Every year a group of 19 volunteers comes together to form the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury in a civilian oversight tradition that dates back to the Magna Carta. Wielding the power of the subpoena and carrying a mandate enshrined in the state Constitution to serve as overseers of local government, the panel spends months […]
Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury
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Changing Course
It has long been observed, “Life teaches us how it should have been lived” and two seemingly unrelated stories in the NCJ are illustrative. Longtime resident, fisherman and boat builder Ken Bates’ life experiences provide a seminal warning against building the Samoa Heavy Lift Terminal serving future industrial development, (“Oysters, Wildlife and Reindustrialization of Humboldt […]
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‘The Next Wave’
When a powerful earthquake off the North Coast generates a life-threatening tsunami, time will be of the essence for those in its path. In the most serious scenarios, including the “big one,” a magnitude 9.0 megathrust event on the Cascadian Subduction Zone, waves could reach the shore in minutes, before any official alert would even […]
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Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury Needs More Applicants
The Superior Court of California, County of Humboldt asks that the public submit applications for the upcoming 2026/2027 Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury term (July 1-June 30). The Humboldt Superior Court empanels 19 citizens to act as an independent body of the judicial system each year. The Court accepts applications from citizens representing a broad cross-section […]
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Wanted: Alternates for Humboldt’s Civil Grand Jury
The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury is still searching for alternates who can serve on this year’s panel, if needed, to carry on a civil oversight tradition that dates back to the Magna Carta. According to a news release from the Humboldt County Superior Court, which appoints a group of residents each year to act […]
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Eureka City Schools to Talk Jacobs, Grand Jury Response
The California Highway Patrol appears to be back at the table, negotiating to purchase 8.3 acres of the former Jacobs Middle School campus from Eureka City Schools. A closed session item for the board to conference with Superintendent Gary Storts, the district’s negotiator, concerning price and terms of payment of a potential deal with CHP, […]
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Grand Jury Blasts Eureka Schools’ for Lack of Transparency, Due Diligence in Jacobs Deal
After investigating Eureka City Schools’ decision to offload its former Jacobs Middle School site in a property exchange agreement with a mystery developer, the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury has issued a report criticizing the district for a lack of transparency and due diligence. “The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury concludes that the Eureka City […]
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Grand Jury Report Blasts Auditor-Controller, Auditor-Controller Says it’s All Incorrect
The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury has interjected itself directly into the county’s auditor-controller race. Less than a week before Election Day, the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury poured gasoline on what was already considered to be the county’s most contentious political race yesterday, issuing a largely scathing report stating incumbent Auditor-Controller Karen Paz Dominguez’s […]
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Humboldt County’s ‘Cannabis Planning Program’ Lacks Fiscal Transparency, Grand Jury Reports
Four years after recreational cannabis was legalized in California, the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury has a released report entitled “A Growing Concern.” The report focuses on the Planning and Building Department’s record keeping and cash handling procedures for the cannabis industry. “There is a notable lack of in-depth reporting of revenues and expenditures that […]
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Civil Grand Jury Finds SoHum School District Lacks Vision, Plan Amid Budget Crisis
The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury released a report yesterday detailing the hefty challenges facing Southern Humboldt Unified School District, from mountain budget shortfalls to a lack of stable leadership. The report, prompted by an apparent laundry list of complaints from families and staff in the district, details how declining enrollment, the formation of a […]
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The Jury’s In
By their very nature, Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury reports generally make for pretty dry reading. Not only are they products of deep-dive investigations into the inner workings of the bureaucracies of government, but they are also the work product of 19 citizens who must be in agreement not just about what an investigation found […]
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Grand Jury: No ‘Silver Bullet’ to Solving Homeless, Offers Strategies
The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury, a board of citizens impaneled for a year to look into governmental issues, released a report today making recommendations on how to address the region’s overwhelmingly high homeless rate. The 38-page report looks back at the recommendations from the consulting group Focus Strategies that led the city of Eureka and […]