Madison's Installment #15
Boks at his diabolical best.
What do you do when you want to distract the City Council members and the citizens of Los Angeles and get positive media coverage on a day when the news about you is really bad?
If you are a master manipulator like Ed Boks you come up with a brilliant distraction.
You call for a Press Conference with the Mayor and City Council Members on the same day that you are about to get nailed by your own employees, rescue groups and general public in front of the City Council.
An LAAS employee just notified me of a Tuesday morning press conference at City Hall. Another website has posted the invitation. The invitation reads:
"Mayoral Press Conference this Tuesday at 9 a.m. at City Hall. Come participate in this celebration of the new ordinance, which recently became enforceable October 1st. The Mayor will be there as will the entire City Council, featuring as well as expressing our appreciation to the law's co-authors CM Richard Alarcon and CM Tony Cardenas."
By now you all know that on Tues Oct 7 at 6:30 pm The City Council Personnel Committee is having a special hearing to investigate the vote of no confidence against Ed Boks, General Manager of LAAS and Linda Barth, Assistant General Manager of LAAS. Pretty scary day if you are Ed Boks. Almost as scary as the day in December 2005 when supervisors overseeing NY city animal care and control voted unanimously not to renew Ed Boks' contract.
We all agree that Spay/Neuter is an extraordinarily important subject matter. However, I find it diabolical that since the ordinance passed in Feb of this year and enforced October 1, that out of 31 days in October, the only day Boks finds to have a press conference covering this important ordinance is the morning of the day that his vote of "No Confidence" will be heard by the Personnel Committee.
I guess that is the only way Boks figured out how to look good on the day he will be unmasked.
Madison
Madison's Installment #16
An email from Boks to LAAS staff.
Below is an excessively long email from Ed Boks to his staff, addressing tomorrow's Personnel Committee meeting. In his excessive long Email Boks never acknowledges a single one of the employees' grievances. In fact, in reading his e mail one gets the impression that he is looking forwards to tomorrow evening and is inviting the staff to air their grievances.
Boks has apparently forgotten that the vote of no conference was initially signed written and delivered in March 2008. So Boks has been aware of this for at least 7 months.
Boks writes this fluff to his own staff, who work at LAAS and know very well the facts of LAAS. Boks tells them things like that they work in new shelters and that they almost lost their jobs due to the budget shortfall. They already know these things. The only reason Boks would review the obvious for them is his insulting attempt to placate and manipulate the employees by adding his P.R. gloss while ignoring their ongoing grievances.
Boks often speaks of "transparency". What is transparent in this e mail is Boks' panic, fearing a reprise of the same embarrassment he faced in 2005 when NY opted not to renew his contract.
More important, Boks/Barth have heard these complaints throughout their tenure. They has proven to employees and the humane community and many city officials that they are unwilling or unable to get the job done.
It is time to stop giving grace periods to management that has proven incapable of change.
Madison
From: Ed Boks
Subject: State of the Department - Please share with all employees
Date: Mon, 06 Oct 2008 09:01:43 -0700
As you know, Tuesday evening Council Member Zine is chairing a public hearing of the City Council Personnel Committee and on the agenda Mr. Zine is providing an opportunity to hear from employees, volunteers and members of the public on their concerns with the Department and with me personally. I want all employees to feel free to attend this meeting to speak their mind openly and honestly.
On the following Thursday morning, (Oct. 9th) I and my AGMs will be meeting with the Mayor's Office and Union officials to discuss an action plan for addressing your concerns. It is important to me that we identify problems, confirm facts, and resolve whatever differences may exist among us - and that we continue to work as a team.
I want to thank those of you who have taken advantage of discussing and forwarding your ideas and suggestions for making LA Animal Service a better, more responsive organization.
I also want to encourage those of you who have been reluctant to share your thoughts and ideas, to please do so. We are a team and we can only be more successful with your input and participation in the process.
I continue to have an open door policy and have made it even easier several weeks ago with a feature on the Intranet where you can contact me directly and anonymously if doing so in that manner will permit you to speak more freely and make you feel more comfortable in the process.
As a team we have made LA Animal Services the number one municipal pet adoption agency in the world. Each of your efforts to help promote our adoption program is greatly appreciated.
As a team we are now responsible for enforcing a historic spay/neuter ordinance designed to help reduce our shelter over crowding, especially with respect to neonates.
As a team we have moved into our new and remodeled Animal Care Centers. We have identified the issues that came from moving into new facilities and we have worked together to overcome many of them and we will continue to collaborate together to make these Centers the most welcoming, customer- friendly adoption centers in the nation, in addition to being pleasant places to work.
While we have one of the lowest euthanasia rates in the nation we are seeing an up tick in euthanasia for the first time in several years as a result of the housing/economic crisis. We are working hard to develop programs to stem the tide of relinquished pets and will continue to develop programs to help reduce these numbers. Concerned members of the humane and business communities are lending a hand to those efforts.
With the support of the Mayor and the City Council - indeed, at their insistence - we have continued the difficult task of moving our Department toward a future in which euthanasia truly is the option of last resort in managing the population in our Animal Care Centers. The work you've all done to make that happen is greatly appreciated and I know you share the Department's commitment to continuing that progress in a practical, realistic manner. Even if there occasionally will be moments when things aren't going as well as we prefer, turning the clock back is not an option.
