A member of the Los Angeles Animal Services Commission resigned Thursday, accusing city employees of ignoring his demands for information and suggesting that some actions could be illegal.
Archie Quincy, who spent 32 years working for the Los Angeles County Animal Control Department, sent a letter of resignation to aides of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. "I don't need this job," Quincy said in an interview. "They don't know what they're doing over there and I'm afraid some of what they are doing is criminal. I just don't want to be involved with it."
Quincy, who was appointed in 2007, said he suspects the city Department of Animal Services has been withholding information or changing data in reports to the five-member commission.
The most recent situation involved information he had requested about a pit bull taken to a city shelter and the treatment of the dog's owner.
"When I ask for information as a commissioner, I should be able to get it," Quincy said. "Instead, all I hear are comments about me."
Animal Services officials said they were unaware of Quincy's resignation and could not comment on it.
The long-troubled department has been without a general manager since April, when then-chief Ed Boks resigned under pressure from animal advocates.
11 comments:
LAAS is "unaware" of Quincey's resignation? All that statement by LAAS does is prove that Quincey is right.
Deny, deflect, and delay. That is Linda Barth's style and Linda Barth is the puppetmaster GM--make no mistake about it. She is running this Department and running it into the ground, if that's even possible at this point. She and Boks both said that "Archie has his senile moments."
Do nothing Board Secretary , who makes comments which are completely against Board sentiment has publicly attacks Quincey at meetings. Go to a council or committee meeting. You will not see a Secretary or Legislative analyst engaging in Board discussion uninvited and pretending to be a "sixth" commissioner. There are so many things wrong with this Dept. and so many head which need to roll, it could take years, if ever to have a functioning and effective animal care and control agency in this City. Meanhile, the death toll mounts.
If you care about animals in this City, please come to a Board meeting and speak your mind. You have 3 minutes. Their next agenda is at http://laanimalservices.com/PDF/commission/2009/072709-agd.pdf
This news is tragic for the City. Aside from how it may or may not affect my own interests, the Board and the City have lost the generous and uncompensated services of an honorable and honest man. There is no room for that kind of human being in Animal Servcies. Tally: 3 Commissioners have resigned since September 2007--for the same reason: The Department of Animal Services is in a shambles, is rife with corrupt an immoral behavior and refuses to change.
Stay tuned. There is another Commissioner about to tell them to frack off.
Elections for Board officers should be held this coming meeting, July 27. Ed can tell you how those are not actually elections. You can also read about the last one at http://laanimalservicesboardwatch.blogspot.com/2009/03/jane-asks-what-happened-today-mini.html
Mr. Quincy is not telling anyone anything that has not been brought up at Commission/Council meetings by animal advocates over the last several years. The "fudged" numbers and the made-up reasons about the every-day killings of hundreds of adoptable animals; the seeming unwillingness of the Department to even try new programs that could save lives; the salaries being paid to some lazy employees by tax payers; etc. have all been brought up, ad nauseum, but the Mayor and the media appear to have turned a blind eye. And the innocent, homeless animals are paying with their lives. Mr. Quincy’s resignation will be a loss for the animals and, sadly, there are only a few left to do checks and balances on the rogue Dept. of LAAS. D-O-G help the animals!
Quincey, Atake resigned in protest. Brown quit so he could do business with the City. The blind guy just never went to meetings. A few were fired. This is a troubled commission.
I've seen Archie Quincey in action at Commission meetings and it was a sight to see. The man has a thirty-year career in Animal Control and no one, not even Barth or Bickhart, could possibly accuse him of being ADL (the preferred charge they level in an attempt to kill critics' credibility).
Archie IS credible. When he says there's misconduct, when he says the Department is withholding information, when he says they're breaking the law, he knows what he's talking about. He's not a bleeding heart, he's an animal control professional. He knows what the law is.
