Serving on the Grand Jury

Earlier this week I received in the mail a solicitation to apply to the Orange County Grand Jury. It came while I was out of town, so I am still trying to catch up with my mail.


I have already served the County. My first panel was the 1994-1995, an 18-month stint. That was due to the Treasurer declaring bankruptcy December 1994. We knew that the investigation would need a whole year, so the panel voted unanimously to extend the normal period of 12 months to 18 months. The outlook for the County was bleak, but we recovered somewhat.




The second Grand Jury panel was 1998-1999. That was a year of change--new district attorney, new sheriff. I still recall the sheriff addressing the panel, and informing us about his idea of having a group of community advisors. Of course we thought he was talking real community leaders, not people wanting gun permits and badges. Oh well, we have yet to see how his federal trial comes out.


The third panel was 2002-2003. The ET Committee was one of the panels on which I sat. ET stands for Environment and Transportation, but we sometimes called it the Entertainment and Travel Committee because we enjoyed each other’s company and we took a few field trips in our charge of investigation.

Below is the committee at the Seven Oaks Dam. We still get together now and then, and I think we are due for another trip soon. Where are we going next?

I have only one thing to add. You meet some of the nicest people from all over the County. Most of us are sincere altruists who believed we could make a difference for the betterment of the County.