[Humboldt County] County civil grand jury: setting the record straight

Blog note: incredible work by the Humboldt County Grand Jurors’ Association. This story illustrates the importance of grand juries following up on responses. Without the association’s action, no one would know about the Office of Education’s action.

It has been six months since the Grand Jurors’ Association last published an article in the local media addressing your Civil Grand Jury. This lack of published information should not imply that the Grand Juror’s Association has not been actively engaged in improving the processes that provide the public with a response to all civil grand jury recommendations. On the contrary, these last six months have been filled with discussion, controversy, and change.

It is now time for us to provide an update to our column published on July 6, 2019 by the Times-Standard. That article focused on the 2017-2018 civil grand jury report titled “Humboldt We Have a Problem, But More Special Education is Not the Answer.” Our column highlighted the fact that the Humboldt County Grand Jurors’ Association could find no evidence that either the Humboldt County Office of Education (HCOE) or the Director of our Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) had responded to this grand jury report as required by California Penal Code 933.05.

California Penal Code 933.05 requires all investigated entities to provide a written response to the presiding judge of the Superior Court and, in the case of elected county officials, a copy to the county Board of Supervisors. This response is required within either a 60- or 90-day period after the report was published.

Within a week of our published article we were contacted by the current sitting civil grand jury, and told that both responses had been found within the office of the Superior Court. Those responses have now been loaded on the county website and are available for public review. Both responses met the requirements of California Penal Code 933.05. The response from HCOE was received by the Superior Court on Aug. 20, 2018, and the response from SELPA was received on Sept. 25, 2018.

It has been six months since the Grand Jurors’ Association last published an article in the local media addressing your Civil Grand Jury. This lack of published information should not imply that the Grand Juror’s Association has not been actively engaged in improving the processes that provide the public with a response to all civil grand jury recommendations. On the contrary, these last six months have been filled with discussion, controversy, and change.

It is now time for us to provide an update to our column published on July 6, 2019 by the Times-Standard. That article focused on the 2017-2018 civil grand jury report titled “Humboldt We Have a Problem, But More Special Education is Not the Answer.” Our column highlighted the fact that the Humboldt County Grand Jurors’ Association could find no evidence that either the Humboldt County Office of Education (HCOE) or the Director of our Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) had responded to this grand jury report as required by California Penal Code 933.05.

California Penal Code 933.05 requires all investigated entities to provide a written response to the presiding judge of the Superior Court and, in the case of elected county officials, a copy to the county Board of Supervisors. This response is required within either a 60- or 90-day period after the report was published.

Within a week of our published article we were contacted by the current sitting civil grand jury, and told that both responses had been found within the office of the Superior Court. Those responses have now been loaded on the county website and are available for public review. Both responses met the requirements of California Penal Code 933.05. The response from HCOE was received by the Superior Court on Aug. 20, 2018, and the response from SELPA was received on Sept. 25, 2018.

February 1, 2020

Eureka Times-Standard

By Wayne Ventuleth, Humboldt County Grand Jurors’ Association