
By Pat Alston
Daily Journal Staff Writer
VISTA - When a judge asked a few years ago why San Diego's North County Division didn't offer small-claims mediation, Commissioner Ernie Gross remembered the lessons from his father, a Pennsylvania coal miner and union organizer.
"My dad taught me, by example, that wherever I worked, I became a part of a community of people who I needed to support by whatever means I had available," Gross said.