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Back to Monica's (mis)statements to the Board of Supervisors: So we do have a number of positions that handle animals at the shelter, roughly about 90 out of 137. Animal Care Attendant is just one of many classifications that assist with the care of animals on our property. Fine. But that's NOT what the Grand Jury is asking for a follow-up response onto their Findings 3 and 4. Board of Supervisors: We know you rely on shelter leadership to provide you with accurate information. However, it's bold language to use but you've been lied to. Monica has done what she does best and told you a story about staffing that simply isn't true. We're sad to say that Monica's primary focus is shelter PR, not actually running the shelter and doing what needs to be done. The consultants who developed the Strategic Plan are national experts. They know full well that many other staff interact with the animals. They made recommendations about other staffing issues. But know that when these national experts talk about ACAs, they mean ACAs. These national experts' calculations are based on national standards about basic care provided by ACAs. To continue with the (mis)information Monica provided to the BOS on August 13tn: ... The other thing this report didn't necessarily have the ability to add in is the robust volunteer program that we also have with a number of community supporters. we had nearly 400 volunteers the first six months of this year alone. The last quarter, that equated to about 15.7 full time positions in addition to what our staff does to support the animals. And so we really have taken a look at its a multi -faceted review, not a singular classification review of where we say we have enough staff to care for the animals. Wow. Let's clarify: volunteers are not staff and we are limited in the tasks we can perform (feeding is staff only, volunteers are not allowed to run big dog play groups, volunteers are not allowed to handle adoption visits with members of the public, and we have other restrictions on what we can do at the shelter). In addition, OC Animal Care is a unionized worksite. Is Monica saying she doesn't have to hire people because she can just count volunteers as staff? This suggestion is unacceptable, as the unions would undoubtedly agree. Further, we can wholeheartedly tell you there are nowhere CLOSE to 400 volunteers who participate on a regular basis to even consider as daily support. We suspect she is counting some people who never even touch an animal, such as those volunteers who come in just to help with laundry or one-time volunteers who show up for a few hours to volunteer at the monthly Pet Food Pantry and are never seen again. However, Monica has a penchant for making up numbers. The consultants that developed the Strategic Plan know full well that the shelter has volunteers. They gave recommendations about the volunteer program as well. When they arrived at the number of ACAs (26 present per day, implying 52+ positions) they were NOT mixing ACAs and volunteers. They knew that volunteers would be helping in other ways (walks, yard time). Monica is either utterly ignorant or knows full well and is choosing to lie to you.