An Open Letter to the Los Angeles City Council to Save My Dog, Stu.

When an issue is presented to Council for action, Council President refers the issue to the appropriate Committee for review and recommendation. The Public Safety Committee oversees the Department of Animals Services. I started there.

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June 23, 2009

City Council
Public Safety Committee
City of Los Angeles
c/o City Clerk, Room 395
City Hall, 200 North Spring Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012-4801

Dear Councilmembers Weiss, Zine, Parks, Smith and Reyes,

Below is a link to Kate Woodviolet's Examiner.com follow-up story on my dog, Stu, his 4-year-old case and the evidence of malfeasance and obstruction on the part of certain employees within the Department of Animal Services. Please be aware, that only 10 days prior to the oral arguments in the Court of Appeals, the City Attorney's office sent me the attached draft settlement offer (and opposed my request for a continuance in the Court so that I might discuss the offer further) with full knowledge that no consummation of this proposed settlement could be expected in time for the City Council to approve it, before the Court ruled.

These are not coincidences and let me assure you, there have been no coincidences in this case. Ever. This case is one of the last vestiges of the inept and embarrassing tenure of Ed Boks. The only thing left to clean-up (that I know of ) of the mess Mr. Boks made of this Department will be the lawsuit I must file against him and others for these despicable acts. We are about to welcome back to our City legal system what is promised to be a new era of integrity, so says Mr. Trutanich. I hereby give you an opportunity to usher that era in with my dog, Stu in tow.

I beseech you to consider compassionately what I hope will be a forthcoming recommendation from the Board of Animal Services Commissioners to your Public Safety Committee or to the full Council, which will , as I understand the intent of the Board, attempt to preserve the integrity of the Administrative Hearing process, the Department, the Board and the City of Los Angeles by setting aside the previous ill-founded decision to declare Stu to be dangerous and order his destruction. The Board, which you have entrusted to make these decisions is unified on this issue as are thousands of people from our City and around the world: the consensus is to send Stu, a non-dangerous animal home to live out his remaining last couple of years. He was 6 years old when he was first impounded. He is now at least 10 (or 70 in human years).

The Court of Appeals could not remedy this injustice as there was a defective record before them and only myself, a non-lawyer, presenting it to them. However, although the Court has failed to right this horrible injustice , because it was confined to the incomplete record of the case, your Committee and your Council are not so constrained. Please find the time and the attention which this most deserving matter requires.

http://www.examiner.com/x-1779-LA-Pet-Rescue-Examiner~y2009m6d23-Appeals-Court-rules-against-Stu--could-allow-Animal-Services-to-kill-senior-dog

Thank you,

Jeff de la Rosa
Council District 13

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!"

Yes, YOU CAN ATTEND BOTH MEETINGS AT CITY HALL 3/23

The Animal Services Board will convene at 10AM with 2 appeal hearing to start. This should take minimum 45 minutes. The issue of Jeff de la Rosa's dog, Maeve is up first at the start of the regular meeting (10:30-10:45).
The Public Safety Meeting convenes at 10:30 with the voucher/coupon issue LAST on the agenda. The Committee will hear a "report" from Animal Services (Barth or Boks) so they can't be at two places at one time. I would think that the Commissioners would be interested enough to take a break to go down the hall and listen to this "report."
Your attendance at both meetings is possible on both issues we hope you're concerned about. LIves are at stake at BOTH MEETING AND YOUR ATTENDANCE AND OPINION IS IMPORTANT TO BOTH the Animal Services Commissioners and the Public Safety Committee.

1. The Department's grudge match to "ban" a 14 year old dog from the City--"Maeve" after their 2005 decision was tossed by Superior Court Judge James Chalfant.

2. The "mystery" of the "canceled" spay neuter coupons, which Boks is now blaming on a 'rogue' email.
You'll have two chances to watch Ed try to wriggle out of being decent and fair and logical. Don't miss either, please.