I Thought Sam Simon Needed a Contract to Do Spay/Neuter

Back in June of 2006, Boks told the Commission that the spay/neuter contract with Sam Simon was going to be cancelled and that the Amanda Foundation was getting a $500,000 S/N contract.

As you know, back then, before Boks started giving all of his girlfriends $20,000 consulting contracts, the limit that could be paid to any vendor or contractor was $20,000 without going through an RFP competitive bid process. This limit was decreased to $5,000 by the Commission.

Now we learn that Sam Simon was still providing S/N surgeries for LAAS at least through March of this year, but apparently without requiring vouchers and without a contract.

In the March 9, 2009 minutes of the Commission meeting, Boks provides the table on page 4 of those minutes (http://laanimalservices.org/PDF/commission/2009/030909-agd.pdf) showing almost 6,000 surgeries for Amanda and 3,312 for Sam Simon--but Sam Simon had no contract, or if they did, they did not go through the RFP process after their contract was supposedly cancelled in 2006.

In addition, Boks recently told Council that the contract with Sam Simon was going to be cancelled. This was during that meeting when Zine dragged him over the coals.

So, Sam Simon had/has some sort of sweetheart contract with Boks.

Just as importantly, where was the money to pay Sam Simon coming from? The Spaymobile Fund? The voucher fund? Apparently Linda Barth is refusing to tell the Commission.

Linda Barth is also refusing to tell the Commission about its investigation and conclusion about accepting the Value Vet bid for the West Valley shelter S/N contract. She flat out told Commissioners she was not going to tell them.

If you look at the prices being charged by Value Vet versus prices charged at the other City property spay/neuter clinics, (page 3 on http://laanimalservices.org/PDF/commission/2009/030909-agd.pdf), we find Value Vet is charging $240 for spaying a dog 55-69 pounds. Two callers to Value Vet asked them how much to spay dogs over 110 pounds. They were told $500!!! No other contractor is charging half that.

No need to have a sweetheart, no bid contract, when Ed and Linda are set to ram the only bid submitted down the Commission's throats. The reason there was only one bid is that the only ad for bids (RFP) was on the City's contractor site and the Department's website. There was no other outreach than this except to Value Vet who knew all along.

Now, how many veterinarians do you know who weekly check the City contractor website or the Department websites for RFPs? This was a miniscule outreach far less than done a year before that yielded the original Value Vet proposal and the accepted Clinico proposals. This against screams mismanagement that could result in Value Vet getting a contract which will benefit no one except Value Vet and bragging rights for Ed and Linda to say they oppened another S/N clinic.