This past budget cycle was very difficult, and the fear of impending layoffs was palpable and demoralizing. Thankfully, layoffs have been averted after a strong collaborative effort by management, staff, the unions, our commission and our constituents to convince decision makers that any layoffs would be detrimental to the fundamental welfare of the animals and people we care about and for. We are grateful to the Mayor and the City Council for being responsive to our shared concerns.
One need only read the newspaper to know we're not out of the woods yet for future budget years but, with your help Department management will keep making the case that each and every one of you makes a crucial contribution to providing the public and our animals with the service they require and deserve. We are also reaching out in a variety of directions to identify ideas and sources for enhanced revenues to support you and our Department's work.
While it may appear to be a time of unprecedented division within our Department I remain confident that our best days are before us. We have assembled, and will continue to assemble, a truly world class animal welfare organization. While there may be some disagreement regarding direction we are clearly moving forward and my door remains open for constructive dialogue. It is important that we all continue to strive together to be more professional and worthy of the trust put in us by our constituents.
Sincerely,
Ed Boks
General Manager
LA Animal Services
221 N. Figueroa, Suite 500
LA CA 90012
Phone: 213.482.9558
Fax: 213.482.9511
www.laanimalservices.com
Madison's Installment - December 17, 2008
It's a Puppy Mill Christmas for Ed!
But not for the puppies or animals of LAAS.
By now many of you have heard that LAAS is having a special adoption event at the East Valley shelter for 10 overseas puppy mill puppies confiscated on June 30, 2008.
http://www.laanimalservices.
What most of you do not know is that these animals were released from quarantine on November 5, 2008, which means all ten were legally available for adoption six weeks before Ed Boks is releasing them for adoption. Ed Boks will be keeping these ten tiny puppies for six unnecessary weeks in LAAS shelters. Why? Simple!
These pups became available election week, with news of the poor economy flooding the airways. The chance of getting these pups adopted was great, but by holding them for six more weeks in shelter cages until the Saturday before Christmas, Ed Boks could sell the ten for top dollar. We all know that even a failing economy will not stop determined parents from buying the perfect gift for the holidays for their youngsters. Boks will hit the pocket of the vulnerable consumer looking for the perfect gift to give their children on Christmas.
Ed claims that his reasoning that LA Animal Services is utilizing the City ordinance required adoption-auction process to help ensure that the new owner/guardians of these puppies will have sufficient financial means to afford the medical costs they are likely to incur over the lifetime of these animals.
Ed's reasoning is absurd. Since when does buying a dog for a high price equate to being a responsible owner? How many owner turn-in animals were bought in pet stores for a hefty price? If the puppies have medical and behavioral issues as Boks says, then why is the highest bidder the best home instead of screening for a home that understands a dog's medical and behavioral needs and has a stress-free home in which the puppies can acclimate after being deprived of socialization for so long? This is just another one of Ed Boks' methods of rationalizing his indifference to animals and his need for maximum media attention. It also helps him earn some extra money to cover up for the fact that he has still done nothing to increase LAAS' net licensing revenue.
Ten young pups have been living in city shelter cages since June 2008, yet Mr. Boks chose to keep them an extra six weeks in order to exploit them and to exploit Los Angeles public by withholding their sale until the time of year when more people are willing to pay a higher price. So there the ten puppies sit since June with no chance of foster or adoption per Ed Boks , no socialization other than shelter employees, not running around and playing during their formative months.
Why were these puppies not fostered in homes these last five months? Because Ed Boks was worried that the fosters would not return them once they became available. That would mean he could not increase his revenue and, more importantly, he could not be on TV. What does this say about Ed Boks' management if he does not trust himself to be able to get back his own fostered animals.
What is even more concerning is that as of this evening there are 250 puppies in LAAS. I can assure you they have not received the care that these ten "jetsetter" (Boks' term) puppies have gotten. Take a look at the puppy mill pictures (by a professional whose website is in the photo corner) and compare them to the approximately 250 puppies residing at LAAS as of this evening.
http://www.laanimalservices.
http://www.laanimalservices.
To add insult to injury, Ed Boks' self-serving plan also misses a great opportunity to save lives throughout all LAAS shelters. Ed Boks has all 10 puppies at one shelter. The problem is, he should have put some of the puppies in each shelter. This way, when the advertised puppy or puppies at each shelter gets adopted, all those adopters who were not the highest bidder will look around the shelter and fall in love with one of the 250 other LAAS puppies or 1,200 dogs and save one of those. This would give EVERY dog at EVERY shelter a chance to be seen and saved. But, by having all puppies at one shelter and thereby driving more bidders to the same location, the price will be bid up higher and Ed Boks will make more money. More puppies and dogs will die than had Ed done it right, but that is not Ed Boks' concern. Ed Boks will have taken more money from the public, and Ed Boks would have had all the media cameras at the same location where he could pretend to be the hero.
Your mixed up priorities let the animals down again. Merry Christmas Ed.
Madison