Blog note: great start of a monthly column about the grand jury by the Humboldt Chapter of CGJA.
Have you ever wondered how our county government is spending your tax dollars (your money)? How do the cities of Arcata, Eureka, and Fortuna prioritize their city budgets? Perhaps you are concerned about Child Welfare Services and their response time to alleged child abuse, or the maintenance of our trail and park systems. Maybe you have concerns about how the county is handling the support of our disabled and homeless citizens, or perhaps how efficiently the county performs its purchasing and permitting.
Frustration is common among our citizens over these, and other issues and concerns. Questions such as whom do I talk to about my concerns?, who will listen to me?, how can I make a difference? Perhaps you tried speaking to the Board of Supervisor only to increase your frustration. In the end, acceptance sets in and you say, why bother because nothing will change.
It is true that change does not happen without some action, but Humboldt County has a civilian watchdog organization to oversee the efficient and effective operations of the county and city governments. It receives and reviews citizen complaints. Some complaints lead to full investigations. Investigations often lead to recommendations and corrective action.
The organization that can help is your Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury. The civil grand jury dates back to the forming of the state of California, and is empowered by the state constitution. The civil grand jury has the legal right to investigate issues affecting the county itself, cities, and districts within the county. It performs this task through interviews, documentation research, first hand observation, and the ability to subpoena individuals or documents.
Remember those concerns regarding Child Welfare Services, trails and parks, the disabled and homeless, and purchasing and permitting? The civil grand jury has investigated all of these concerns in the last three years. Have the county and cities taken the grand jury reports to heart and implemented necessary changes? Not really. Traditionally, these “powers that be” are quick to thank the civil grand jury for its hard work, but then continue with business as usual.
The Jurors’ Association believes it is time to hold the county and its cities accountable for their often- inadequate responses to civil grand jury reports. The association believes the citizens of this county need to be made aware of these reports and whether these responses really address the recommendations of the civil grand jury or simply are a routine “check the box” motion before moving on.
As noted earlier, the civil grand jury has investigated Child Welfare Services several times during the last 20 years and discovered serious deficiencies. Recommendations were put forth to encourage the county and cities to make procedural changes to meet federal and state mandates. Lacking a serious consideration of our recommendations, today the county is involved with the Attorney General of California and a stipulation for entry of final judgment and permanent injunction dealing with Humboldt County’s ChildWelfare Services and the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office. The final judgment deals with a decade’sold systemic problem of failure to adequately investigate reports of child abuse and neglect. In other words, timely attention to grand jury recommendations might have avoided Attorney General monitoring of these departments.
Our county’s serious lack of attention to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was spelled out in a 2016 grand jury report. Now the county is embarked on a compliance effort that is costing many thousands of dollars. In the meantime our disabled have been ill-served.
In another county (Butte), grand jury warnings of emergency escape routes in the area of Paradise, California were ignored. We are all too familiar with the Camp Fire’s deadly results.
Could something similar happen here?
It is with these things in mind, the Jurors’ Association begins a monthly column in this space. We will try to highlight glaring inadequacies and we will try to offer solutions. We will attempt to clarify and to educate. We hope you will contribute with your ideas for future discussions. Jim Glover resides in Eureka. This is the first of a series of articles about the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury written by the Humboldt County Chapter of the California Grand Jurors’ Association (CGJA). The CGJA provides the general public with informational and educational materials and activities on the California grand jury system. Our next article will address civil grand jury membership, processes, and reporting.
March 2, 2019
Eureka Times-Standard
By Jim Glover
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