Sacramento grand jury looking for new members to investigate local agencies, governments

The pay isn’t great and the yearlong commitment can take up quite a bit of time, but if you’re a Sacramento County resident looking to have a significant impact on how local government agencies do business and address wrongdoing, the Sacramento Grand Jury is looking for you.

Potential members have until Dec. 30 to apply to be one of the 19 grand jurors or 11 alternates, and the payoff could be investigating problems at area jails, school districts or allegations of wrongdoing at numerous government entities.

In past years, Sacramento’s grand jurors have blistered the former management of the Sacramento library system, leading to wholesale changes in leadership; found woeful management practices inside the county’s Child Protective Services agency and questioned why $104 million of the $181 million in COVID funding the county received ended up being used for Sheriff’s Office payroll.

“Our grand jurors report that it is a rewarding experience,” said Sacramento Superior Court Judge Steven Gevercer, the court’s advisor to the panel. “They are civic-minded people. They’re interested in government.

“And they’re interested in a community service that really has some impact. And I think our reports really make a difference. They’re a catalyst to change.”

Grand jurors decide as a group what to investigate and how, with no interference from the court or local prosecutors. They can tour local jails, probe spending records at area school districts or investigate complaints filed by whistleblowers inside government agencies.

Last year, the panel investigated a citizen complaint about the management of the Del Paso Water Management District that led to a report finding “reckless and irresponsible” actions by the board in addressing the system’s aging infrastructure. Another citizen complaint led to the grand jury finding that Isleton officials had violated state law by failing to fill a city council seat after one of its members died.

The grand jury has the authority to issue criminal indictments, but such actions are exceedingly rare.

“Our grand jury primarily works as an independent taxpayers’ guard, a watchdog,” Gevercer said. “And what they do is they’re empowered by statute to investigate and gather evidence and report on local government waste, abuse inefficiency.

“They will issue a report, and the target of report is required to respond. And it’s a very broad range of topics, because it can be any city government, any county government, agencies. It includes the jails, it includes all special districts. There’s over a hundred special districts in Sacramento County — water districts, mosquito districts.”

Grand jurors serve a one-year term that begins July 1, and the members decide together how frequently they meet and for how long, Gevercer said, adding that when members are writing reports about their investigations the schedule can have them working 20 hours a week or more.

Grand jurors are paid $30 a day when they meet, receive free parking and get mileage reimbursement.

This year, Gevercer is hoping to attract a diverse group of applicants from throughout the county.

“It lends credibility to the public to know that their grand jury is composed of people from all over,” the judge said during an interview inside his courtroom. “It’s kind of like here with our juries when they render a verdict and you look at them and you see, ‘Oh, it looks like this is a pretty well-composed jury from all different neighborhoods, different ages and races.’

“It has more credibility.”

Last year, the panel had more than 100 applicants, who typically undergo a background check and are interviewed by former members of the panel. Grand jurors must be U.S. citizens, county residents for at least a year and be at least 18.

The court says applicants should be “a good listener, with patience, who has skill and experience in fact finding, investigative techniques, and report writing” and be “ready to invest 25 to 35 hours a week” during at least four days a week.

But members who are chosen have full freedom to investigate potential wrongdoing or mismanagement without interference from outside.

“This is what I love about this,” Gevercer said. “This is the democratic process. This is our democratic system.

“There’s no state bureaucrat, no bureaucratic agency telling them what to do. These are just people from the community and they’re serving and they’re making really important decisions.”

Applications can be made online at sacgrandjury.org through Dec. 30.