Grand Jury Duty Often Rewarding, Frustrating : Government: Despite accomplishments, jurors say they feel let down when ideas they perceive as good for the county never come to fruition.

They convene each July and spend the next 12 months working as the public’s watchdogs, investigating and reporting on the affairs of local government.

And at the end of their term, the 19 people who serve as the Ventura County grand jury present an inch-thick report packed with suggestions on how to make the county and its 10 cities better places to live.

But for all the work, all the long hours of investigation, discussion, consideration and compromise--the recommendations often wind up gathering dust alongside the work of previous jurors.

“I think any of us who put in a lot of time and feel very strongly about an issue or a program have to feel some disappointment when a recommendation isn’t followed and it’s put on the shelf,” said Westlake resident Lewis Drolet, 74, a member of the 1991-92 grand jury.

Contained in the report prepared by Drolet and his fellow jurors was the suggestion that the county swiftly approve a proposed landfill in Weldon Canyon, calling it “the most viable option available” for waste disposal in the west county. The group also agreed the county library system was in dire need of attention and urged major improvements.

Applicants seeking to operate a landfill in Weldon Canyon recently withdrew their application after it became clear county supervisors were poised to rule against it. And, faced with a large budget deficit, the supervisors themselves imposed major cuts in the county library program, cutting hours by more than 50% at some branches and laying off more than 100 full- and part-time workers. Among other recommendations from prior grand juries:

* All county workers should be randomly tested for drug and alcohol use.

* Sales tax revenues should be allocated to each city based on population and not the amount cities individually collect.

* An ethics board should be created to write a code of conduct for county officials.

None of those ideas got off the ground.

Presiding Superior Court Judge Steven Z. Perren, who also supervises the grand jury, said jurors accept a difficult task with the realization that they can suggest change but not impose it.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever said to them, ‘Look, you’re going to prepare a report. Don’t worry, it’s going into the dumper,’ ” Perren said. “Their purpose is to point out what they perceive to be the inequities of the people or facilities of the particular subject they’re addressing and, under public scrutiny, change will occur.”

But past jurors say that while their experiences in county government were overwhelmingly positive, there is a letdown when ideas they perceived as good don’t come to fruition.

Under law, governments and agencies cited in grand jury reports must respond to the group’s recommendations within 90 days, but are under no obligation to adopt any of them.

Thousand Oaks resident Charles F. Ogle served as foreman of the 1987-88 grand jury which, among other things, also recommended approval of the Weldon Canyon landfill.

“Every time I drive by that thing I’m beside myself. God almighty, how they screwed around with that,” Ogle said. “Weldon Canyon, I thought, was the best place for that dump to be.”

Ogle’s jury also urged expanded bus service between the eastern and western parts of the county, an idea that five years later is finally being realized in the form of an ambitious plan to create new public transit lines linking the county’s 10 cities.

Most of the people who serve as grand jurors are retirees. The job requires about 40 hours a week and pays $20 a day.

For his part, Ogle, 66, said he enjoyed his year of service.

“It was a little frustrating, but I don’t think I would say, ‘Damn that county, I’d never do this again,’ ” he said. “It was a great, great experience for me. I gave them a year of my life and, at my age, that was probably 10% of what I had left.”

Drolet also left the job with good memories.

“It’s something I think everybody should do,” he said. “I think I learned more in one year and it probably was one of the more enjoyable years that I had. I thought it was just a super job.”

Drolet and his peers also recommended that county supervisors’ meetings be televised on cable television, said the county should hire a public information officer to improve communications with residents and the media and urged construction of a new fire station in Oak View.

The county did not implement any of the suggestions.

“That is kind of disappointing,” Drolet said, “because you feel like, ‘Boy, we’ve got a real issue here and we feel that we’re right in what we’re doing and we want the supervisors to do so-and-so.’ Unfortunately, you don’t always get it.”

Whether jurors “get it” or not often comes down to whether there is money available to implement their ideas, Supervisor Vicky Howard said.

“When they do come up with something like, ‘We need to revamp the library system,’ I totally agree,” Howard said. “But in this kind of economy, they may have the best idea in the world, and if we don’t have the funds to pay for it then there’s not much we can do.”

The supervisor acknowledged that when jurors devote five days a week trying to effect change--coming up with ideas that never see the light of day is frustrating.

“They spend a year of their time at very little pay and great inconvenience, and they want to see something happen,” Howard said. “And when I sit down and read the reports I often think, ‘Gee, these are a lot of good ideas, but at the present time we just don’t have the funds to do a lot of it.’ ”

Howard suggested that county officials meet with grand juries early in their deliberations to help them steer clear of spending valuable time coming up with recommendations the county simply cannot afford.

But Perren said that strategy would be inappropriate based on the very nature of the grand jury’s relationship with the county.

“If you’re a grand juror and the county tells you not to look somewhere, what do you think your reaction is going to be?” he asked. “That’s throwing gas on the fire.”

Supervisor John Flynn said the way grand juries make their recommendations--in a lengthy report that can contain hundreds of pages and hundreds of individual suggestions--may be at the heart of why valid ideas sometimes don’t pan out.

Flynn suggested the swapping of one large report at the end of jury deliberations for up to 10 shorter, more direct reports throughout each jury’s term.

“As they go along, they ought to make several periodic, single-issue reports--letters to the board,” Flynn said.

“I think that has more impact. Because when you have a single issue that you’re addressing, then everyone focuses on it,” Flynn added. “If you wait until the end of the year and then issue everything at once, there’s no focus. You get a grand jury report at the end of the year and it goes on the shelf. If you get a letter during a hot debate, like on the issue of perks, then that has some impact.”

Even under the present system, Flynn said he believes grand juries serve a useful purpose in shaping the county.

“It’s like opening a window on the government and they’re looking through the window to see how things are going, and I think that when they open that window it causes--with some grand juries, not all--a good fresh breeze to blow across the room.”

Still, Flynn said he could not think of one major policy move or program implemented by the county in response to a grand jury recommendation.

“It is a fresh breeze,” Flynn said. “That doesn’t necessarily mean that something is going to be knocked over.”

But some ideas born of or at least supported by grand juries are realized, sometimes years later.

The 1990-91 grand jury suggested that the city of Camarillo find some way to replace its old and overcrowded police station. This year, the Camarillo City Council agreed to spend $4 million to purchase and renovate the Bill Esty Community Center for use as a new police station.

And both the 1987-88 and 1988-89 grand jury reports said the Sheriff’s Department and all city police departments in the county should create an intelligence system to share information on gangs and gang members. Simi Valley Police Chief Lindsey P. Miller said law-enforcement personnel from around the county have been meeting for more than a year to coordinate gang enforcement.

In the end, grand jurors say their brief participation in the public process is more important than whether individual recommendations were followed.

“We do our best and give it the best shot and see where it goes from there,” said Robert J. Gallagher, foreman of the 1991-92 grand jury. “Historically, it’s the case that some recommendations get bought and some don’t. You know that going in and you give it your best shot.”