Foreman of Grand Jury Sued County Over Lost Job : Courts: Woodrow Shumate filed the suit after leaving the Welfare Department. Now he scrutinizes government.

The foreman of the Ventura County grand jury, who has pushed the panel to aggressively scrutinize county government operations, was fired from a county job in 1965 and later sued the county, according to court records.

Woodrow Shumate, grand jury foreman since July 1, had worked for the county for 13 years and was business manager in the Welfare Department when he was abruptly forced to resign in November, 1965, according to the January, 1966, lawsuit.

The suit alleged that there were no grounds for his dismissal and said the action prevented him from getting another county job. The suit said county department heads were “bound together by mutual interest, much like a social club. . . . If one department head blackballs a particular job prospect, the others are likely to hear of this and follow suit.”

He later dropped the suit, and all of the county officials named as defendants have long since left county government. Shumate, now 73 and living in El Rio, did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Superior Court Judge Steven Z. Perren, who appointed Shumate to head the 1992-93 grand jury, said he knew Shumate had once worked for the county but was not aware that Shumate had been fired or motivated to sue the county.

But Perren said he has seen no signs that the foreman has an ax to grind and added that he has “no plans to discuss the matter with Shumate.”

“There has been nothing to indicate that Mr. Shumate has a special agenda,” Perren said. “Everything that has occurred between myself and Mr. Shumate suggests that he is unequivocally opposed to people with special interests being on the grand jury.”

The 19-member panel indicts criminal suspects but typically spends most of its time investigating the operations of county and city governments. Its recommendations are normally compiled in a final report issued at the end of its yearlong term.

Under Shumate’s leadership, however, the current grand jury has been unusually vocal barely three months into its term.

On Sept. 14, the panel sent a letter to the county Board of Supervisors asking it to delay approval of pay raises for 1,820 county employees until the grand jury could study the proposal.

When the board ignored the request, the grand jury summoned the county’s personnel director, Ronald W. Komers, to answer questions about the county’s employee-compensation system. Komers stormed out of the session, saying that some of the jurors were abusive.

Reports of the encounter prompted Perren--who, as the court’s presiding judge, oversees the grand jury--to meet with the panel privately last week to clarify the grand jury’s role. Perren would not provide details of the session, but a source said the judge told jurors they were not supposed to meddle in day-to-day government decisions.

People who apply for grand jury service fill out application forms that contain questions aimed at making sure would-be jurors will not bring personal grievances or other agendas to the panel if they are selected. The applications are not a public record, a court official said.

Perren said Shumate’s application may have mentioned that he had worked for the county, but the circumstances of his departure were not disclosed, the judge said. When Shumate was appointed to the grand jury, court officials described him as a retired computer engineer.

Some time after the jury was sworn in, Perren said, he learned that Shumate had worked for the county many years ago and that his departure may not have been amicable.

The judge noted that Shumate has a limited role as grand jury foreman. The panel’s investigative work is divided among several committees, and all recommendations must be approved by a majority vote of the 19 grand jurors.

Shumate’s lawsuit in 1966 alleged that he had been pressured to resign for unexplained reasons and that county administrators did not follow through with promises to find another job for him. The suit included a dozen performance appraisals in which Shumate’s supervisors described him as an excellent employee.

The county Civil Service Commission later ruled that Shumate’s resignation had been voluntary.

Shumate dropped his suit after obtaining a job with the federal government, “which is superior in both pay and working conditions,” according to a document filed by Shumate’s attorney.