In California, civil grand juries provide valuable records of civilian oversight of government activity, which can allow for an assessment of the efficiency and effectiveness of local government. Civil grand juries are primarily tasked with being government watchdogs, as part of the judicial branch – as such, each civil grand juror is a judicial officer. Civil grand juries are selected by a presiding judge and Jury Commissioner and work together to publish publicly viewable reports that investigate local elected officials, cities, and more agencies within the county’s purview. In this entry, we will discuss how civil grand juries operate in California, including the scope of their work and how to locate the reports that they issue upon completion of their work.
Mandated by the California Constitution, Article 1, Section 23, civil grand juries are a formal body of volunteer civilians in each of California’s 58 counties which are to “be drawn and summoned at least once a year.” Civil grand juries are not the same thing as grand juries summoned to consider evidence in criminal trials – they are separate entities. All of California’s civil grand juries publish an annual report, though they meet at least once or twice a week to discuss progress and process new civilian complaints. Jurors serve for one fiscal year once selected, and publish reports at the end of that year with their findings and recommendations. Many counties impose a minimum weekly time commitment which may limit working professionals’ participation.
Some counties choose to release one comprehensive report containing all of the different topics of investigation, while other counties prefer to publish several reports at once, all of which are on different subjects investigated. Once the reports are published, the pertinent agencies named or otherwise involved in the investigations will typically have 90 days to respond to the presiding judge of the grand juries. Elected officials named in investigations must respond within sixty days. These responses are almost always grouped with the grand jury reports online and can include answers on whether or not the agency agrees or disagrees with the recommendations made, as well as whether or not they have acted or will act on the recommendations. An example of a questionable decision to not act on civil grand jury recommendations arose in the wake of the 2018 Camp Fire in Butte County, which leveled the entire town of Paradise. In 2008, after a smaller fire, a Butte County civil grand jury made recommendations related to Paradise’s fire-disaster preparedness, specifically warning that the area was “especially prone to disastrous wildfires,” concluding that additional evacuation routes are necessary.” Six years later, instead of widening roads, Paradise narrowed a portion of its main road.
Civil grand juries have many functions and are able to investigate a wide range of public entities – all while being able to conduct their proceedings with a high degree of confidentiality. Civil grand jurors are sworn to secrecy, and all of their proceedings are secret. Meeting minutes are immune to subpoena and cannot be inspected by any member of the public. Under Penal Code § 924.1, it is a misdemeanor to divulge any evidence, anything said in proceedings, or how a grand juror may have voted on a matter. Confidentiality of interviewees and complainants is also a focal point for civil grand juries.
Civil grand juries in California have the following duties:
Act as a public watchdog by investigating and creating reports on the affairs of local government
Make annual examinations of operations, accounts and records of officers, departments or functions of the county, including any special districts
Look into the quality and management of the county’s jails and prisons
Weigh criminal charges against public officials and determine if indictments should be returned
Civil grand juries can also:
Investigate all of the county’s public records
Investigate books and records of any incorporated city or joint-powers authority in the county
Investigate certain housing authorities
Investigate special purpose assessing or taxing agencies that are fully or partially in the county
Investigate non-profit corporations established by or operated on behalf of a public entity
Investigate all aspects of city/county government which includes over 100 special districts
Investigate the books and financial expenditures of any government agency which includes cities, schools, boards and commissions.
Below is a list of each of California’s counties and a description of where to access and how they publish their grand jury reports:
Alameda: The Alameda County grand jury publishes one report per year. Since 2010, the Grand Jury has also separately published agency responses to their final reports.
Alpine: The Alpine County grand jury publishes one report per year. Agency responses are published separately from the reports, which are visible beneath the reports.
Amador: The Amador County grand jury publishes one report per year. Agency responses are available in the same column as the reports on the right-hand side of the page.
Butte: The Butte County grand jury publishes one report per year. Agency responses can be found after selecting a report to view.
Calaveras: The Calaveras County grand jury publishes one report per year, with agency responses included in the document.
Colusa: The Colusa County grand jury publishes one report per year. Their website does not report agency responses, and they only have reports going back three fiscal years.
Contra Costa: The Contra Costa County grand jury publishes reports based on subject matter investigated. For the 2017-18 fiscal years, they had ten reports, and twelve the prior fiscal year. Each agency’s response is included underneath each report.
Del Norte: The Del Norte County grand jury publishes one report per year. Agency responses are published separately from the report, and are available on the site.
El Dorado: The El Dorado County grand jury publishes one report per year. Click on the burger on the left hand side of the page to see all reports and responses back to 2001.
Fresno: The Fresno County grand jury has multiple reports per year, based on the subject matter being investigated. Agency responses are visible on the same page.
Glenn: The Glenn County grand jury publishes one report per year, with agency responses being included in the document.
Humboldt: The Humboldt County grand jury publishes as many annual reports as are necessitated by investigations. The responses are included in the reports.
Imperial: Imperial County publishes their civil grand jury reports online, but does not keep them stored in a central location. They have a site here which has reports up to 2013, but more recent ones must be searched online individually.
Inyo: The Inyo County grand jury reports are published through the county’s clerk-recorder office, and are published one per year. The agency responses are included below the reports themselves.
Kern: The Kern County grand jury reports are separated by committee/topic – responses are included in the reports. Kern County maintains civil grand jury reports back to the 1996-97 FY.
Kings: The Kings County grand jury has the current fiscal year’s reports separated by subject matter, but also in a singularly-compiled format with invitations for responses. Older reports include agency responses in them.
Lake: The Lake County grand jury publishes one report per year – reports are visible under the ‘Final Reports’ tab, which include agency responses. Reports go back to 2001.
