendations in our forthcoming report.
On Jan. 8, the Marin Independent Journal published a front-page article summarizing our report, including our final recommendation that the Community Services Fund be eliminated if it was not changed to become much more transparent and inclusive. That morning, the president of the Board of Supervisors told the IJ that the board was evaluating our 12 recommendations. By the end of business that day the board president issued a public statement calling for an end to the program.
Two weeks later, one of the remaining three supervisors stated publicly that she, too, is in favor of overhauling the Community Services Fund program.
Obviously, this situation needs to be closely monitored to ensure that these public statements result in official actions by the entire board, but it is gratifying to the civil grand jury members to know we do give voice to public concerns to effect positive change in Marin.
When the civil grand jury asks tough questions, elected officials and government employees must pay attention.
You can play a role in this fundamental democratic tradition. Simply go to the Marin County Civil Grand Jury website, www.co.marin.ca.us/depts/gj/main/index.cfm and download an application.
The interview process occurs around May and the new civil grand jury is impaneled on July 1. If you can devote about 20 to 30 hours a week and have a strong desire to make a positive difference at all levels of local government, Marin needs you. (The Community Services Fund report is available on grand jury website.) To learn all you need to know about the civil grand jury process, go to www.mgja.org.
Rich Treadgold of San Rafael is foreperson of the Marin County Civil Grand Jury.
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