Member of New Grand Jury Draws Fire of Latino Groups : Law: The juror is assailed after describing a report sent to the panel by Los Amigos as ‘lobbying.’

As the new Orange County Grand Jury was sworn in Friday, one member had already raised the ire of Latino community groups that worked more closely than ever before with the previous grand jury to help diversify the panel.

Seth M. Oberg, a new grand juror, this week characterized a report that a Latino group sent the grand jury offering pointers on ethnic sensitivity as “lobbying,” which Oberg said was a routine practice by many groups that write the panel.

To some, that felt like a brush off.

“Lobbying for what? For equality, for justice, for balance? These letters aren’t to peddle influence,” said Amin David, chairman of Los Amigos of Orange County, which penned the report and has written to the grand jury many times asking that certain issues be explored.

Added John Palacio, of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund: “I don’t think we’re really talking about lobbying. We’re talking about the Latino community trying to give input about issues important to the Latino community. It’s an effort to educate.”

David pointed out that Oberg himself has engaged in so-called lobbying. The retired pilot and president of the Dover Shores Community Assn. requested a grand jury investigation of the threat posed to his neighborhood by commercial aircraft that deviate from their takeoff route after leaving John Wayne Airport.

The grand jury released a report on the issue earlier this month.

On Friday, Oberg stood by his comment on the Los Amigos sensitivity report, saying it felt like lobbying to him. The packet criticized members of former grand juries for their positions on immigration and called on new jurors to be “impartial, courageous and diligent.”

“I felt it was lobbying. Why should they write to me if it wasn’t?” Oberg said.

Community groups should just give the new grand jury a chance to do its job, he said.

“The past grand jury did a tremendous job in trying to diversify this panel and they were successful,” Oberg said. “Los Amigos should wait and see how this grand jury performs.”

He made his comments Friday, just minutes after Superior Court Judge Michael Brenner charged the new jurors to carry out their responsibilities during a swearing-in ceremony.

The judge thanked and formally discharged the outgoing grand jury members from duty.

That jury launched an unprecedented recruitment effort designed to diversify the ethnic and age makeup of the jury, putting the call out for applicants in public service announcements, churches and community centers countywide.

The 1993-94 grand jury was the first ever to welcome community groups into its chambers and seek suggestions on how to make the panel more representative of Orange County’s population.

A special issues committee was formed to head that effort, and MALDEF members contributed time and money to help with the outreach and translate the grand jury’s promotional material, said Bahia Wilson, former chairwoman of the 1993-94 jury’s special issues committee.

The grand jury is a 19-member citizen panel that considers filing criminal indictments and acts as watchdog over local government.

Mario Lazo Jr., a Havana-born graduate of Harvard University and the Wharton Business School, was selected as foreman of the new jury earlier this month, Wilson said, making him the first Latino foreman in the county’s history.

Outgoing jurors were quick to say Friday that the 128 letters they received from the community during their year of service were not construed as lobbying, but as a key source of information about community concerns.

“There is not a lobbying of the grand jury,” Wilson said. “It’s an independent body. Our charge is to investigate. The Orange County Grand Jury receives letters from citizens, from civic groups, from wherever, and the mandate is we answer those letters.”

But Wilson said she felt the Los Amigos report should have better acknowledged the efforts that the outgoing jury made.

“In the history of this grand jury, we now have the first Latino as a foreman, and Amin David didn’t say one thing about that. It seems to me that if Amin David is going to do a job on the grand jury, at least do a balanced job, and I’m speaking now as a private citizen, because I was discharged today,” Wilson said.

David said Los Amigos does recognize the changes and said so in the report, which lauded “the notable effort made” by the outgoing grand jury.