>Special Meeting of the Board< By popular demand of one.

+/- Read more...

As frustrating as it is to have to continually tell the Board of Commissioners and Linda Barth (Is Ed Boks still around?) how to act like a board and not a garden club, sometimes the hours of work pay off. You may recall the post we did a while back which shows that the Board , by law, must meet AT LEAST 2 times per month according to the L.A. Charter and Administrative Code. For the most part, except for Riordan, this plea/demand/notice has fallen on deaf ears. However, at the March 23 Board Meeting, Jeff informed Commissioner Kathy Riordan that "Staff" had cancelled the meeting scheduled for today, April 13. Jim Bickhart was eavesdropping on this conversation and may have been instrumental in scheduling tomorrow's Special Meeting. That's the good.

If you know one person who knows of this meeting being held at the Los Angeles Animal Services North Central Animal Care and Control Center (Shelter), please tell us whom that may be. Hoss Fool, Board Secretary, has never been able to put together a way for y'all to be notified by email of meeting. Yes, you can ask, prior to every meeting, to be notified, but this is a big City--we have the technology. Council has the technology. You see, "Staff" (Barth, Boks, Bickhart) would rather NOBODY show up for these meetings. That way, the public will not be able to complain about the Department's negligence, lameness, boneheadedness; or just plain arrogance regarding all matters under their control.

So here it is--Your notice that there is a forum for you to air your thoughts, suggestions, ideas, gripes etc.

SPECIAL MEETING

(CLICK "SPECIAL MEETING" TO SEE AGENDA

SPECIAL MEETING AGENDA
BOARD OF ANIMAL SERVICES COMMISSIONERS
CITY OF LOS ANGELES
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
1:00 P.M.
North Central Animal Shelter
3201 Lacy St.
Training Room
Los Angeles, CA 90031
Tariq Khero, President
Kathleen Riordan, Vice-President
Irene Ponce
Archie J. Quincey, Jr.
Ruthanne Secunda

What they won't be discussing or taking action upon:

1. The Mary O'Connor Case which involves a shelter employee stealing a disabled woman's service dog.

2. The "Stu" case, which needs Board action to tell the Court of Appeal that the record is defective and should include documents which show that Due Process was violated on the road to kill Jeff's dog, Stu, who, if you ask anyone that matters, including: Bobby Dorafshar, George Mossman (hearing examiner), Captain Dedeux, Richard Polksy, Ph.D. --they will tell you (as they have told the Board) that Stu is NOT DANGEROUS and should not be killed.

(YES--BOTH OF THESE ITEMS WERE REQUESTED TO BE ON THE AGENDA BUT LINDA BARTH AND ED BOKS BLOCKED THEM). We're still waiting for the neutered Board to rent some balls and take control of their meetings, their agendas and the department. (See minutes which aren't there of 3/23/09 Board Meeting at which Kim Carnochan demanded the very same in her address during Public Comments.)

3. The Board's own NO CONFIDENCE motion regarding the inept General Manager Ed Boks. City's Council's motion of NO CONFIDENCE IN ED BOKS, has mysteriously been laid dormant. We suspect--um--WE KNOW that City Attorney candidate Jack Weiss is stalling the passage of this motion until he is elected. That way , he can be the City Attorney responsible for ridding us of Ed Boks. Please...your campaign before the lives of animals and the people who love them? Shame on you , Jack Weiss.

So gather up you civic duty and mosey on over to this meeting on Tuesday, April 14, 2009.

Ed Boks : "I'm sticking it out at long as I can." Is Linda Barth on deck to be the next GM?

After City Councilmember Richard Alarcon launched his explosive press release (see previous post) declaring that Council has made a motion of "NO CONFIDENCE" in General Manager Ed Boks, we are forced to wonder how many lives has Ed Boks? Is he "done" or just "medium well?"

Since January 2006, when Boks landed his carpet bag on our shores, blunder after hopeless blunder have sunk the stock value of Ed Boks in the Los Angeles animal community. But what's the bottom for Ed? Will Villaraigosa take this golden opportunity to extend a hand pointing east? We've seenBoks rise from the ashes so many times before that we're not yet convinced that, having stuck the fork in, Ed Boks will be "DONE."

