Boks' Town Hall Dance

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I went to the Town Hall meeting where Boks presented his No-Kill Schick. Security was slightly heavier than one would expect if meeting Dick Cheney.

There was a security check for IDs on the first floor, and then Mike Bell and I were referred to a security desk run by Town Hall, where we were given security badges. Then a security person pointed us to the proper elevator bank. No finger prints were taken at any point.

At the conference room on the 16th floor, we were not surprised to see two plain clothes cops as well as a uniform. There was another plain clothes guy there, who dressed like the others, but I did not see him leave with Boks. Ed must be REALLY scared of the ADLLA.

I noticed on the handout, which had all of his recent statistics, that, as on his blog, he claimed to have established the first municipal No-Kill shelter in the United States. I talked to him about that later.

I’ve got to say, as a person I like Boks. He is charismatic and likable. I told him that. I also told him that I thought he sucked as a GM.

Anyway, he presented the long laundry list of imaginary programs that were supposed to be operational. The KNBC reporter was sleeping throughout Ed’s presentation. I didn’t sleep. Instead I read the ALL-NEW annual report that was similar to the one that he presented to Council some time ago and which was posted on the LAAS website.

However, in the brand new annual report, there was at least one change. In version #1, he stated that the percentage of animals saved was projected to decrease from 54% to 52% because of increased intakes. In version #2, now on the website, that number was changed to stating there will be an increase in save rate from 54% to 56%.

So, he edited the first report which made him look bad, and re-issued a report that made him look good. One of my questions was based on his version #1, regarding his projected poorer performance, and which was in a hand out I gave everyone.

If anyone were to check my numbers against the new version he gave reporters, it would make me look like a boob.

Mike asked a question about the STAR program. Ed pleaded ignorance saying it was a new program. Mike pointed out that Boks had stated he initiated the program 16 months ago. It appeared that Ed didn’t know anything about Star and its financing, but Mike Bell did. Linda Barth didn’t know how much money was in the fund, but Mike did. The reporter was sleeping, so I think he didn’t know or care either.

Guss questioned him on his claim that he had “rectified” the vet situation. For some reason, I don’t recall what Ed said in response, as a lot of what he says does not compute. Maybe he dodged the question.

I asked why he told Dana Bartholomew that new vets made $92,000 while the LAAS website says $80,800. His response was he “intended” to have new vets start in mid range. Since no new vet has started since he lied to Dana, it is impossible to know if any was offered $92,000.

The reporter from KNBC saw my hand-out flyer where I claimed Boks' numbers indicated crappy performance. The reporter had Ed and I stand about 6 inches apart. Ed denied my numbers were true and had stats in his hand. The reported told Boks to point out the stats and if I had anything to say about them.

Well, the stats Ed pointed out to me when we were on camera, were the new May euth stats that came out just a day before. Usually Ed presents his analysis on the 6th of the month, and pastes them on the web on the 8th or 10th or so. This time he had fresh stats from the day before. Try computing performance stats in 15 seconds in front of a camera. Boks made me look bad because I hadn’t had a chance to analyze them and the reporter then turned the camera off.

Boks made his usual spiel that No-Kill should be based on the number of animals killed per thousand people, saying NY was at 2.5 and most experts believe no-kill begins at about 5.0 per thousand. In other words, he implied he took NYC to No-Kill.

Had I been able to ask a question at that point, I would have asked how killing 18,900 animals out of 47,000 coming in could be considered no-kill.
He then totted out a new concept that I didn’t get even though he repeated it twice more.

He said, in effect, that when LA finally gets to No-Kill, all the animals in the shelter would be killed. I felt a kind of mental vertigo, a severe cognitive dissonance, trying to grasp this apparent paradox. I am sure Ed will post an explanation on his blog soon.

I think he was saying that when we get to no kill, only the unadoptable and untreatable animals would be in the shelter, and therefore killed. I really don’t know what he was saying. It is also interesting that he said in contrast, when computing his stats, he does not use the vague and arbitrary concepts of adoptable and treatable. Again, my mind spins.

Oh, the Town Hall people said they were moving the meeting downtown because they had a larger room there than at Manatt. Christ, there were only 25 or so seats there and maybe 20 people in attendance. I can’t imagine Manatt’s conference rooms were any smaller than that.

Mike and I had an incredibly hard time finding parking in the area that would not cost $18.00.

I think Manatt kicked the Boks event out of their building because, as ADL claims, the event was getting too much negative publicity and picketing by the ADL was possible, which it was not downtown.

Anyway, next time you go to a Boks event, be sure you carry a sheet with all of the recent department statistics. You might even carry Roger Maris’ or Babe Ruth’s stats and point at it. The reports won’t know the difference.

After the camera was off, I asked Boks how on earth he could possibly claim that he established the first municipal no kill shelter in the United States in 2002, when they killed 51% of their impounds that year.

Ed replied, almost under his breath, that Maricopa has three shelters, and he brought one of them to no-kill. Well, for some reason I found this funny, and a tad silly as well as being a deceptive lie. I accused him of using semantics to make himself look good. His reply to the reporter was “He is the one using distorting semantics.” Again, for some reason, I found this amusing and started laughing. I couldn’t stop. I still can’t stop.

Recently someone told me that Maricopa has two shelters and an adoption center. Therefore, Boks was referring to the adoption center as being no-kill, not either shelter.

I guess Boks can create LA's first no-kill shelter in WLA if he transfers a few animals to EV or WV.

I wonder that Winogard would say about who established to first municipal no-kill shelter with his 8% kill figure in 2002, or Carl Friedman, in San Francisco, with his 20% kill rate, and who still does not claim SF to be no-kill.
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