This Budget Cut is for the Dogs!

Town Hall Meeting on Monday, April 8, 2013

I have decided to delay the elimination of the graveyard shift until after we hold a Town Hall Meeting on April 8th. from 7-9 PM. I am waiting confirmation that we can use the meeting room at the East Valley Shelter.
I hope you will mark your calendar now and plan to attend.
We will send out reminders and additional information.I invite you to study the material we send, to ask questions and to come to the meeting prepared to offer constructive solutions.We all want what is best for everyone including the animals, the community, the rescues and the safety of our staff.
These are challenging times for the City. When we consider vacations, injuries, sick leave and family leave, we have staffing for four shelters and we are operating six. In 2005/06 the Department had 179 Animal Care Technicians (ACTs) to care for animals in 759 kennels and cages. With the February 2013 opening of the new South Los Angeles Animal Service– Center Chesterfield Square, we have only 140 ACTs – six of them vacant positions (that we were approve to fill this week)- to care for animals in 2029 kennels and cages.
In short, our staffing decreased by nearly 22% while kennel space increased by 167%. These changes are creating significant challenges to our staff and animals. One employee – due the lack of staffing – recently clocked his walking while cleaning kennels and found that he is walking between 9 and 13 miles per day at the new South Los Angeles Center.
Sadly, we have had increased complaints about the shelters not being clean, not having phones answered, difficulty in getting someone on staff to show animals to adopters or to help our rescue partners.
In discussions with staff leaders, the CAO’s office, the Mayor’s Budget Committee and City Personnel, we grappled with what we can do to keep six City shelters open.
Recently we had to transfer ACTs from West LA and East Valley to the new South LA shelter to try to balance out the human resources. We heard complaints from some outstanding volunteers and the Captains. Captain Figueroa, in an email stated “…but taking three ACTs from WLA will cripple the shelter completely”…..and Captain Bowers, in an email said, “With less staff the shelter may suffer in all these [cleanliness, lower adoption rate, odor control] areas.”
We do not want to close another shelter and we do not have a private partner “in the wings” to operate one of our six shelters if we do not have adequate personnel to safely keep them open. The rumor that we are working with Best Friends to operate the West Los Angeles shelter is absolutely false.
We looked at what the surrounding areas and found:

Orange County: No kennel workers between 7PM – 6AM.
Long Beach AC: No kennel workers on swing or grave.
Pasadena Humane: No kennel workers b/t 7PM – 6AM.
SEAACA: No kennel workers b/t 7PM-6AM.
Inland Humane: No kennel workers b/t 7PM – 6AM.
Riverside Co.: No kennel workers b/t 7PM-8AM.
Irvine City: No kennel workers b/t 7PM-6AM.
LACO: Varies. No kennel workers generally after 10PM. One ACO takes in animals 10PM-6AM and cares for kennels, responds to emergency calls.

We are working on our system to have telephone access 24/7 for community members who have an emergency to be able to reach an Animal Control Officer and we are preparing signage and information about the ongoing partnerships that we have with emergency veterinary clinics.
We studied that shelter activities during the graveyard shift and were disappointed to learn that many animal deaths that occurred during the night were not discovered until the day shift arrived the next morning.
We believe eliminating the graveyard shift and using security is a prudent management move and one that benefits both employee welfare and one that will improve services to animals in our care if the ACTs who are currently on the graveyard shift are assigned to day or swing shifts at the shelter where they currently work. To compensate for this redeployment, Animal Services would provide the shelters with a security guard from midnight until 6 AM.
There is room to make a different decision if the resources become available. There are between 15-22 ACTs who work night shift. We are NOT proposing laying off any staff. We proposed contracting for security services from midnight until 6 AM.
Contracted security services will cost $256,000.The fully burdened cost for 15-22 ACTs is from $880,000 and $1,600,800 depending on their grade (whether they are new hires from the public or transfers from within the City). So the unbudgeted impact or the funding needed to maintain the graveyard shift deducting security costs and averaged is $984,400.
These are not simple times.I hope that you will work with us in the weeks and months ahead to build on the successes. I look forward to your input.
Thank you,
Brenda F. Barnette
General Manager

From EmpowerLA.org