City Council Summary - Animal Care Survives

Last night the City Council met to discuss, among other things, the animal care proposal we’ve been talking about for the past two weeks. More than 70 people showed up to support the proposal, and in addition there were more than a dozen e-mails sent by people who were unable to attend.

Included among the speakers were Lisa Price and Lynette Brown from Priceless Pets, Anne Breuer from the Pet Foodbank, Jean Bland from South County Animal Shelter Coalition, April Josephson from Pet Adoption Center of Orange County, Gina Kantzabedian and Keiko Kelly from Animal Crackers Rescue, Steve Welch from Steve Welch Canine Rehabilitation, Voice of OC Reporter Rose Tingle, Cherie Anderson from German Shepherd Rescue, along with Lake Forest residents Kristy McLean, Steve Kuver, Kimberley Alford, Ashley Brown, and (of course) Randy Johnson. Also on hand was Sharon Logan, the woman who sued OCAC for illegal euthanasia practices.

Though he didn’t speak, Dr. Fred Saad from the El Toro Animal Hospital was in the room and through April Josephson, they spoke about an alternative in which the Hospital would act as a traditional shelter, helping us ease our way from OCAC without some of the more elaborate alternatives on the table.

As normal, it was a contentious meeting. Prior to the animal care discussion Mayor Hamilton punished the residents by declaring a 10 minute “time out”, and throughout the meeting continued to threaten the audience. All things considered, however, the animal care advocates were reasonably well behaved and the presence of several uniformed police and undercover police officers was clearly an over-reaction by the City.

When asked to move the animal care discussion up in the agenda to accommodate the desires of the 70+ people, some of whom travelled a long distance to get here, Mayor Hamilton refused to change the order, and when challenged, his colleagues (Voigts and Robinson) supported his decision.

Hamilton tried to prevent me from making a presentation, but at the end of the day, he was finally convinced that I be allowed to talk, though he restricted me to 5 minutes.

Once the discussion got underway, Robinson was aggressively on the attack, questioning even the minutest details. He hung his opposition on the fact that the proposal would use City staff for animal control, and he worried about the pension liabilities. The truth is that the City has $0 unfunded pension liabilities while by staying with the County we inherit their multi-million dollar unfunded pension liabilities, all of which have to be translated into higher fees to the City. Moreover, the model of using City staff for animal control and partnering with a nonprofit for animal care is often used (e.g., Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, Coronado, Alameda, Fremont).

After much discussion and input from several speakers, the City decided to appoint an ad hoc committee co-chaired by Scott Voigts and I and empowered to meet with informed citizens (including those who had been at the meeting) and develop a final plan (draft scope of work, draft RFP) to come back to the Council on April 19, which coincidently, is the new date by which the County expects an answer to their threat to cut off services unless we pony up $555,000 (or more) to help them build the new shelter. In order to have a uniform plan, 10 hours of staff time were assigned to the task.

After the meeting was over, some cynical residents claimed that the only reason the proposal was not euthanized was that the recall was in progress and Voigts, Hamilton, and Robinson didn’t want to add to the flames. Certainly nothing in their behavior would deter the recall supporters from going ahead full steam with their actions against Hamilton and Robinson. Curiously enough the vote on the animal care proposal will come one day before the deadline to submit the recall signatures. Any negative consequences from failing to support the animal care proposal will accrue to the people being recalled once an election is held in August. As one animal activist said, “You can punt but you can’t hide.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook and you can share your thoughts about the City at Lake Forest Town Square on Facebook. His comments are not meant to reflect official City Policy.

Dr. Gardner has office hours every Tuesday from 4 pm to 6 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a Town Hall meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be on March 26 at 2 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.