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Unless I am missing something, the upcoming audit of Animal Services is relatively pointless from the perspective of activists. It appears Boks went over budget for medical services for the animals. He did the same in Phoenix. I think that is a good thing.
Rosendahl appears to be a little dense about all the animal issues. He is worried that not enough dogs get licensed. Why isn't he more worried about why so many animals are dying? I guess if it isn't his breeding dogs that are being killed, it is no skin off his nose.
The financial audit doesn't mean diddly. What has to be analyzed is why the volunteer programs are not working and the very, very funny numbers that have been coming out of the department since May. These among other things.
Rosendahl appears to be a little dense about all the animal issues. He is worried that not enough dogs get licensed. Why isn't he more worried about why so many animals are dying? I guess if it isn't his breeding dogs that are being killed, it is no skin off his nose.
When I lived in Santa Monica his local SM politics show went only skin deep. He never even began to make public what was going on under the cover of a bureacratic darkness. Then I thought he was just being politically correct in a SMRR controlled city hall, but maybe I was deceived; maybe Bill is just clueless.
Imagine, LAAS has an operating budget of $21,000,000 but with pensions and perks that is knocked up to $34,000,000--a 62% increase.
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4 comments:
Chick will be auditing the financial side of the Department. She will see problems. Here are but a few:
(1) City Council approved new license canvassers. The Department started the program then ended it
without City Council knowledge. Council President Eric Garcetti reprimanded Boks for ending the
program without telling them. The cavassing program brings in revenue from licenses besides ensuring
that animals are spayed and neutered which reduces overpopulation.
(2) In order to seem to improve statistics the Department kept animals longer, sometimes many months.
In order to keep so many they overcrowded the cages. This caused the spread of disease. This did
not improve their chance at adoption. This "warehousing" cost the City more money in terms of extra
food, veterinary care and medicine. The Department went over their budget for food and vet care
in 2006 for this reason.
(3) Director Ed Boks hired his ex-girlfriend Pia Salk to do a report on Humane LA. He gave her
$20,000. No one has seen the report and there is no Humane LA program. The Commissioners were upset
that he hired her without informing anyone so they made a motion that all consultants paid over
$5,000 must now be approved by the commissioners.
(4) Director Ed Boks hired a friend to do a report on the volunteer department. He paid $30,000 for
the report. No one has seen this report, only a summary of the report written by someone else. That
summary basically told everyone what they already know about the shortcomings of the volunteer
department.
(5) Employees frequently use Department supplies for their own purpose. Ex-volunteer coordinator
Heidi Heubner used Department supplies, animals and volunteers to run her private Kids n Pets
classes. She gave paid classes for Kids n Pets when she was supposed to be working. There are
many instances of employees doing the same thing.
(6) Poor oversight of Department employees has caused a few lawsuits to be filed against the
Department. One recently settled for $99,000 for sexual harassment by Commander Diliberto. Many
reports of sexual harassment by Commander Diliberto were sent in before the Department was sued.
Another lawsuit was recently filed by a rescuer after she was held against her will inside the
shelter and had her camera physically taken away from her. Another lawsuit may soon be filed
because of a false arrest by an under trained over zealous Animal Cruelty Task Force. These
lawsuits could have been avoided if there was better oversight.
I got cut off.
(7) Boks started the New Hope program which was just a new name for the old rescue partner program. He made all animals to New Hope partners free. Adoptions did not improve yet revenue was lost. He did the same thing in Arizona. After he left they went back to charging for the animals. Even though Boks knew this program failed in Arizona, he still did it in LA. He knew this incentive was failing as soon as he started it, yet he continued.
Laura Chick likes to bring people down. Don't underestimate her. I would suggest that all of us who are aware of fiscal mismanagement withing the department contact her and give her evidence.
I suspect there is enough evidence of waste to finally fire Boks the Bozo.
That;s a good idea for everyone to contact her to let her know what we know about Boks.
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