Boks told reporter Rick Orlov, "I'm sticking it out as long as I can" after the fed-up council members Zine, Alarcon, Cardenas and company fired the first shot.

Linda Barth. Hmmm. Cardenas repeatedly called her "Linda" at the March 27 Council meeting. We are concerned with this apparent affection for Barth Vader. She rattles off facts quite well and has been in City government for so, so long.

[ this paragraph edited and revised 4/4/09] However, she's dirtier and smarter than Ed ; and judging by the employee complaints about Barth, much worse. A Department under Linda Barth would be a closed and secretive one and perhaps even deadlier than Boks's Department. How calculating is she? Watch the 3/27/09 Council Meeting video again and check her costume for Ed's Inquisition. She wore a blazing winter white ensemble which screamed, "I'm innocent. Pick me." Barth also has a tell. She drops her chin down and does a closed hand scratching thingy on her ear/neck wih her right hand...See video beginning at time-stamp 2:00:00. First tell is at about 2:01:20. This little tell, judging from when she does it is a sign of extreme stress for her.Sometimes she does it when she's obviously lying. Sometimes she does it when it would appear that she's fearing for her own ass, as well. Check it out.

Will she turn on Ed to save herself and position herself as ready willing and able to run the show? God help us, if he's still listening! Did she set Boks up? Time will tell. It's a real possibility that Barth will be at least the next "interim" general manager. She's got the facts and figures ready to spit out and recently she's been showing her Dr. Jekyll face. We encourage you to watch the video of the 3/27 meeting again here beginning at about 1:18:00.

So whaddya think? Are they prepping Barth to take over or do you think they will go for someone less controversial. She's no saint in this Department Chaos. More later, with a personal Barth Anecdote from Jeff de la Rosa.

City Council to Force Ed Boks to Do His Job

On March 20, 2009 the Los Angeles City Clerk entered the following Council Agenda item for the Council Meeting to take place on Friday, March 27, 2009 (downloadable PDF here):

WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO ATTEND THIS MEETING.
AN APPROXIMATE TIME FOR THIS AGENDA ITEM
WILL BE POSTED HERE LATER TODAY.

AGENDA

LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCIL
FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 2009 10:00 A.M.
JOHN FERRARO COUNCIL CHAMBER
ROOM 340, CITY HALL
200 NORTH SPRING STREET, LOS ANGELES, CA 90012
INTERNET: www.lacity.org; click on Council file number for background documents

ITEM NO. (19)
Council File number 09-0601
MOTION (CARDENAS - ALARCON - ZINE - ET AL.) relative to the Spay and Neuter Voucher and Coupon Program. Recommendations for Council action:
1. INSTRUCT the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services (DAS) to immediately reinstate the Spay/Neuter Voucher and Coupon Program funded through the Animal Spay and Neuter Trust Fund.
2. INSTRUCT the DAS, with the assistance of any other pertinent city department to report to the Public Safety Committee on Monday, March 23, 2009 on the status of the Spay/Neuter Voucher Program including the status of the high volume spay and neuter clinics.
3. REQUEST the Controller to perform a follow up audit of the 2008 Spay/Neuter Voucher and Coupon Program with the emphasis on the outreach and effectiveness of the program to reach out to low-income residents.
4. INSTRUCT the General Manager, DAS, to take into consideration the preliminary recommendations of the Spay and Neuter Advisory Committee’s Preliminary report to the Council due on March 30, 2009 and consult with the advisory committee members in moving forward with assuring the spay and neuter voucher program is made available to the city’s low-income residents and effective strategies are in place for outreach.
5. INSTRUCT the DAS to report back to Council on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 on the requested

We at BW are grateful to Councilmembers Cardenas, Zine, Alarcon and Garcetti for sponsoring this motion and for their continuing dedication to the animals and the People of Los Angeles (notwithstanding the horrendous vote to keep Billy the Elephant imprisoned at the Zoo. We expect them to reverse this decision and will lobby them accordingly.).

If you are also appreciative of the actions of Councilmembers, we urge you to call or write to them and thank them. You are of coure encouraged to say whatever else you think about the mismanagement of Animal Services under the current management by Boks and Barth. Leaving comments here is an easy way to do that. They do read this blog.

