Jim Mendelson has been selected as the foreperson of the San Diego County Grand Jury, which started its year of service on July 1, 2021.

With his new role on the Grand Jury, Mendelson builds upon a lifetime of service that includes careers as a U.S. Marine Corps fighter pilot, as an Orange County Deputy District Attorney, and, most recently, a just-completed tour as President of the Rotary Club of Fallbrook.

Together with nine other men and nine women, he represents the people of San Diego County in a watchdog role investigating governmental agencies and public entities within the county. This includes investigating citizen complaints (which can be filed using forms available for download from sandiegocounty.gov/grandjury) as well as selecting, reviewing and evaluating matters of civil concern.

Mendelson says that the Grand Jury’s goal this year is to select key areas to investigate with an eye toward being able to come up with recommendations, to be included in a report released to the public, which will result in the entity concerned adopting those recommendations and thereby serving our County by effecting change for the better.  

Mendelson points out that this year’s Grand Jury’s work is especially important because the work of the 2019-2020 Grand Jury was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. With meetings limited due to public health orders, investigations that were on the previous year’s agenda were not able to be completed.

Having just completed training and getting familiar with each other and how to accomplish the Grand Jury’s mission, Mendelson reports that by all indications this year’s Grand Jury will be a most successful one.

The residents selected to serve as 2021-2022 Grand Jurors are:

2021/2022 SAN DIEGO COUNTY GRAND JURY