MARIN COUNTY CHAPTER, CALIFORNIA GRAND JURORS ASSOCIATION

(Minutes of the Membership Meeting June 22, 2006)

 

President Haxton opened at 9:45 a.m. in room 410 in the Marin County Civic Center. He pointed out that this was to be business only meeting, there would be no speaker.

 

Attendees: -- Dennis Brown, Ted Freeman,  Owen Haxton, Joan Holmes, Stu Brown, Betty Mattea, Catherine McKown, Irwin Taranto, Albert Lozano, and Shelly Wolff

 

The agenda was approved.

 

Minutes: - The minutes of the April meeting were approved.

 

Catherine McKown, the foreperson of the 2005/2006 grand jury then gave her June Report and Final Report. (Appendix 1) There was some discussion about one of the grand jury’s reports “Stuck in the Muck: The Ross Valley Sanitary District,” which came out just before an election for members of the district’s board

 

Annual Reports of Officers, Committees, and Workgroups

 

Secretary – Shelly reported that he prepared the minutes of both the Board Meetings and the Membership Meetings. He received the archives from Wes Huss and maintained them for the year. He wrote and sent out the invitation for Jerry Lewi, the President of the CGJA, to attend our association meeting to discuss the Hilts letter in the CGJA newsletter. He, with Marty Miller, prepared the Association’s nomination package for the CGJA award of excellence in reporting.

 

Treasurer – Irwin pointed out that we had 28 paid members for 2007. We had $5552.79 in the treasury.

 

Vice President -- Betty reported that she had attended all the meetings of the membership and the BOD. It was also noted that she served as chair for one meeting that Owen couldn’t attend.

 

Membership -- Owen reported that for 2006 we had 46 members.

 

Training, Orientation, and Education – Betty reported that the committee had revised 53 pages of the Marin Training Manual, had arranged for orientation of the incoming 2005-2006 grand jurors, had evaluated the orientation, and used the evaluations to adjust the 2006-2007 orientation.

She then thanked members of the committee, Irwin Taranto, Nick Clark, Patti Baseheart, Ted Freeman, Catherine McKown and Ex officio members Kim Turner, CEO, and Jeanine Michaels, Admin. Asst.

 

Social Committee -- Irwin noted that the luncheon was self sustaining in that there was only a $2.00 loss.

 

Training, Orientation, and Education – Betty moved that we discontinue sending updates of the Marin Orientation Manual to subscribers, as the CGJA Manual is now available to grand jurors in all 58 counties. Motion passed.

It was moved and passed that $80 be paid to Ann Marie Melanephy to compensate her for typing and updating the manuals for the new grand jury.

It was moved and passed that up to $150 for hors d’oeuvres be available for a chapter sponsored get together with the incoming grand jury.

 

Compliance Committee – Stu reported that the committee had changed focus on working with county representatives to working with the Board of Supervisors. The committee suggests we invite as speakers to our meetings those who can make decisions or responses regarding grand jury reports.

 

CGJA Liaison Committee – Owen reported that the fee for the conference in Redding had been reduced to $50 from $70.

 

Public Relation’s Committee – Owen noted that Bob Abeling will be reducing his work with the association, but Owen hopes that he can be induced to continue with the video project.

 

Speaker Program Coordinator – Owen indicated that he was very pleased with the job Lowell had done this year. Lowell has agreed to continue as coordinator this coming year.

 

Handbook on Policies and Procedures – Stu will bring this up to date and will include the names of the new officers.

 

Excellence Committee – The committee consisting of Catherine McKown and Don Graff had decided that the association should submit the 2004-2005 grand jury report entitled “The Bloated Retirement Plans of Marin County,Its Cities and Towns” be submitted for the CGJA annual award for excellence in reporting. They then recruited Shelly Wolff and Marty Miller, who performed most of the work, to prepare the submission packet. The packet consisted of five 75-page copies. It was moved and passed that Marty be reimbursed $59.95 for copying and mailing charges.

 

Election of Officers – The slate of officers previously presented by the Election Committee was approved by acclamation. The new officers are Betty Mattea, President; Sheldon Wolff, Vice President: Catherine McKown, Secretary, and Irwin Taranto, Treasurer. Also Dennis Brown, Gene Dyer, and Ted Freeman were appointed to the BOD.

 

Passing the Virtual Gavel – Owen turned the presidency over to Betty. In his closing remarks he reflected that in the past 2 years, while he was president, the number of MCCGJA members who were CGJA members doubled from 22 to 44. He was pleased that the county website now contains the grand jury reports and the responses. He also indicated that he had brought the Board of Directors into the Chapter governing process. He closed by saying he found his two years of service as Chapter President to be full of self satisfaction.

 

Comments of New President – Betty presented a plaque to Owen in appreciation of his service as president for the past two years.

She then stated her presidential goals, which essentially were to maintain the level of excellence reached in the last two years. She took the opportunity to reappoint all those who were “doing chores” for the association.

She moved that the July meeting be canceled. Passed. The BOD, however will meet on the second Tuesday in July.

 

Comments from members: -- Irwin pointed out that he had read that Don Graff had been named man of the year in Corte Madera.

 

Adjourned at 11:20 AM

Sheldon Wolff, Secretary