Preface

On July 11, 1997, 19 individuals were selected and sworn in as the 1997-98 County ot Mendocino Grand Jury. This Grand Jury was impaneled to perform the Jury's civil functions of review and investigation of government in Mendocino County, including the right to investigate cnizen's complaints concerning the conduct of local agencies and their employees. In this role the Grand Jury serves as guardian against inefficient performance or improper acuon by County government. While a civil Grand Jury retains the right to indict. if the District Attorney wishes to use a Grand Jury to bring an indictment. a separate criminal Grand Jury would be impaneled for that single purpose.

This document is the result of the Grand Jury's 1997-98 investigations. In order to accomplish as much as possible. as thoroughly as possible. the Grand Jury organizes itself in to a number of committees. These committees have the responsibility for conducting the Jurys investigations in areas of government. It cannot be stressed too strongly that these committees are working under the direction of the full Jury. that committees need formal approval from the full Jury (12 votes out of 19, at a meeting of the full Jury) before they can start an investigation. and the formal approval of the full Jury before any report which may be the result of an investigation is made public. No individual Juror, nor sub-group of Jurors may act independently of the direction provided by the full Grand Jury. No individual Juror nor subgroup of Jurors may independently decide on what message to make public. Thus the reports that follow are not a reflection of the concerns of a few, but of a deliberate, thoughtful process involving and directed by the Grand Jury as a whole.

The primary investigative functions that the Grand Jury's committees perform are to ascertain what the facts are and, if problems are revealed, to determine possible solutions that the Grand Jury may recommend as remedies to those problems. The Grand Jury cannot rely on secondhand sources for information. First-hand verification by way of the testimony of those directly involved and/or original source documents must be obtained before something can be reported as true by a Grand Jury. It is of fundamental importance that innuendo, rumor, or the personal bias and beliefs of Jurors not be the basis for Grand Jury findings.

Except in the face of malfeasance or criminal wrong-doing, the Grand Jury can take no direct action to implement remedies to the problems it uncovers. The Grand Jury is free to recommend to government agencies and their governing boards what actions those entities may take that the Grand Jury has determined will rectify those problems. The Grand Jury may then require a written response to its recommendations. Such responses must detail what actions will be taken and why. The readiness of agencies to respond in good faith to these reports and the attentiveness of the 1998-99 Grand Jury to the responses, and subsequent actions, of those agencies will in large measure determine the effectiveness of this Report.

The Grand Jury is impaneled for only one year. Without timely cooperation, the Grand Jury's ability to objectively evaluate government agencies so as to draw informed conclusions and make useful recommendations is hindered unnecessarily. Although disclosure of sensiuve information may be embarrassing or may put the County at potential risk, the Grand Jury feels that these are minor when compared with the danger engendered by secrecy surrounding the activities of government agencies.

The willingness of the citizens to take an interest in the concerns raised in these reports. and to see that their government remedies them, will ultimately prove the usefulness of this Grand Jury's work.

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