Lassen: The Lassen County grand jury publishes one report per year. Each report contains agency responses to the prior year’s report.
Los Angeles: The Los Angeles Grand Jury publishes one report per year, with agency responses published separately from the report. Los Angeles retains reports dating back to 1960.
Madera: The Madera County grand jury publishes one current report, and then has archived reports dating back to 2004. Look at the menu on the left-hand side of the page for the corresponding choices.
Marin: The Marin County grand jury publishes multiple reports per year, on every subject that is covered. In addition to standard reports, they have podcasts summarizing each report, which are posted on YouTube. Archived reports date back to the 2000-01 FY.
Mariposa: The Mariposa County grand jury publishes one annual report, with agency responses published separately.
Mendocino: Mendocino County grand jury publishes multiple reports, separated on the basis of subject matter. Agency responses are published beneath the reports themselves.
Merced: The Merced County grand jury publishes one annual report which contains agency responses.
Modoc: The Modoc County grand jury does not have an official site which the reports are published on. The site linked here is an unofficial site with reports that have been scanned from physical copies held at the court. This site has reports dating back to the 2000-01 FY.
Mono: The Mono County grand jury publishes one report per year, with the pertinent agency’s response published separately.
Monterey: The Monterey County grand jury report is published as a whole document and is also broken up into different sections based on subject matter. The agency responses to the report are published separately, underneath each report/section.
Napa: The Napa County grand jury publishes multiple reports based on subject matter, and includes responses adjacent to the reports themselves.
Nevada: The Nevada County grand jury publishes multiple reports based on subject matter. Agency responses are published separately, visible beneath the reports themselves.
Orange: The Orange County grand jury publishes multiple reports based on subject matter, but also releases one final compendium with all of the reports. Responses are included in the reports. Reports date back to the 1998-1999 FY.
Placer: The Placer County grand jury publishes one compendium report at the end of each year of business. The following year’s report includes agency responses for the prior year.
Plumas: The Plumas County grand jury publishes its annual report in one document, with agency responses being separately viewable under the ‘Responses to Grand Jury Reports’ section.
Riverside: The Riverside County grand jury publishes multiple reports per year, dependent on subject matter. Agency responses are published separately from the reports.
Sacramento: The Sacramento County grand jury publishes one annual report, with agency responses published separately from the report. Reports & responses are available on the left-hand side of the screen linked.
San Benito: The San Benito County grand jury publishes one annual report. Agency responses are not included in the reports themselves.
San Bernardino: The San Bernardino County grand jury publishes one annual report. Agency responses are published separately from the report.
San Diego: The San Diego County grand jury publishes multiple reports at the end of the year depending on subject matter. Agency responses are published separately from the reports, and are viewable in each report’s section of the website. San Diego County only has reports online dating back to 2012-2013.
San Francisco: The San Francisco County grand jury publishes multiple reports which are dependent on subjects investigated. Agency responses are published separately from the reports, and are added to the website after they have been received by the grand jury. Reports dating back to 1995-1996 are kept online.
San Joaquin: The San Joaquin County grand jury publishes multiple reports each year, with agency responses published separately from the reports.
San Luis Obispo: The San Luis Obispo County grand jury publishes multiple reports per year based on subject matter investigated. Agency responses are published separately from the reports themselves. San Luis Obispo County has archived reports dating back to 1984-1985 online.
San Mateo: The San Mateo County grand jury publishes multiple reports per year based on subject matter investigated. Agency responses are included in each report, with a table of contents containing a hyperlink to the responses being placed at the top of the reports.
Santa Barbara: The Santa Barbara County grand jury publishes multiple reports per year based on subject matter investigated. Agency responses are published separately from the reports.
Santa Clara: The Santa Clara County grand jury publishes multiple reports per year based on subject matter investigated. Agency responses are published separately from the reports.
Santa Cruz: The Santa Cruz County grand jury publishes multiple reports per year based on subject matter investigated. Agency responses are published separately from the reports.
Shasta: The Shasta County grand jury publishes one report per year, complete with agency responses.
Sierra: The Sierra Count grand jury publishes one report per year. Agency responses are published separately from the reports.
Siskiyou: The Siskiyou County grand jury publishes one report per year. Agency responses are published separately from the reports, and are consolidated into a year’s heading instead of being published on an agency-to-agency basis.
Solano: The Solano County grand jury publishes multiple reports per year based on subject matter investigated. Agency responses are published separately from the reports.
Sonoma: The Sonoma County grand jury publishes multiple reports per year based on subject matter investigated, as well as a compendium containing all of the reports and responses in one large file.
Stanislaus: The Stanislaus County grand jury publishes multiple reports per year based on subject matter investigated, as well as a compendium containing all the reports. Agency responses are published separately from the reports.
Sutter: The Sutter County grand jury publishes one report per year. Agency responses are published separately from the reports.
Tehama: The Tehama County grand jury publishes one report per year, with agency responses being filed separately from the reports. Tehama County only has reports dating back to 2014-2015 stored online.
Trinity: The Trinity County grand jury publishes multiple reports per year. Agency responses are published separately from the reports.
Tulare: The Tulare County grand jury publishes one report per year, with responses integrated into the reports themselves.
Tuolumne: The Tuolumne County grand jury publishes one report per year. Responses are published separately from the reports.
Ventura: The Ventura County grand jury publishes multiple reports per year based on subject matter investigated. Agency responses are published separately from the reports.
Yolo: The Yolo County grand jury publishes one report per year. Agency responses are published separately from the report, and are all consolidated into one document.
Yuba: The Yuba County grand jury publishes one report per year. Agency responses are published separately from the report. Reports dating back to 1989-1990 are available online.