On Saturday we are having a Pet Expo at the Sports Park in Lake Forest from 12 pm to 3 pm. Please attend.
Meantime, this week two of the three cities considering the future of animal care services unanimously agreed to withdraw from the County. The third City postponed their decision until the next Council meeting in order to get more information.
On March 22 the Laguna Hills City Council voted to partner with Mission Viejo, contingent on Rancho Santa Margarita voting in a similar manner, which they did on March 23. Staff from both cities recommended withdrawing from the County and both Councils voted unanimously to do so. Their reasons were remarkably similar –
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· The County’s long standing history of poor service, inhumane care, false data, and high kill rates.
· The unprecedented step by the County to charge cities for building the new County shelter.
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· The excellent reputation of the Mission Viejo Shelter for providing good service, good care, and a low rate of euthanasia.
· The long term ability of a local agency (Mission Viejo) to control costs.
· The much closer proximity of the Mission Viejo shelter to residents of the two cities.
· The volunteer opportunities that will be created.
Even while these cities were voting to withdraw from the County, animal advocates were at the Board of Supervisors meeting on March 22 excoriating the County for their poor care, high kill rates, and false data that exaggerated their compliance rates while under-estimating their kill rates. (Click Here)
Supervisors Bartlett and Spitzer were silent throughout the proceedings while a dozen speakers criticized the County, and when they finished, neither Shelter Director Hawkins or Community Services Director Franks had any comments. At the end of the meeting, Bartlett and Spitzer said they were puzzled by the discrepancies between what the speakers were saying and by what they were being told by the County. They asked Mr. Kim, Chief County Officer, to get them more information so that they could figure out what’s going on.
(FWIW – in November 2015 I provided both Supervisors with a comprehensive report outlining how the County was using false methodology and bad statistics to over-estimate their compliance rate and to under-represent the euthanasia rate. Since that time, the County admitted their errors and changed the way they calculate euthanasia and promised to change their compliance data (which they haven’t done yet). Following Tuesday’s meeting I forward to Supervisors Bartlett and Spitzer copies of my November 2015 report.)
The focus now turns to Garden Grove who had 3172 animals, 5354 field services, and licensed 13,777 dogs go through the County in 2014. This represented 15% of the County’s workload. Garden Grove proposes to contract with Orange County Humane Society (OCHS) for shelter services and bring field services and licensing in house by City employees. The total costs are estimated at about $1,000,000 per year, compared to the $1,350,000 they are paying now. In addition, their capital contribution to OCHS will be $25,000 compared to the $4,142,755 which the County demands from them for their share of the building costs of the new shelter. With Laguna Hills and RSM out of the County, Garden Grove’s costs will be even higher.
The final piece in the puzzle is the proposal Scott Voigts and I have been working on for the City of Lake Forest, an innovative approach to animal care that has the promise of allowing many more cities to provide better service and care at a comparable or lower price. That proposal comes before the City Council on April 19. You’ll hear more as we get closer to the date.
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 April 2 at 2 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.
