Madison's IMPORTANT REMINDER
Jan. 27 is City Council Personnel Committe meeting on Boks and Barth
This is the best chance we will ever have to replace Ed Boks and Linda Barth at LAAS.
Councilman Dennis Zine has arranged for the second part of the City Council Personnel Committee Meeting on Ed Boks and Linda Barth. Last time the employees spoke. This time, the public will have a chance to tell the Personnel Committee what we see is really going on at LAAS.
I know that many of you have been disenchanted by how long it has taken for this meeting to be scheduled. Some of you have understandably given up hope. However, I urge you to be at the meeting to join LAAS Staff and members of the rescue community. We keep wishing they would know what we know. Please be there and help tell them.
The City Council Personnel Committee meeting will be held at
3:00 p.m., this Tuesday January 27th.
The location is:
Los Angeles City Hall
200 N Spring Street, Room 1050 on the 10th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90012
If you need FREE parking, call your City Council office, or you can take the Metro.
Madison
Madison's Installment #17
Do you still think Boks/Barth should run LAAS?
Watch the city council video if you still think that Boks/Barth are competent in running LAAS.
http://lacity.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=130&clip_id=5444
Follow the link to watch the City Council Meeting for 03-27-09.
Jump to: Item 19 and watch.
Boks/Barth portion will begin around 1:53.
Boks/Barth explained to city council that their only choices were to either cut spay/neuter programs or lay-off employees, but that Boks had been told already not to lay off the employees who take care of the animals. It is true that cutting employees who take care of the animals is out of the question. What Boks fails to consider is that he is the only GM in LAAS history who has two AGM's. Each one of Boks' AGMs earns approximately $150,000 salary, and with benefits about $200,000 each year. By laying off one AGM, Boks can put back $200,000 worth of spay/neuter immediately.
Madison
Madison's Installment #18
Boks claims that City Council made him stop the Spay/Neuter Voucher program
This is the latest demonstration of Boks' inate inability to manage his department and tell the truth.
Remember March 27, 2009 council meeting where the council people were livid with Boks for his spay/neuter voucher fiasco. Well, according to Lori Golden, publisher of the well known and helpful "The Pet Press" magazine, Boks claims the council people made him do it. Yes, you heard right, once again Boks blames someone else for his abysmal managerial judgment, protesting "they made me do it". Below is a copy of the article which appears in March 2009 issue of The Pet Press.
Madison
From The Editor
The Economy's Affect On LA City's
Spay/Neuter Voucher Program
When I created The Pet Press almost ten years ago, one of my missions was to promote spaying and neutering. In my first issue - August, 1999 - I had a list of twenty humane organizations participating in the city's spay/neuter discount coupon program, dispensing coupons worth $20 towards a cat steril and $30 for a dog.
Lately I have had to temporarily suspend my "Who's Reading The Pet Press" photo contest due to financial reasons as I try to keep the number of pages DOWN in my recent issues. This issue looked as if I was going to have to increase my page count until I received notice on March 10 that the city was discontinuing the Discount Spay/Neuter Coupon program "for the remainder of this fiscal year which ends June 30,2009.
I then received a statement issued by LA General Manager Ed Boks which, in part, said, "Most recently, the City Council directed the Department to make up a deficit in our Salaries Account understand this would require further reductions to our spay/neuter funding." He goes on to write, "Another $150,000 has been identified through belt-tightening in our expense accounts. With an alarming increase in the number of dogs and cats entering the City's system in 2008 we need to maintain staffing levels to ensure the health, safety, and welfare of animals and people in the City of Los Angeles. Since we cannot afford to lay any employees off and our attrition rate is very low our only recourse is to make up the remaining $150,000 deficit through another reduction in our spay/neuter coupon and mobile programs...This being the case, the Department is suspending the distribution of all $30 discount and $70 free coupons at this time. We are taking this step because there is a reasonable expectation that the City may cut our spay/neuter funding for some or all of the remaining fiscal year."
I must admit I was shocked with this turn of events, for when the city passed its mandatory spay/neuter law last October officials made it very clear that these surgeries would be subsidized by the Spay/Neuter Discount Coupon program.
On March 12, at the grand opening of Woof Worx, the new humane pet store in Beverly Glen (formerly Pets of Bel Air) I ran into Mr. Boks. Wanting to be sure I had the correct information, out of curiosity I asked him whose decision it was to suspend the s/n discount coupon program. He told me point blank that it was the City Council's decision. When I mentioned I did not see that specifically in his ‘statement' he released a few days earlier, he said, "I chose my words very carefully, as I have to anytime I write something like that."
However, a few moments later I spoke to another person who said it was NOT the City Council's decision; that they had no idea the program was being suspended until they heard about it from their constituents.
This was confirmed at the Public Safety Committee meeting on March 23, where numerous City Council members "rebuked Mr. Boks, as it recommended resurrecting the city's $150,000 spay-neuter voucher program."
"You acted first before consulting anyone," councilman Jack Weiss said, "If you had asked us if you should cut this, we would have said no."
According to reports, Boks acknowledged that he went about the situation the wrong way. "I am not disputing what the committee is saying and I take it seriously," Boks said.
Prior to Ed Boks becoming General Manager of the department, there have been others who proceeded him. I could be wrong, but I don't believe any of them had an Assistant General Manager. Ed Boks now has two. Perhaps some of his budget cuts could come from right under his nose?
While the City Council is scheduled to consider a motion to reinstate the s/n program this Friday, (March 27), I had no choice but to delete ALL of the information from this issue - the coupons for feral cats are still valid - thus keeping my page count down.
By the way, if you visit Facebook on the internet, do a search for The Pet Press.
We now have our very own fan page, so come on by!
'Til Next Time'
Lori Golden
March, 2009