HomeMy WebLinkAboutCorrespondence - #13 Orozco, Norma
From: Alex Brown <
Sent: Sunday, August 13, 2023 1:41 PM
To: eComment
Subject: Agenda item #13 - August 15
The city cannot trust OC Animal Care. The shelter just retracted and replaced its 1 st Quarter statistics. Their
statistics page now states:
'An incorrect version of the 2023 1st Quarter Shelter Statistics report was posted on April 26, 2023. It has been
replaced with the correct information as of 811112023. "
https://ocpetinfo.com/about-us/shelter-statistics
These are the shelter's main statistics. They took action only when an advocate presented iron-clad proof that
the statistics were made up. You can find the details in Voice of OC:
https://voiceo foc.org/2023/08/lawther-oc-animal-care-is-unable-to-keep-track-of-its-animals/
It's worth asking the county:
- Is it up to ordinary citizens to discover the errors in a county agency's key report and then patiently wait for
dismissive county managers to take the evidence seriously?
- Why should the public trust any numbers put out by the shelter? In most cases, OCAC is unable to back up its
claims with any details, data, or calculations.
- Why are the 2nd Quarter statistics (April-June) not available? (All other area shelters put them out weeks
ago.)
- Is an audit going to be ordered?
- The OCAC Assistant Director(and current interim director) led the production of the wrong statistics. Isn't it
risky to trust her next round of statistics?
i
Orozco, Norma
From: Michael Mavrovouniotis <
Sent: Sunday, August 13, 2023 12:14 PM
To: eComment
Subject: Agenda item #13 (August 15, 2023)
To keep its costs under control,the city should:
[R14] Urge OCAC to reopen the kennels and speed up adoptions.
[R6] Pursue the Joint Powers Authority in order to protect its budget in the long-term.
While the county makes all the decisions,the cities bear 93%of the costs. The county is indifferent to the consequences of their policies,because the county
not footing the bill. It's up to the cities to protect themselves and their taxpayers.
During the pandemic,fewer animals were coming into the shelter,mitigating the negative impact of bad policies. But now the numbers are returning to pre-
pandemic levels,and the full impact of OCAC's bad policies will fall on the cities.
The increase in costs to the cities is driven by the increase in length of stay,which is the consequence of the bad adoption policies.
If we compare FY 2021-22 to FY 2018-19,we see that:
• The number of animals coming in dropped by 37%
• Admin costs increased by 15%.
• Net cost per intake increased by 69%. This is not caused by inflation(the Consumer Price Index increased by only 11%).
• The cost increase is caused by the fact that the shelter is too slow in getting animals adopted. With each animal staying longer,the shelter is
warehousing more animals,and all expenses increase accordingly.
This is what the Assistant Director of OC Community Resources(Cymantha Atkinson)wrote on November 14,2018(emphasis added): "[The OCAC
director]can fill you in on the essential component that play groups play inaccurate dog evaluation and expedited dog placement.Both these factors
decrease length of stay in the shelter which serves our primary goal of providing excellent animal care while simultaneously reducing the financial impact to
our partner cities.[The director]can also point to other shelters nationwide that implement this best practice."
OCAC forgot its responsibility to the cities and is keeping pandemic-era policies in place. OCAC and the county don't care about the fmancial impact of their
bad policies,because they're just passing the costs to the cities. The cities are told the increase is driven by external factors(inflation,intakes)when in reality
it's driven by bad policies and bad management.
DIRECTLY FROM OCAC STATISTICS FY 2018-19 FY 2021-22 Change
Intakes(animals coming in) 14,453 9,113 -37%
Shelter Services Count(Total Days of Stay) 198,749 195,239
Shelter Services Cost 5,514,047.46
5,315,838.60
Admin Cost 2,480,780.48
2,852,173.02
Shelter Services Revenue (876,236.30)
(1,142,023.31
Animal License Revenue (229,568.73) (233,651.92)
Admin Revenue (18,679.41) 5,094.46
DERIVED FROM THE ABOVE FY 2018-19 FY 2021-22 Change
STATISTICS
Net Cost(excluding License Revenue) 6,834,125 7,296,870
Net Cost per Intake 473 801 69%
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Service Count per Intake 13.8 21.4 56%
Net Cost per Service Count 34.4 37.4 9%
For Reference:Consumer Price Index 253.3 282.0 11%
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