If you are needing the email addresses of any Councilmember, please email us at laboardwatch@gmail.com and we will gladly provide them. We have found that publishing email addresses on this site leads to spam being sent to those addresses and will no longer publish email addresses here. Probably.

BW.

L.A. Council barking mad over Bok's spay/neuter plan

L.A. Council barking mad over Bok's spay/neuter plan
By Rick Orlov
Posted: 03/23/2009 02:57:10 PM PDT Daily Breeze
(Rick Orlov is not a contributor to BoardWatch)

A City Council panel rebuked the head of Los Angeles' Animal Services Department on Monday as it recommended resurrecting the city's $150,000 spay-neuter voucher program.

In a rare public dressing down of a general manager, Councilmen Dennis Zine and Jack Weiss blasted Animal Services Director Ed Boks, saying they had lost confidence in his management of the department.

"It is one blunder after another with you," Zine said. "This is just another example of poor leadership in your department."

+/- Read more...

The dispute centers on Boks' March 10 decision to suspend two city-sponsored spay-neuter voucher programs in a cost-cutting measure. The programs - offering vouchers of $30 to $70 - defrayed the cost of sterilizing dogs and cats to help pet owners comply with a city law requiring animals to be altered by the time they're 6 months old.

The law aims to lower and eventually eliminate the thousands of euthanizations conducted in the city's animal shelters every year.

The City Council is scheduled Friday to consider a motion by Councilman Tony Cardenas ordering the program reinstated.

"It's important for us to understand we would be going backwards," Cardenas said. "It's untimely that the department would be terminating the spay and neuter program and not take into account what we are trying to accomplish."

But Boks said he had to suspend the program to comply with a directive to cut $150,000 from his department's budget as the
city tries to close a $17 million budget gap.

"If we didn't take this action I would be coming to you in May and saying we can't meet our payroll," Boks told the council's Public Safety Committee.

But, he was met with strong skepticism from each of the five members of the panel.

"You acted first before consulting anyone," Weiss said. "If you had asked us (if you) should you cut this, we would have said no."

Councilmen Bernard Parks and Greig Smith, who serve on the council's Budget Committee as well as on Public Safety, said they did not recall being advised by Boks or any of his aides of the plan to suspend the voucher program.

"We have five members on that (budget) committee and we all listen closely," Smith said. "I can assure you one of us would have heard of your plans to cut out the spay and neuter vouchers and objected."

Smith said he has been an advocate for Boks, but that support has become strained.

"I've supported you over the years, but my patience is running thin," Smith said. "This is not just a line item in the budget. This mayor, this City Council has made a strong policy statement to become a no-kill city.

"I find it shocking when the mayor and this council would make such a strong policy statement that you would act on your own to eliminate this program."

Several council members and speakers also said the decision will add to future city costs when the number of unwanted pets soars and they are taken into shelters.

Zine, who also chairs the council's Personnel Committee, said he has received a number of complaints about Boks' management. Zine also criticized Boks for inappropriately spending time writing regular blog items on the department's Web site.

"You're a general manager of a major department in the city of Los Angeles," Zine said. "You shouldn't have time to blog."

Boks did not respond to Zine's complaint.

Zine said he was still upset over a proposal by Boks to create a pit-bull academy that would be run by ex-convicts and by problems in the construction of animal shelters, where there were leaks and other problems that left animals exposed to inclement weather.

"It's one thing after another with you," Zine said.

Boks acknowledged the criticism, saying "there are some things I would have done differently."

"This is a tough job. Do we make mistakes, yes. Are we committed to making corrections, yes. I am committed to making this department more credible to the community."

Council Committee Drops An ANVIL on Ed Boks! Go Road Runner!

I leave this topic to Ed Muzika, Rick Orloff and others who attended the meeting. Check L.A. Animal Watch for coverage. Here's the audio for Windows Media Player (skip ahead to Tony Cardenas beginning at time stamp 55:35). MPEG version is also available at http://www.lacity.org/cdaudio_wm.htm (See Public Safety Committee Special Meeting 3/23/09.
"Beep Beep!"