County Responds to Grand Jury - Part 2

The Board of Supervisors (BoS) is meeting on Tuesday (Sept 1) to consider their response to the two recent Grand Jury reports excoriating the OC shelter. The BoS is already late for the court mandated filing date, underscoring their lack of concern for the animal care area which has been neglected for decades and endured several Grand Jury reports in the past.

Yesterday we looked at their sad and pathetic response to the first Grand Jury report. Today we look at the second response.

SECOND GRAND JURY REPORT

The second Grand Jury report released on June 17, 2015 was entitled “If Animals Could Talk About the Orange County Animal Shelter”. The Executive Summary says –

“The 2014-2015 Orange County Grand Jury found that the Orange County Animal Shelter has serious problems that have needed attention for many years. In addition to the desperate need for a new shelter facility, there have been complaints and allegations from a number of sources inside and outside the Animal Shelter that have focused on the lack of leadership throughout the Orange County Community Resources and Animal Care chain of command. This alleged void in leadership has resulted in either the inability of management to define the problems at hand or, if defined, an unwillingness to correct them. It has been alleged by many that the lack in leadership has led to a few mid-management personnel assuming control of the Animal Shelter daily operations with little or no oversight from upper management.

Additional information has led the Orange County Grand Jury to investigate concerns regarding employee morale, human and animal health issues, feral cat policies, and allegations of criminal behavior. Also, there have been indications of conflict between veterinarians and management staff with regard to medical decisions. The Orange County Grand Jury investigation found substantial factual support for all these allegations. In 2014, a workplace investigation report of the Animal Shelter was ordered by the Board of Supervisors and conducted by an outside firm whose findings revealed that there is significant evidence to support the complaints and allegations.”

FINDINGS

The Grand Jury made several findings which the County “Disagrees partially with…” By implication, they agree at least partially with all these findings, which include

• · Serious morale problems
• · Inadequate equipment and training
• · Poor success of the feral cat program
• · Hosing kennels with dogs still inside
• · Limited air flow and no a/c in cat trailers

The findings the County agrees with, and offers no debate –

• · Kennel attendants wasting large quantities of water
• · Significant rodent problems

RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the findings, the Grand Jury made various recommendations, some of which they County claims they have done, some they will do, but most they will not do. Here’s the list -

REFUSALS

The Grand Jury recommended “consider a change in leadership” but the County says “no way” and says they are already in transition as of April 15, 2015 with the appointment of Dr. Jennifer Hawkins.

The Grand Jury recommended changes to the feral cat program, but the County denies the Grand Jury’s claims, and hence refuses to improve their program.

The Grand Jury asked that the inhumane practice of cleaning cages with animals still inside be changed, but the County refuses, claiming it will mix up their identification system. They asked that the water wasting stop, and the County proposes doing this by lowering the water pressure - IOW they will continue to waste water, but less water will be wasted because the pressure is lower. Apparently it never occurred to the rocket scientists who wrote this report that less pressure also means less effectiveness, especially when you are “hosing down” areas to clean them. Lower water pressure means more water will have to be expended to get the desired result, which probably means as much water will continue to be wasted.

The Grand Jury asked that the ventilation systems in the cat trailers be updated to prevent the spread of disease. The County refused and hopes that the new ventilation at the new shelter whenever it is built will be sufficient.

AGREEMENTS

The County did agree to improve their management training, study the feral cat program’s effectiveness in reducing zoonotic diseases, establish a more aggressive recruitment program for animal control officers (there were 9 vacant positions), and improve training and readiness of animal control officers.

Unfortunately these are only agreements and there is no real program attached that will give anyone confidence these agreements will be accomplished.

ALREADY DONE

The County claims that they have already taken measures to reduce the rodent population and to improve the a/c in the cat trailers (but not the ventilation systems).

Tomorrow we’ll sum up.

COMMENTS

It came to my attention that at times the COMMENTS section of the Patch doesn’t work. I have no control over this. I can neither enable nor disable the Comments section nor can I delete or edit other people’s work. If you encounter this problem, please notify the Patch. If you want to discuss the issues raised in these articles you’re welcome to join more than 300 of us at Lake Forest Town Square, or you can e-mail me individually, come to my office hours, or attend my Town hall meetings.

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 3 pm to 5 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a town hall meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be on December 12 at 2 pm at the El Toro Public Library

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