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19 volunteers take their seats on civil Grand Jury
STORY TOOLS 
More from Local NewsThe 19 volunteers who will keep an eye on Ventura County's local governments for the coming year took their seats Monday on the county's new civil Grand Jury.
The 2007-08 Grand Jury will be led by foreman Donald Cody of Oxnard.
The other members are Kathie Barton of Thousand Oaks, Judith Beay of Ventura, Gayner Bemisdarfer of Camarillo, Peter Costigan of Ojai, Robert Engler of Thousand Oaks, Joe Garza of Simi Valley, Sylvia Gause of Thousand Oaks, David Grau of Ventura, Arthur Hernandez of Simi Valley, Dennis Johnson of Westlake Village, James Ontiveros of Ventura, William Parker of Camarillo, Ethel Pemberton of Camarillo, Michael Ann Rockenstein of Camarillo, James Vandenberg of Simi Valley, Charles Welsford of Simi Valley, Donald White of Camarillo and Ronald Zenone of Ventura.
Eight of the members served on the 2006-07 Grand Jury, which finished its work recently and issued its final report Monday.
The Grand Jury is made up of volunteers and tasked with investigating local government for inefficiencies or wrongdoing. The applicants are screened by court employees, and the final selections are made by judges.
The civil Grand Jury cannot bring criminal or civil charges against anyone, but it issues reports detailing the findings of its investigations. In 2006-07, it issued eight reports, including investigations of police service at Ventura Harbor, the county's pension system and the county's process for auditing government departments.
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