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The application period for the 2023-24 San Francisco Civil Grand Jury has ended. Check back soon to apply for the 2024-25 term.
SELECTION PROCESS
Civil Grand Jurors are appointed by the Superior Court to serve a 1-year term, from July 1 through June 30. Individuals may be recommended by the Judges of the Superior Court or may volunteer to serve. Each applicant is interviewed by a group of Superior Court Judges. Those applicants who are deemed qualified are placed in a pool and 19 are randomly selected as Grand Jurors. An additional 11 individuals are selected as alternates, who may be sworn during the term if a vacancy occurs.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
- Each jury determines which issues related to the governance of San Francisco City & County it wishes to investigate.
- Juries are free to choose their methodology. In recent years the usual practice has been to divide into committees, which then select the county's officers, departments or agencies they will investigate.
- State law authorizes civil grand juries, as representatives of the local citizenry, to review and evaluate the effectiveness and cost/benefit of procedures, methods and systems.
- During their investigations, jurors may inspect and audit books, records and financial expenditures; interview civil servants and others who may have pertinent information; inspect government facilities, and then issue reports with findings and recommendations.
- After the Presiding Judge reviews these reports to make certain they meet legal requirements, they are sent to the appropriate department heads, which are required by law to respond. The jury then releases the reports to the public via this website, the media and the Board of Supervisors, which holds public hearings on each year's reports.
WHEN DOES THE GRAND JURY MEET?
- The jury typically meets weekly on Monday evenings from 4:00pm to 7:00pm. Meetings take place at San Francisco City Hall at 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, San Francisco.
- Most committee work takes place during regular working hours.
WHO IS ELIGIBLE?
- Grand Jury eligibility includes: US citizenship, minimum age 18, residency in the City & County of San Francisco for at least one year, ordinary intelligence, good character and a working knowledge of English. (Persons are ineligible to serve if they have been discharged from the grand jury within one year, are currently serving on a trial jury, are elected public officials, or have been convicted of a felony.)
- Jurors must by law disclose all investments and business positions in and/or income from any entity that has conducted business within the City & County in the previous two years, as well as income from all employees of the City and County and all interests in real property. These become matters of public record.
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