In January, the Shasta County Superior Court, assisted by the Shasta County Grand Jurors’ Association, will begin recruiting citizens of Shasta County to serve on the Shasta County Grand Jury for 2018-19.
The grand jury is tasked with investigating the activities of local government agencies in Shasta County, including the county, the three cities, school districts and special districts. The grand jury is the only entity in the county empowered by state law to investigate and issue findings and recommendations about the operations of local government.
A couple of trends are showing up related to the Shasta County Grand Jury. The first trend is the slump in the number of complaints the jury receives each year. Some of the grand jury’s investigations are initiated by residents’ complaints. But out of nearly 180,000 Shasta County residents, only 21 submitted complaints during the last fiscal year. Of those 21 complaints, three resulted in grand jury reports.
Overall, the number of complaints being received is trending downward — from 63 in 2008-09 to just one-third that number in 2016-17. To address the trend of declining complaints, the grand jury will be updating its website (shastacountygrandjury.org) to include more information on the complaint process.
Complaints can provide information that would otherwise be unknown to the grand jury. While the grand jury is not required to act on information from residents, each complaint is acknowledged and seriously considered. Specific allegations about a public agency, program or official, especially if accompanied by supporting documentation, are most likely to yield results.
The second trend has been the decline in the number of people who apply to serve as grand jurors. Each year, the Superior Court is required to name a pool of 25 to 30 prospective grand jurors. From that pool, 19 names are randomly drawn and seated as grand jurors; the remaining applicants are named as alternates.
Over the past several years, fewer people have applied for grand jury service, so both the jury pool and the number of alternates available have been smaller. In recent years, just about all of the alternates have been asked to fill a vacancy on the jury. Most vacancies occur when a juror resigns due to a personal or family illness, work commitments or the juror’s inability to keep up.
Being on the grand jury requires a commitment to serve for a year for about 20 hours a week. Work includes meetings, training, interviews, research and writing reports.
Jurors best able to participate for the full year are those who can devote the necessary time, have a strong commitment to our community, are interested in learning new things, and are able to work productively with 18 other people.
It will soon be time to recruit a new grand jury and the Superior Court is looking for good men and women in Shasta County to apply. The 2017-18 application will be posted on the grand jury’s website in January and the new grand jury will be selected in late June or early July. Please apply.
December 6, 2017
Redding Record Searchlight
By Phillip Perry
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