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An insider comment was left below:
Boks said he'd get the clinics up and running. Turns out the spay neuter clinics in the new shelters won't be done until next year. He wants to make it seem like he's doing something so he approves any offer. There was only one person interested in this RFP, Dr. Eric Jones. He could name his price, and he did.
Another way to look at it I guess is to figure out how much money it would cost for the city to run such a clinic on their own. $95,000 for a vet, $40,000 for a vet tech, insurance, medical supplies, phones, receptionist... Maybe it is cheaper this way. I have no idea. I do think that it's probably faster to subcontract it out like this. I think they just wanted any contract approved, just like with the spay neuter clinic in NC. They just gave it to that feral cat group. Better to have someone using that clinic rather than no one.
All this may be true, but the City is not getting value received.Most vets have to pay rent, for equipment and utilities, Jones gets those paid by the City.
Jones is running a private practice, not a spay/neuter services for the City. LAAS may be a prime customer, but it is on a private practice basis. If Jones performed 5,000 spay/neuters for the City for free, it might make sense if he provides spay/neuter, shot clinics and general vet service for the public ALSO.
But being in a City shelter, Jones has a built in guaranteed clientele with no risk of failure and $320,000 a year to pay his expenses in addition to any money he makes.
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1 comment:
The city already allocated those funds. If they don't use them for spayneuter, they go back to the general city fund. It would be more effective to give more coupons but not that many vets will take them. And, the person still has to pay for blood tests, vaccinations before they will do surgery. The $30 and $60 coupons only help a little in some cases. While it wasn't the best deal for the city, it's better than nothing and the money is basically free to the department
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