By Gianna Cruet
Lompoc Record
A proposal to restructure the Santa Barbara County civil grand jury in order to include more representatives from Lompoc and other North County locations will be discussed Tuesday night at the Lompoc City Council meeting.
The resolution, approved by the Economic Development Committee in March, requests that the Grand Jury correct the imbalance of its jurors, according to a staff report.
Of the 19 members in the 2012-13 session, the grand jury had 12 representatives from Santa Barbara and Montecito and only four from Lompoc, the report said.
In the proposal, the EDC also asks the judges of the Superior Court to replace the at-large selection of jurors — based on applications and random drawings — with a selection of an equal number of jurors from each supervisorial district.
Additionally, EDC member Steve Pepe said residents in Lompoc and North County are deterred from applying to the Grand Jury because the panel’s meetings are in Santa Barbara, resulting in a long commute for North County residents. The resolution suggests that a better location for the Grand Jury’s meetings would be in Lompoc, Buellton or Solvang, which are located in the middle of the county.
“It’s just not reasonable to expect people to drive three hours, and then spend eight to nine hours in a meeting,” Pepe said.
If the council approves the resolution, the city will forward it to the cities of Santa Maria, Guadalupe, Buellton and Solvang for consideration. The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, the Superior Court's executive officer and the jury commissioner will also receive copies of the resolution.
Although the 2014-15 grand jury application deadline closed May 1, EDC Chairwoman Jenelle Osborne said talks about restructuring the Grand Jury should start now rather than later.
“We figured that, if nothing else, even if we didn't get them to do the change this year, we needed to start the discussion,” Osborne said. “Rather than worrying that we missed a deadline, we would rather make the proposal, start the discussion and make the suggestion to the county and the city to make a change.”
Reforming the Grand Jury will have a long-term economic impact on Lompoc, she said.
“It's still an economic benefit because we will have more balanced representation for reports made about the community," Osborne said. “Even if (the grand jury meetings) are in Solvang or Buellton, if someone has been judged doing something improper, it will be a fair and balanced evaluation.”
The City Council will also determine whether to impose more requirements for adding items to a published agenda other than what is already required by the Ralph M. Brown (Open Meetings) Act. Councilman Dirk Starbuck asked to discuss the rules after a council meeting April 1, when council members voted to add an item agenda at 9:45 that night.
Members of the public have raised concerns about the legality of that action, according to a staff report. Starbuck said he would have preferred notification about the agenda item at the beginning of the meeting.
“Is it the way you really want to do things, when you just make an announcement to add something to the agenda?” he asked. “I don't know if it'll go anywhere, but I think it's something we should discuss."
Also on the agenda is:
• A financing proposal for the purchase of the InterAct Computer-Aided Dispatch/Records Management/Jail Management system.
• Ratification of the proclamation of a local emergency issued by the City's Director of Emergency Services during the Miguelito Fire.
The Lompoc City Council will meet at 7 p.m. today at City Hall, 100 Civic Center Plaza.
No comments:
Post a Comment