MARIN COUNTY CHAPTER, CALIFORNIA GRAND JURORS ASSOCIATION

(Minutes of the Membership Meeting August 8, 2005)

Meeting Called to Order by President Haxton at !0:00 AM in the Board of Supervisor’s chamber

Attendees: -- Bob Abeling, Dennis Brown, Ted Freeman, Donald Graff, Owen Haxton, Bob Johnson, Albert Lozano, Ron Lucas, Betty Mattea, Lowell Smith, Gene Dyer, Walter Monash, Irwin Taranto, and Sheldon Wolff.

Agenda -- The agenda was accepted with no changes.

Minutes --The minutes of the July 13 meeting were approved after some minor changes sent by Stu Brown to Owen were incorporated.

Comments from chapter members Ted Freeman announced that he was a candidate for the San Anselmo city council.

Presidents report and announcements -- Owen Haxton reported that Debby Nowlin and Jan MacDonald had joined as had four members of the sitting grand jury. Owen pointed out that he was working on getting the minutes of the CGJA earlier, as they are distributed very late.

Betty Mattea as Vice President announced That Patti Baseheart’s husband’s health is improving. Betty is on the nominating committee of the CGJA. They have met by conference call to set the process for the election. There are two open positions on the CGJA board. Owen Haxton has accepted nomination.

Secretary’s report – Wes has delivered the archives in one banker’s box to Shelly. Shelly evidently will serve as Archivist until someone else is appointed.

Treasurer’s report – We have $4900. Irwin proposes to move $4000 initially into a savings account where we could get some interest. After some discussion about the amount, this was unanimously passed.

We have 37 supporting members, not including the sitting grand jury, whose dues are paid by the county, and the past grand jury, whose dues have been waived by the Membership The county money for the sitting grand jury has not yet been transmitted to Irwin. The CGJA ostensibly will send the information about who are active members, i.e., have paid dues to the CGJA, itself, on or about September 15th.

Catherine McKown, the Forelady of the current grand jury has been asked to see who on last year’s and the current year’s grand juries wants to receive information from the association. So far 7 members of the current grand jury have opted have their names added to our e-mail list.

2005/2006 Foreperson’s report – A representative of the current grand jury was not present.

Proposal to amend bylaws – Twenty ballots have been received. Because 25 are needed to comprise 2/3 of those allowed to vote, Owen will send out e-mail to the non-responders, as well as regular mail to those who don’t have e-mail addresses, to remind them to vote.

Archivist – As noted earlier Wes has turned the archives over to the Secretary. The Association overwhelmingly wants to officially commend Wes for his years of hard work as Archivist.

Speaker program – Lowell indicated that In September we will hear from Matthew Hymel, the new County Administrator He has been asked to talk about grand jury reports. In October Joseph Spaeth From the Public Defender’s Office will speak. Susan Adams will be asked about speaking in November.

Bob Abeling raised the possibility of having the speaker address us, and then having lunch with the speaker. The regular business meeting would occur after lunch. This possibility will be coordinated with Irwin.

Membership – The CGJA membership from the MCCGJA now numbers between 25 and 27 as best we can tell at this time.

Orientation/Training – Betty indicated that this year the program was very successful. There were 15 speakers, with 6 from the association.. This year the training was cut from 6 days to five She pointed out that Irwin did an excellent job. She sent the final report to Kim Turner the Interim Court Executive Officer with a request that she personally see that Presiding Judge Boren sees the report. Betty wants to make a pitch for the county to pay for attendance of the current grand jurors at the training given by the CGJA.

Owen pointed out that the June 30 version of the handbook, the work plan, the Policy and Procedures Manual, and the bylaws should be kept electronically. Betty indicated that these items should also be forwarded to the CGJA

Excellence in government – Don Graff has received Wes’s archival material on excellence in government. He will look through it and be prepared to report at our next meeting. He also has invited input from others.

Compliance -- Mike Casey was not present, but did send some material.

Public relations – Bob Abeling reiterated his desire to turn over this function to someone else. Bob Johnson has agreed to look into it.

Liaison – CGJA agrees to have Owen proceed with getting the Association presidents from the Central Region for a get together.

Excellence in reporting -- No report

Chapter website -- Gene Dyer raised the question about whether or not it should be kept open. The county’s website has taken over many of its functions, which makes him wonder about its usefulness. Irwin will get together with Gene and will get back to us at the next meeting, or whenever they are ready to report. Dennis Brown will join Gene and Irwin.

Work plan – Lowell and Stu are working on updating it.

Annual project --. Owen noted that we got our bylaws completed and approved locally, but when they were sent to the CGJA there was no response. He indicated that unless CGJA tells us about a project they want, he is less inclined to start a local project.

Members comments – Bob Abeling suggested that when people, such as grand jurors, association members, judges, administrative personnel, and their relatives are ill or there are deaths, that we send a card. This was passed.

Adjourned at 11:12 AM

The next meeting will be September 12.

Sheldon Wolff

Secretary