That's why Barth and Bickhart forced him out. You do one tiny thing to try and bring honesty and professionalism to LAAS and Linda Barth attacks, threatening people and using Bickhart as her axeman(why he allows himself to be a puppet of the charmless Barth is past understanding). Barth is a cancer. LAAS will never turn the corner and become a decent department with her still there. Meanwhile, she, and presumably her hand puppet interim General Manager Kathy Davis, are making six figures of our tax money for abusing and killing animals, protecting abusers, and kicking out one of the few honest men in this city's government, Archie Quincey.
And let's keep in mind that the Commissioners are Barth's bosses, not the other way around. Why is this ongoing coup being permitted by the Mayor?
Unfortunately for Barth and Bickhart, the very fact that they went after Archie Quincey will give him unassailable credibility. We know you, Linda and Jim. Your enemies are the animals' friends.
Can someone please do something about this Ross Core guy. (Head of Human Resources) He doesn't know anything, always has a reason for why something can't be done, specifically non-discipline of employees, and has been known to spend his time bike riding while at work.
Addendum to last comment. His name is Russ Core, Head of Human Resources, not Ross Pool. Pool is the Commission Secretary.
So it's okay for commissioners to call staff criminals because they didn't like the way someone did their job, yet activists get upset when they're criticized after threatening and libeling/slandering city officials and public employees? What's good for the goose...but nobody went after Quincey, he offed himself.
#7,
Altering, falsifying and "disappearing" city records IS criminal. And there's really no way to write Archie Quincey off as a dilettante "activist," the man has a thirty-year career in Animal Control. Put that up against (bless her heart) Kathy Davis' eighteen months at LAAS, and Linda Barth's two to three years of getting shuffled off to LAAS after getting booted out of the Dept. of Recreation and Parks for incompetence. The story goes, Linda ended up at Animal Services simply because no one else wanted her.
Maybe that's why every time Linda gets pissed because someone calls her on the screwups or her malfeasance, she threatens them. The mystery is: why does Bickhart back her up?
You'd think since Villaraigosa SAYS he's given up on being governor he might actually want to get good, competent people in (and keep the ones he has, like Quincey) and maybe actually ACCOMPLISH something. But apparently not. Apparently he wants to keep and cosset incompetents like Barth. Maybe because change at LAAS might actually mean unions would have to do some work, and get rid of their own incompetents?
Maybe Antonio (and Bickhart) haven't really given up on the governor's office. Maybe that's why they want to keep unions happy. After all, homeless animals still can't vote, or make campaign contributions- right, Jim?
#7- Unlike the activists, ACO's take an oath to uphold the law. The position you hold is a privilege. It is not a right. To point fingers at activists as a justification to break the law (or even have such a violation questioned and reviewed) is a deflection from the issue at hand. Follow the law. There was no reason to manipulate the impoundment of Stu and alter (or delete) records to cover up. Under Food and Ag 31625, the dept could have seized the dog. That's what could have occurred after the bite report was made. As it stands, the department has changed their story on how the dog came in. First, the dog was brought in by a private citizen. Then the dog was impounded as a stray per a call from the public. Last story is that an officer, on the way to work, just happened to be driving through the neighborhood. Which is it? Come on. You say that what's good for the goose, like two wrongs make a right. The difference, sir or madame, is you have the ability to abuse your power at the expense of the tax payer, the integrity of a department and the lives of animals. You fuel the crazies' fire by saying that you can violate the law because others do. And you wish to be respected? Are you saying that a sworn officer of the law has the right to violate it because of alleged criminal activities of adla or because their feelings are hurt by what a commissioner says? Are you saying that a commissioner, who has tried to get the facts, cannot question the legalities of the department's procedures or lack thereof?
Shame on any activist that shoots from the hip without obtaining facts. Shame on an officer who is held to legal standards and decides to abuse that privilege by altering records.
Dear Poster Seven,
You wrote: "What's good for the goose" in reference to actions by activists.
Thank you for reminding me why animal control officers should not carry guns.
So did Quincey simply quit or will he continue fighting for change like Marie's been doing?
Brad Jensen
Cypress, CA
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