A Few Good Volunteers

Every year about this time a desperate call goes out for volunteers who want to serve on the Orange County Grand Jury. Unfortunately, not enough people answer the call.

It is not that residents are not interested in serving on the jury, whose main mission is as watchdog of local government, monitoring its operations. It is just that grand jury service has become a nearly full-time job, requiring at least 4 days of service every week for an entire year.

The result has been difficulty in getting enough applicants to form a diverse field of 30 candidates from which the final 19-member jury panel is selected. And so grand juries rarely have a balanced makeup representing a cross section of the community.

In a letter to The Times today, Gilda Fehr, a member of the present grand jury, offers some ideas for finding more people who can serve and add balance to the jury and appeals for response by the filing deadline Friday. We join her in urging residents to contact the jury commissioner’s office at the County Civic Center.

The grand jury needs applicants. More than that, it needs bright people with a variety of views and backgrounds who are eager to serve.