MANY QUESTIONS STILL NEED TO BE ANSWERED BY THE COUNTY RE: A NEW ANIMAL SHELTER

We now have ample documentation of the many years of very significant problems related to the facility and the function of the Orange County Animal Shelter as evidenced by the 5 most recent Orange County Grand Jury Reports on the Orange County Animal Shelter - all listed below - plus the 2015 Orange County Performance Audit Report also listed below. Thanks to the sustained efforts of these dedicated people, and many others, it appears that after 74 years the County is finally going to build a new Animal Shelter, but the function of a new shelter remains in serious doubt as does the ability of only one animal shelter to handle the pet overpopulation of a rapidly growing Orange County. The 2007-2008 Grand Jury Report entitled - Is Orange County Going to the Dogs? 

http://www.ocgrandjury.org/pdfs/dogstudy/dog-study.pdf  states that: "Even if the new site in Tustin is approved, it may only be able to handle an increase in the animal caseload for a few years unless the pet population tsunami is stabilized or reversed. Based on county records and growth rates, according to OCAC, the future animal population projections would put the new shelter at maximum capacity in about five years. To lower the euthanasia count and reduce the overpopulation of unwanted animals in the future, some form of mandatory spay/neuter program may be required."

Also, because the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior the possibility for obtaining better function and services for residents and their pets for cities that choose to partner with the County Animal Shelter are bleak. In addition there are still too many unanswered questions about the proposed new County Animal Shelter's cost and function. Those questions need to be answered before OC cities can make any reasonable decision regarding remaining with the County Animal Shelter.  However, answers have not been made available by the County and the County is pressuring cities for a commitment by April 1, 2016.  When anyone, or any city, is considering making a substantial investment, a history of successful past performance is vital as is the most credible assurance of successful future performance as well as a lack of pressure to act quickly.

** Please see below re. the lack of answers from the County to questions about a new County Animal Shelter.

In contrast to the County Animal Shelter's 70 + year history of poor services to residents and pets, chronic lack of shelter maintenance and high kill rates for pets, the Mission Viejo Animal Shelter has existed for more than 20 years with a strong record of good services to residents and their pets and a low kill rate related only to pets that can't be saved. The Mission Viejo Animal Shelter has a strong history of keeping their shelter well maintained and has, over the years, earned the respect of the community through substantially growing their DAWG (Dedicated Animal Welfare Group) that provides substantial amounts of shelter volunteers and donations of financial support from residents of local communities for the pets at the MV Shelter who require medical care, training and other types of support to be adopted. The Mission Viejo Animal Shelter is currently serving Mission Viejo, Laguna Niguel and Aliso Viejo and has recently answered a request, from the City's of Laguna Hills and Rancho Santa Margarita, for a proposal to share their Animal Shelter.

Regarding Rose Tingle's recent request to, the County for public records information about the FOAB - Financial and Operational Advisory Board, that appears to have been a significant force behind the chronic underfunding of the Orange County Animal Shelter for so many years, the FOAB continues to be completely non-transparent to residents related to sharing no information regarding funding of the shelter with the public and no information regarding it's meetings. ** See more at -Citizens for Animal Shelter, Orange County on facebook.

*** Please see the 2015 PERFORMANCE AUDIT REPORT ON THE COUNTY ANIMAL SHELTER by Philip Cheng, the Orange County Performance Audit Director - Final Report on March 24, 2015 at: http://cams.ocgov.com/Web_Publisher/Agenda03_24_2015_files/images/O00315-000276A.PDF  for a lengthy but very complete report on the long term County Shelter Dysfunction with 34 recommendations and other very significant  information.

Some of the questions that require answers are as follows:

QUESTION 1 - What is the length of time of the land leases for the land on which the new animal shelter is to be built?  What will the costs be for the land leases, if any, to the Cities and the County  How are land lease costs going to be paid related to each city and to the county?  ** Steve Franks, Director of OC Community Resources, under which the County Animal Shelter service falls, spoke at the 1-12-16 Laguna Hills City Council Meeting and said the County of Orange and South OC Community College District signed a notice of intent in December 2015 for the County to enter into a ground lease to expedite land from South OC Community College District to the County.  6.7 acres is going to be owned by So. OC Community College District with no restrictions on development and will be leased to the County.  The balance of the property will be transferred under a sub-lease so the County will essentially have control of 10 acres. Terms and conditions of the Ground Lease have been agreed to in a closed session in Dec. of 2015. Lease documents are being mutually drafted and expected to be executed by March of 2016.

QUESTION 2 - The public and the cities need to know if the consultant who was hired by the County, JVR SHELTER STRATEGIES - Jyothi Robertson, DVM, has had any significant successes with turning very troubled animal shelters around to make them people and animal friendly and if so with what shelters?. ** Dr. Robertson, DVM looks great in print on the Internet but she appears to be the only source available for technical information, related to this quote from her web site, "Shelter Medicine is a relatively new and complex veterinary specialty and Dr. Robertson is the only known veterinarian qualified in Shelter Medicine offering consulting services". Dr. Robertson also appears to be consulting solely related to technical and legal functions of a shelter, which would be helpful related to the County Animal Shelter's function, but there is no information re. her knowledge of turning such a bad shelter around related to making it animal and people friendly.  Mike Arms at the Helen Woodward Animal Center in San Diego is a master at making animal shelters animal and people friendly and at bringing in a great deal of funding to help support animal shelters.  He has also made it his life's mission to consult with animal shelters all over the world when requested so his fee would be significantly low.  See more about Mike Arms at - http://www.animalcenter.org/about_hwac/our_president.aspx 

Question 3 - We need to know if the newest County Shelter Director Jennifer Hawkins, DVM has a history of significant managerial skills that are needed to support the County Animal Shelter's Performance, if and when it functions significantly better, and if she any experience in turning an animal shelter around to make it people and animal friendly.  ** Steve Franks told us about the shelter consultant being hired to address the current and future problems at the County Animal Shelter beginning in February, 2016, and introduced us to the County Shelter Director Jennifer Hawkins but failed to provide any information about the qualifications of the consultant or the qualifications of County Shelter Director related to turning bad shelters around to make them people and animal friendly.

