Item 13 - OC Grand Jury's Investigative Report, Findings, and Recommendations Regarding Group Homes and the Orange County Animal Care Shelter

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Gimme Shelter and a Pound of Advice their staff provide direct care to their animals. At OCAC, only 15% of staff provide direct care. The Grand Jury recommends a review of the current allocation of positions within OCAC. OCAC has 137 budgeted staff positions of which only 21 positions provide direct care to the animals. Assigning adequate resources to the direct care of the animals must be a priority as the health and welfare of the animals is the shelter's primary charge. The current allocation of Animal Care Attendant positions is insufficient. Communication The shelter's organizational challenges are numerous; many challenges are systemic, but some are self-inflicted. With many constituents, such as shelter staff, volunteers, rescue organizations, and the public at large, robust communication programs are essential to addressing the concerns and needs of both internal and external audiences. -Collaboration and communication within the shelter are lacking. Departments within the shelter are siloed. Staff within departments focus solely on their duties and responsibilities -and are not encouraged to think of their efforts as being part of a "Big Picture." Morale is reported to be low. Workplace rules and position classifications tend to discourage a collaborative mindset. In March 2015, the Orange County Office of the Performance Director issued a report on the OCAC. The OC Auditor noted that, among other things, the shelter was not holding regular "all -hands" staff meetings. The Auditor recommended that the shelter hold meetings at least every quarter. The 2014/2015 Orange County Grand Jury report of the OCAC made the same recommendation. The response from OCAC to this Grand Jury report was that all -hands meetings were implemented. However, all -hands meetings currently do not occur at any regularly scheduled interval. Although shelter staff have a general sense of shelter operations and functions, the shelter is a siloed work environment. Without regularly scheduled all -hands meetings, staff have little opportunity to hear and be heard by shelter leadership and for management to communicate a consistent message. -Shelter-volunteers are limited to a program that effectively segregates them from shelter staff and management. Volunteers have little to no voice or effective input into the shelter's decision hierarchy. Policies and Procedures The Grand Jury found. that the shelter's Policies and Procedures manual does not undergo regular internal review. There are policies and procedures in the manual that do not reflect current shelter practices. Additionally, there are important shelter practices and functions that are not addressed or are inadequately documented within the manual. There are some policies and procedures in the manual addressing programs that are no longer relevant or --where the manual describes practices that are outdated. It is evident some policies and procedures in the manual have from time to time been inserted or revised, but those cases appear to be done on an ad -hoc basis and are not methodical. Individual policies and procedures documented in the manual are annotated with the date they became effective and, when applicable, revised. However, there is nothing to ORANGE COUNTY GRAND JURY 2022 1 2023 PAGE 16 OF 51