Another year of grand jury reports reveals problems, but no enforcement.

The Monterey County Civil Grand Jury is composed of a group of 19 volunteers, sworn to secrecy for life, with investigative powers to review government documents and interview government officials about citizen complaints. They start with tips – anonymous tips are not accepted, as step one is to interview the tipster about their concerns – and choose which to pursue over the course of a year, culminating in reports on the workings (and failings) of local government.

As of this writing, as the 2021-22 grand jury season wraps up, they have released six reports on various issues, from the county’s early response to the Covid-19 pandemic and Moss Landing Harbor District’s organization and financial planning (the takeaway in both of those: lots of room for improvement). One more report is expected any day, and then all will be translated into Spanish, and the full compendium, some 300 pages, will be publicly available. Then on July 16, a new grand jury for 2022-23 will be sworn in (the selection process, led by Monterey County Superior Court Judge Pamela Butler and County Counsel Les Girard, is now underway) and it will begin again.

It’s all a somewhat ceremonious process and a big responsibility. Foreperson Tom Wiley is a retired fire captain who lives in Royal Oaks and decided to apply because “public service is in my blood.” As foreperson, he spent as many as 40 hours a week on his grand jury volunteer responsibilities; other jurors spend 20-30, and are paid $15 per day. (One of this year’s jurors has a full-time job.) This year’s grand jury received 24 citizen complaints, and formed 11 investigation committees; a few were dropped as they began digging.

But despite its efforts, the Monterey County Civil Grand Jury is a toothless entity, with zero enforcement powers. Only a paper response is required, no action. Even those paper responses are pesky to monitor.

One of this year’s seven reports is about the grand jury process itself, and urges future juries to at least ensure entities file the required responses – the (required) minimum. This grand jury looked at 231 entities investigated over the past 10 years, and sent compliance letters to 51 of them that never even bothered to file a response. “Failure to respond as required undermines the civil grand jury system and its ability to support government entities by making recommendations which could result in improved governmental effectiveness and efficiency,” per the report. “Failure to respond does not allow the public or future civil grand juries to know if their recommendations are being implemented.”

Wiley knows the limitations of the process. “I don’t want people to think that they come on the jury and write a report and everything’s going to be peachy keen, because it’s just not going to happen that way,” he says.

One report this year awards a gold star, rather than a list of failures. That is an investigation of the Monterey County Office of Education, which helped guide the county’s 24 school districts (and 135 schools) to distance learning in March of 2020. “School districts, teachers and educational support personnel demonstrated initiative and flexibility in meeting the needs of students in the first years of the pandemic,” the grand jury reports. “County educational employees went beyond their job descriptions in meeting the needs of students and their families during the pandemic.”

The jury offered up a long list of recommendations to the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, specifically when it comes to the jail, from which three murder suspects escaped since November 2019. Then on Nov. 17, 2021, another inmate “was able to climb a masonry column undetected. In just 13 seconds, the escapee exposed a longstanding weakness in the perimeter security.”

The grand jury reports that surveillance video of one escape has never been located.

The grand jury recommends that the Sheriff’s Office hire an outside consultant to conduct an audit of its security systems, and implement fixes by July 1, 2023.

By then, there will be a new sheriff – and a new grand jury. This report, like others, is unfortunately likely to become a historical artifact more than a guiding policy document.

SARA RUBIN is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@mcweekly.com or follow her at twitter.com/sarahayleyrubin.