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Hall, Jennifer From:Karen Vaughn <wiscoblonde13@gmail.com> Sent:Tuesday, February To:eComment Subject:Fwd: Public Comment to City Council (OC Register article on OC Animal Care) Attention: This email originated from outside of City of Santa Ana. Use caution when opening attachments or links. Did you happen to see the article in the OC Register? I've posted the link below, with excerpts, in case you didn't see it. Why is the county not applying the Strategic Plan that we, the city taxpayers, have already paid for? We don’t want any more of our money spent on a worthless “new” plan. And seriously, why sign another 10- year contract with the county on the basis of a “new” plan, given that they didn’t respect the last one. What would that do? If the county wants another contract from the cities, it should promise, in writing, to follow the existing Strategic Plan we already paid for. Sincerely, Karen Vaughn OC Register: New plan for OC Animal Care: To boost survival, or dampen expectations? https://www.ocregister.com/2025/02/16/new-plan-for-oc-animal-care-to-boost-survival-or-dampen- expectations/ Excerpts: After all, JVR did the 2018 plan for a meaty $435,000; Mavrovouniotis and others don’t understand exactly why a new plan is needed at all. “We don’t need a revision of the strategic plan, we need implementation of the one we have,” he said. The No. 1 goal was this: “Every animal in the shelter receives daily, varied enrichment.” Success meant that 100% of all healthy, friendly dogs were in daily playgroups, and got in-kennel enrichment tailored for their needs; and that every adoptable cat was taken out of its housing for enrichment at least three times a week, and that all cats got enrichment tailored for their daily needs. That hasn’t exactly come to pass. Where are the regular public measures showing progress toward these goals? Where are the strategies to meet them? Those have been hard to come by, and the shelter’s critics fear a new update will lead to a weaker, rather than stronger, plan for saving animals. Boyer suspects that the other organizations knew there’s nothing wrong with the original plan and didn’t bid because they didn’t think they could do much better. “As a taxpayer, we have already wasted $500,000 on a strategic plan that was approved already. Why do we have to waste yet more money on a weakened, less effective plan that is not as thorough and won’t achieve very much at all and will lessen standards at the shelter further?” One potential bidder — who was initially excited about the contract — had heard rumors of dysfunction at OCAC and decided to bow out. “It seems like they need a lot more than strategic planning there,” said the non-bidder, who asked not to be named. “A strategic plan is for when you have an idea of where you want to go and you need a road map of 1