Citizen Panel, Not Jury, Will Monitor Traffic Plan

The Orange County Transportation Commission on Monday bowed to pressure from citizen groups and revised the county’s recently approved 20-year traffic-improvement plan so that it will be monitored by a citizens committee instead of by the Orange County Grand Jury.

The change, which cost the county about $2,500 in printing expenses, involved removing the words “grand jury” from Page 10 of the proposed plan and inserting the words “well-defined citizens oversight committee.”

One slow-growth activist who had sought the change said that it didn’t go as far he wanted it to in detailing how the citizens committee would operate but that it was “acknowledgement that the people want independent oversight with teeth in it.”

“All they have provided is a rough sketch,” said Norm Grossman, referring to the commissioners. “They’ve delayed making the tough decision.”

Grossman is a member of a 30-person advisory council that the commission appointed last year to aid it in developing the traffic plan. The advisory panel, as well as about four other groups, opposed designating the grand jury as the oversight agency.

Grossman said his group worried that the grand jury did not have the expertise to monitor a complex traffic plan and that its members, who serve annual terms, could not maintain continuity over a two-decade period.

The original draft of the $11.6-billion plan called for a citizens oversight committee to monitor spending, but that was unexpectedly changed to the grand jury on May 8 on a motion from Commissioner Dana Reed. The change was endorsed by the other six commissioners, and the whole plan was approved.

Reed said Monday that he thought that giving the grand jury oversight powers would be less expensive than “creating a whole new layer of government.”

He backed off his stance, he said, after meeting with members of the advisory committee, who had bombarded the commissioners with complaints, and members of the grand jury.

“I came to the conclusion that I should be flexible on this and not dig my heels in concrete,” said Reed. “When it was recommended we go back to the original language, I seconded the motion.”