Welcome by President Emily Mathews

 

 

Invocation—Mike Heffernan, as follows:

 

"Deciding what the RIGHT thing to do is usually pretty easy, and usually we really are pretty much right. But right now, in our world, what seems so easy may not be so right. So, I checked with Alexa: "what Is right?"

 

LOTS OF SUGGESTIONS—including one-stop shopping- by just watching Spike Lee's 1989 movie "Do the Right Thing." But among the many other choices that Alexa gave me, these three lines struck me:

 

May we have the wisdom to KNOW what is right.
May we have the compassion to FEEL what is right.
AND...May we have the strength to DO what is right.
Thanks Mike!

 

Guests of the club—our speaker John McDowell.

 

           Announcements:

   
           Interview a Burlingame Rotarian: Phil Siegle- Thank you Phil!!

 

Speaker Introduction: Jennifer Pence Introduced John McDowell. Thank you Jennifer!

 

Topic: California Counties’ “Civil Grand Juries”

 

In a show of hands requested by the speaker, very few if any of us in the audience knew about Civil Grand Juries in California. We knew from the start we were in for A LOT of learning today.

 

What is a Grand Jury, what does it Do? We do see headlines on the news about Civil Grand Juries’ findings, and report recommendations.

 

A Civil Grand Jury is a judicial body composed of 19 qualified citizen volunteers with diverse backgrounds representing people from the entire county. Every single county in California has a Civil Grand Jury. Note that only California has these juries. They are not criminal grand juries. They act a like a “Watch Dog” over local government. They investigate effectiveness and efficiency and problems of local government. It is a diverse viewpoint from diverse areas of the county and a super majority of civil grand jurors is needed to do anything. Civil grand juries investigate, research, interview, deliberate, all in confidence for life. Civil Grand jury volunteers cannot talk about their work. They can only talk about things they issue in their report. They produce well researched, substantial reports with recommendations for improvement based on their findings on local government. They produce from 5- 15 reports about their investigations, annually. They investigate the various government bodies specifically, county, city, school, and special districts. If you are someone who would like to know what’s going on in local government and “fix’ local government then a Grand Jury is for you.

 

How does a civil grand jury decide what to investigate? Hot topics in the news, such as “is our county prepared for wildfires” or are there any complaints by citizens of any problems in the Burlingame schools?  Is the school district doing its job?

 

If you are on a civil grand jury you also get to “go to jail”. Another task of the civil grand jury is to inspect every jail in the county, every year. No report needed but jails need to be inspected. One of the biggest San Francisco jails is located in San Mateo county, by Skyline college. So the grand jury inspects that jail, and the county jail, and the youth facilities. Grand juries need to inspect health services in San Mateo County. One of the biggest mental health services’ provider in the county is the jail system. Jails must take care of those mentally ill that get arrested, like, sometimes homeless. This is something the Sheriff needs to deal with. It is very eye opening to tour the wired jail and see what goes on in in the mental health wards. Burlingame Rotary could take a tour, once Covid restrictions are lifted. One of the most interesting things about serving in the grand jury is actually inspecting the jail and mental health facilities.

 

How does a civil grand jury do its job? Lots of reading and researching. If reading is not to your liking, a grand jury volunteer position is not for you. Lots of interviewing also. If the grand jury is investigating Caltrain, for example, and problems with its funding, then board members of Caltrain and the CEO would be interviewed. Then reports are written. It takes about two months to complete the writing of a report.

 

What is the consequence from the reports and recommendations presented by the civil grand jury? Important to note that civil grand juries hold a “carrot” but not a “stick”. Unless they use a multistep procedure called “accusation” of a government official, local government cannot be forced to follow the recommendations made by a civil grand jury. An accusation was made in the case of a Contra Costa County elected official who was illegally using campaign funds.

 

So if their recommendations are not enforceable, why have them?  Because they can make discoveries that can save taxpayers’ money, and they can correct inefficiencies and/ or fix problems in local government.

 

Several examples of grand jury investigation reports were mentioned. Burlingame local government recently received a report concluding that skyrocketing retiree pension benefits have been taking a bigger part of the city’s budget. It was concluded that nothing can be done about the pension payments as the state law requires those payments to be made. There were other examples of reports, to name a few:  homeless problems in Pasadena, mismanagement of the county’s Harbor District, Humboldt County accounting fraud possibilities due to lack of training, Menlo Park fire department problems.

 

From the audience questions, we learned a few more tidbits: Civil grand juries are part of the California legislature court system. They are not part of county government.  A civil grand jury is able to issue subpoenas in their research and investigation process. There is no “staff” supporting a civil grand jury. The office of the Assistance District Attorney works with the 19 volunteers and there is very little of expense reimbursing if any. This is why skills of the volunteer group are important, such as computing, writing, interviewing etc.

 

Citizens can and have made a difference in pushing for grand jury recommendations to actually be implemented. Local government only has a duty to respond to a report within 90 days. But they do not have to take any action to implement changes.

 

To be in a grand jury you need to be 18 years and older, have lived in the county for over one year, and passed the application process that actually includes being reviewed by a senior judge, your background reviewed and even pulling names out of a hat. A commitment of one year is required. About 5 of the 19 jurors usually cross over from one year to the next. If you are interested, you can find civil grand jury reports in the county website.

 

Emily thanked our wonderful speaker and announced the PolioPlus certificate to be delivered to him as a thank you. Five polio shots will be donated by Burlingame Rotary in John McDowell’s name. Another great Program adjourned.

 

Adjourn