Deukmejian Vetoes Grand Jury Bill : Proposal Was Sparked by Actions of San Diego Panel

Gov. George Deukmejian on Wednesday vetoed a bill intended to give grand juries more racial balance, saying the measure by Assemblyman Steve Peace (D-Chula Vista) “may lead toward the establishment of a quota system.”

Peace had introduced the bill after recent San Diego County grand juries--made up mainly of retired white professionals in their 60s--issued several controversial reports that were criticized as racist and insensitive.

A two-page report by the 1983-84 grand jury said bilingual education is “impractical, expensive and in a sense un-American.” The report angered Latinos and San Diego County educators. Critics were even more vocal after the grand jury foreman acknowledge that the panel reached its conclusion without talking to a single bilingual teacher or program administrator.

After the report, a coalition of Latino and black organizations in San Diego demanded better representation. But when that grand jury’s term expired, the county’s Superior Court judges appointed a new 19-member panel with only three blacks and no Latinos among them.

The grand jury bill was among several of interest to San Diego that Deukmejian signed or vetoed Wednesday, as he worked to the bottom of a pile of 1,300 bills the Legislature approved since returning from their summer vacation last month. Deukmejian had until midnight Wednesday to act on bills passed on the final day of the session.

Peace’s bill would not have mandated a balanced grand jury, but would have required that judges consider the demographics of the county and strive to achieve ethnic, racial, sexual and geographic balance.

Peace said the present selection process “is really kind of a crony system.”

“If you happen to know a Superior Court judge, you might become a member of a grand jury someday,” Peace said.

Mateo Camarillo, a past director of the local Chicano Federation and chairman of the coalition demanding better representation on San Diego County grand juries, said his group would “take a step back and look at our alternatives,” and likely would push for reintroduction of Peace’s bill during the next legislative session.

“What’s being proposed is not a quota system, but an opening up of the system so that all sectors of the community have a chance to be represented,” Camarillo said.

Deukmejian said he would have supported a provision of Peace’s bill that would have allowed grand jurors with speech or hearing disabilities to have interpreters with them during the panels’ secret proceedings.

But the governor said the bill’s other provisions would have been an inappropriate burden on the court system.

Since the California Supreme Court, in 1978, limited their authority to issue criminal indictments based on secret testimony, grand juries in California have become mainly government watchdogs that comment and make recommendations on virtually unlimited local government topics.

Members, who are appointed by judges, serve one-year terms that begin each July.

In other actions of interest to San Diego County, the governor:

- Signed into law a bill by Sen. Wadie Deddeh (D-Chula Vista) that allows San Diego County to increase the state 6-cent sales tax by a penny per dollar, if voters approve, to raise money for transportation projects. Officials estimate the tax hike could raise $148 million annually.

- Signed into law legislation enlarging and restructuring the state Air Resources Board, which will give San Diego County permanent representation for the first time. Previously, San Diego County had representation on the air pollution panel two out of every three years.

- Vetoed a bill by Assemblyman Larry Stirling (R-San Diego) that would have revised space standards to make several San Diego County school systems eligible for more school construction funds. The governor also vetoed another bill by Stirling to create a new commission to study school contruction and rehabilitation needs statewide.

- Signed a bill by Assemblyman Steve Peace (D-Chula Vista) that will give the San Diego County Water Water Authority more flexibility in borrowing money. Peace said the bill will save the water agency, which now has to issue revenue bonds to pay for dam and reservoir projects, $10 million to $12 million.

- Vetoed a bill by Stirling requiring that the state assume 80% of all costs for medical services ordered by Juvenile Court judges in San Diego County.

- Signed a bill by Stirling giving the San Diego Assn. of Governments a $150,000 matching grant to prepare a conservation plan for the Least Bell’s Vireo, an endangered small river songbird. Without a conservation plan, Stirling said the rare bird might become an issue that could delay construction of California 52 or the Tijuana sewer project.