Judge Clarifies Grand Jury’s Role : Government: A two-hour meeting with the panel comes amid a dispute with supervisors over pay raises. The boundaries of jurors’ responsibilities are spelled out.

The judge who oversees the Ventura County grand jury met with the panel Tuesday and clarified the jurors’ watchdog role over county government.

Superior Court Presiding Judge Steven Z. Perren declined to provide details of the two-hour meeting, which came amid a highly publicized dispute between the grand jury and the Board of Supervisors over pay raises for county employees.

But one source said the judge made it clear that the grand jury’s powers do not include a say in day-to-day decision making.

“He said the jury has to back off, that grand jurors are not legislators,” said the source, who asked for anonymity. “The grand jurors wanted to be more active and involved as things are happening, but that’s not their job.”

For example, the source said, “if the grand jury came across an item that they want to take a position on, it’s not their job to go before the supervisors or a city council and say, ‘This is what we think.’ Their job is to investigate, write a report, and it’s over.

“The elected officials can act upon the recommendations if they want--they are answerable to the public. But after issuing a report, the grand jury is done. They’re finished. And a lot of them didn’t want to hear that.”

Perren, while not disclosing specifics of what he told the jury, agreed that under the law, grand juries are generally expected to conduct their watchdog function by issuing reports.

“Did I rein them in? It’s an interesting question,” the judge said. “I gave them the best counsel I could give them with respect to their function. It’s up to them to decide if I reined them in. That was not my purpose.”

Grand jury foreman Woodrow Shumate declined to comment on the panel’s meeting with Perren.

The session came nearly three months after the 19 grand jurors were sworn in for a one-year term.

The grand jury--part of the judicial branch of government--is selected by lot from residents nominated by the Superior Court judges. Members, most of whom are retirees, are paid $20 a day and meet four or five days a week in private sessions. In addition to investigating local government, the grand jury issues indictments and can accuse government officials of misconduct.

Perren said Tuesday’s meeting covered a variety of subjects that the grand jury had raised in the past few months. He said the meeting had been scheduled before Sept. 14, when the grand jury sent a letter asking the Board of Supervisors to delay approval of raises for 1,820 employees so the jurors could study the proposal.

After the board tentatively approved the raises anyway, the grand jury summoned county Personnel Director Ronald W. Komers and accused him of failing to provide jurors with complete information on the county employee compensation system. Komers stormed out of the meeting, saying he felt threatened and abused.

After his meeting with the jurors, Perren said he was “very encouraged by what seemed to me to be an open-minded inquisitiveness. They asked good questions and seemed bright and receptive.”

However, the source said the panel was somewhat discouraged by the judge’s explanation of its role. “A lot of what he said, they didn’t want to hear,” the source said.

Nevertheless, the source said, the panel does not intend to stop its investigation of the pay raises. “But it will be done in the proper manner, as a report.”

Since the pay-raise dispute arose, the source said, the grand jury has received “lots of phone calls and letters saying, ‘Don’t drop the ball.’ ”