QUESTION 4 - What are the County Animal Shelters plans for the future related to The Orange County Grand Jury Report's predictions of continued population growth in Orange County that will again overwhelm any new County Shelter in 5 years?

QUESTION 5 - Why did the County Shelter disclose and publish stats for "Euthanasia for TIME and SPACE only in the years 2011 and 2012 but not in 2010, 2013 or 2014?

QUESTION 6 - Specifically, what Community Outreach has the County Shelter done, where have they done it and how frequently they have they done it for at least the past 2 years- 2014 and 2015?  Also, how effective have specific Community Outreach Efforts they've done been, related to decreasing the number of shelter admissions?

QUESTION 7- How can any correct "buy in number" for Laguna Hills be known, at this time, when we've been told that the total number of cities that choose to continue with the County Shelter Services will be used to determine the capacity and COST of the new animal shelter and the total number of cities that will stay with the County Shelter has not yet been confirmed? (**The target for a commitment by the cities is April, 2016.)  ** Laguna Hills Assistant City Manager Don White told us, after many different amounts of money for a Laguna Hills "buy in" to a new County Animal Shelter (ranging from $249,000 to $415,000) had been quoted to us in the past, this latest one of $185,102.00 is the correct one.

QUESTION 8 -  How will the system of funding the County shelter be changed to ensure sufficient funding and will the FOAB be made accountable to the public, if this shelter has any hope of future improvement?  At the 1-12-16 Laguna Hills City Council meeting Rose Tingle requested that the FOAB meetings be made public. ** In the documents, requested by Rose Tingle, the County refused to provide any meaningful information about the FOAB - Financial Operational Advisory Board that, from what we heard from Steve Franks and Jennifer Hawkins on 1-12-2016, appear to be a significant factor related to chronic underfunding of the County Animal Shelter for many years.

QUESTION 9 - Will there be an independent volunteer group from the community, served by the County Shelter, to monitor the activity of a new County Animal Shelter and provide input to the public? ** There was Citizens Advisory Committee that was disbanded under former Shelter Director, Jennifer Phillips, and was never replaced.  Only 2 Groups exist now and both of those groups consist of all APPOINTED members. The ACCOC (Animal Care Outreach Community) consists of 5 members who are APPOINTED by the 5 County Supervisorial Districts and the  FOAB (Financial Operational Advisory Board) consists of 7 members (6 members APPOINTED but the Orange County City Manager's Association and 1 member from the County.

QUESTION 10 -  How long has the incorrect reporting of "euthanasia stats" been going on and how has it been permanently corrected for the future?  Do we need to require an annual outside audit of the County Shelter to be able to trust their ability to provide accurate statistical information in the future?  ** In response to a question from Mayor Barbara Kogerman,  Dr. Hawkins, County Animal Shelter Director, admitted, at the Laguna Hills City Council Meeting on 1-12-2016, that the County Shelter's Public Statistics for euthanization of animals at the shelter were not correct in 2014 and the stats showed reflected a lower rate of euthanasia than was actually occurring. She did not say how long that had been happening before Dr. Jim Gardner, from Lake Forest found that problem and brought it to the attention of the County Shelter.

QUESTION 11- How will very significant threats to the health of animals be eliminated in a new shelter and what is the reason for the huge numbers of dogs and cats that came in healthy and got sick enough to have to be euthanized?  **The County 2015 Performance Audit Report states, that in 2014, 1,605 dogs and cats were normal when they came to the County Shelter and later euthanized because of medical conditions or contagious disease.

QUESTION 12 -  What will be the estimated total cost to hire all the staff needed for the new shelter to function appropriately and to bring all the shelter practices and procedures up to date?  **The County 2015 Performance Audit Report said the County was 44% understaffed.

QUESTION 13 - Will the small amount of canvassing contractually provided by to the cities that contract with the County Animal Shelter increase enough in the future to be useful to a city?  ** The City of Laguna Hills paid thousands of additional dollars for canvassing that reportedly produced some results.

Below are OC Grand Jury Reports on the deficits at the County Animal Shelter from the year 2000 through the year 2015. 

1. - If Animals Could Talk About the Orange County Animal Shelter 6/17/15

http://www.ocgrandjury.org/pdfs/2014_2015_GJreport/Shelter_Performance_V8R2_web.pdf

2. - The Orange County Animal Shelter: the Facility, the Function, the Future 5/21/16

http://www.ocgrandjury.org/pdfs/2014_2015_GJreport/OC_animal_shelter.pdf 

Three previous Grand Jurys also pointed out very significant deficits in this 74 year old County Shelter  - 

1. 2007-2008, Is Orange County Going to the Dogs?

http://www.ocgrandjury.org/pdfs/dogstudy/dog-study.pdf

2. 2003-2004, The Orange County Animal Shelter – Are Improvements Needed?

http://www.ocgrandjury.org/pdfs/animalshelter.pdf 

3. 1999-2000, We Can Do Better…Improving Animal Care in Orange County - http://www.ocgrandjury.org/pdfs/GJAnimalCare.pdf 

Please see the two posts below this post to find additional information re. the Orange County Animal Shelter.