HomeMy WebLinkAboutG. Moses - ecomment (Item 12)From:noreply@granicusideas.com
To:City Clerk; Yasuda, Erica; Woodward, Carrie; E-Comments
Subject:New eComment for Regular Meeting of the City Council/Closed Session-5:30 pm/Regular Meeting-7:00 pm
Date:Sunday, August 13, 2023 12:31:07 PM
City of Tustin, CANew eComment for Regular Meeting of the CityCouncil/Closed Session-5:30 pm/RegularMeeting-7:00 pm
G. Moses submitted a new eComment.
Meeting: Regular Meeting of the City Council/Closed Session-5:30 pm/Regular Meeting-7:00 pm
Item: 12. RESPONSE TO ORANGE COUNTY GRAND JURY REPORT ENTITLED GIMME
SHELTER AND A POUND OF ADVICE, "THE STATE OF ANIMAL WELFARE OVERSEEN BY
THE COUNTY OF ORANGE" On June 2, 2023, the Orange County Grand Jury (Grand Jury)
released a report entitled "Gimme Shelter and a Pound of Advice, The State of Animal Welfare
Overseen by the County of Orange". California Penal Code Section 933 requires the governing
body of any public agency to comment on the findings and recommendations no later than 90
days after the release of the report (by September 1, 2023). The proposed City Council response
is included herein as Attachment 2.
eComment: To keep its costs under control, the city should: [R14] Urge OCAC to reopen the
kennels and speed up adoptions. [R6] Pursue the Joint Powers Authority in order to protect its
budget in the long-term. While the county makes all the decisions, the cities bear 93% of the
costs. The county is indifferent to the consequences of their policies, because the county not
footing the bill. It’s up to the cities to protect themselves and their taxpayers. During the
pandemic, fewer animals were coming into the shelter, mitigating the negative impact of bad
policies. But now the numbers are returning to pre-pandemic levels, and the full impact of
OCAC’s bad policies will fall on the cities. The increase in costs to the cities is driven by the
increase in length of stay, which is the consequence of the bad adoption policies. If we compare
FY 2021-22 to FY 2018-19, we see that: The number of animals coming in dropped by 37%
Admin costs increased by 15%. Net cost per intake increased by 69%. This is not caused by
inflation (the Consumer Price Index increased by only 11%). The cost increase is caused by the
fact that the shelter is too slow in getting animals adopted. With each animal staying longer, the
shelter is warehousing more animals, and all expenses increase accordingly. This is what the
Assistant Director of OC Community Resources (Cymantha Atkinson) wrote on November 14,
2018 (emphasis added): “[The OCAC director] can fill you in on the essential component that
play groups play in accurate dog evaluation and expedited dog placement. Both these factors
decrease length of stay in the shelter which serves our primary goal of providing excellent animal
care while simultaneously reducing the financial impact to our partner cities. [The director] can
also point to other shelters nationwide that implement this best practice.” OCAC forgot its
responsibility to the cities and is keeping pandemic-era policies in place. OCAC and the county
don’t care about the financial impact of their bad policies, because they’re just passing the costs
to the cities. The cities are told the increase is driven by external factors (inflation, intakes) when
in reality it’s driven by bad policies and bad management.
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