Letters from the Public — Neighborhood Services and Education Committee (nse), November 14, 2024

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Neighborhood Services and Education Council Meeting Re: The ACS Audit From Jenna Skinner
Date Tue 11/12/2024 11:33 PM
To Tubera, Katerina <[email protected]>
Cc Sustain Our Shelters
Please distribute my comment to the mayor and council.

The ACS Audit
Finding Number 1
The High Volume of Animals Impacts ACS’ Ability to Provide Daily Care and Affects Staff Morale The number of animals housed at the shelter impacts staff’s workload. Based on ACS estimates and industry standards for time spent on daily tasks, care attendants would not have enough time to meet the feeding and cleaning needs of all the animals housed at the shelter when it is over capacity. When the animal population exceeds staff’s capacity to meet each animal’s needs, ACS compromises the physical health and overall welfare of each animal.

In November 2023, Gatos de la Noche (GDLN) initiated a trap-neuter-return (TNR) program at Educare, a local childcare facility, to address a growing cat population. As part of this effort, three young kittens were rescued and brought to the San José Animal Care Center (SJACC) in December 2023.

Despite assurances from SJACC staff that the kittens would be placed in foster care, GDLN later discovered that the kittens were scheduled for TNR. Alarmed by this decision, given the kittens' age and potential for socialization, GDLN retrieved the kittens.

Upon retrieving the kittens, GDLN was shocked to find one kitten, Butters, severely malnourished and ill.

Medical records (see examples provided) revealed that Butters had been lethargic and had exhibited symptoms of an upper respiratory infection (URI). However, he received inadequate veterinary care, including delayed treatment and insufficient medication. Butters had lost 10 ounces in the 11 days he was there. He went in healthy at 30.4 ounces and when we rescued him and his siblings he was sick and weighed 20.4 ounces. It was obvious no one was observing him and making sure he was eating. How does a kitten lose a third of his body weight and no one notice? This incident underscores systemic issues within SJACC, including inadequate capacity and subpar animal care. The proposed year-long timeline for implementing changes is insufficient, as it could lead to the unnecessary suffering and death of countless animals. In FY 2023-2024 493 cats died in SJACC's care.They are on pace to the same this year.

GDLN calls for urgent action to address these problems and ensure that all animals in SJACC's care receive the compassion and care they deserve.

Jenna Skinner
Director
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Animal Care & Services item NSE comment
From Sustain Our Shelters
Date Wed 11/13/2024 11:10 AM
To Tubera, Katerina <[email protected]>
1 attachment (83 KB)
Cameron Moore 1.16.2024.pdf;
Dear City Councilmembers,
On the agenda today is the audit performed by City Auditor Joe Rois and his team. It is an audit that is terribly condemning of the current management team and it largely confirms the concerns that the Community has been sharing with you for the past two plus years. These concerns have unfortunately been tragically ignored.

Last December, Deputy Director Jay Terrado and Director Kiska Icard said that they would "reengage" with rescue partners after Mr. Terrado had admitted that they had "neglected" them in 2023 . . . using a manufactured false narrative about how the Maddie's Fund Audit of August of 2022 had "found the shelter to be out of balance with other live outcomes and over-reliant on rescues" and thus serving as the catalyst for he and his team to pivot-away from using rescues partners to get cats out of the shelter ASAP.

However, there is nowhere in that 44-page audit by Maddie's Fund lead shelter consultant Cameron Moore that remotely suggests such a finding. Moreover, Jay Terrado and Kiska Icard clearly failed to re-engage with rescue partners this year. Sadly, yet another false promise. See attached.

Cat Rescue as a Percentage of Intake YOY
CY 2023: 6,349 / 600 = 9.4%*
CY 2024: 6,556 / 764 = 11.6%*
The last time SJACS was a No Kill Shelter for Cats was back in FY 2020-2021 (>90% Live Release Rate).

This was when the budget was $8.7 million.

In FY 2020-2021 it was able to achieve a 90% LRR and did so with a Rescue Participation Rate of 37.8%.

The recipe for Live Release Rate (LRR) success at San Jose is no secret.

It simply comes down to using Rescue Partners!
While the LRR for Dogs is at 93% for both the current calendar and fiscal year (largely because of a volunteer by the name of Dawn Piazza who has outperformed full-time paid staff by 300% in dog rescue placement), the LRR for Cats for the current fiscal year thru October (79%) continues to stagnate at the same 78 - 79% level of the previous two fiscal years. There has literally been no material improvement in 2024 as promised by Deputy Director Terrado and Director Icard.

The bottom line is that the shelter continues to offer the community fewer and fewer services (no low cost spay/neuter, no "trap neuter release" (TNR), no outreach) with poorer live outcomes and results, on a budget of $15.4 million.

Just what are taxpayers and the community receiving for $15.4 million a year? 2023 - 2024 fiscal year:

Cat Intake: 7,530 Cat Rescue: 822 Rescue as a Percentage of Intake: 10.9% LRR: 78% Dog Intake: 4,147 Dog Rescue: 461 LRR: 92%
_______________________
Total: 11,290
Previous 2022 - 2023 fiscal year:

Cat Intake: 5,944** Cat Rescue: 1,134 Rescue as a Percentage of Intake: 19.1% LRR: 79%
Dog Intake: 3,709 Dog Rescue: 357 LRR: 95%
_________________________
Total: 9,653
Previous 2021 - 2022 fiscal year:

Cat Intake: 9,832 Cat Rescue: 2,590 Rescue as a Percentage of Intake: 26.3% LRR:
88%
Dog Intake: 3,639 Dog Rescue: 629 LRR: 96%
___________________________
Total: 13,471
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Previous 2020 - 2021 fiscal year:

Cat Intake: 9,958 Cat Rescue: 3,763 Rescue as a Percentage of Intake: 37.8% LRR:
90%
Dog Intake: 2,911 Dog Rescue: 1,006 LRR: 96%
___________________________________
Total: 12,869
Cats Died in the care 2020 - 2021 FY: 111
Cats Died in the care: 2021 - 2022 FY: 144
Cats Died in the care: 2022 - 2023 FY: 321
Cats Died in the care: 2023 - 2024 FY: 493***
Cats Died in the care: 2024 - 2025 FY: 129****
* Note: Based on monthly intake numbers from the SJACS Public Dashboard ** Lowest number on record for the past 5 or more fiscal years. *** A record.
*** 2024 - 2025 FY thru October (4-months)
Thank you for reading my email, which I hope has enlightened you as to the plight of shelter animals.

Rebekah Davis-Matthews
Sustain Our Shelters
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Gatos de la Noche
Outlook
Animal shelter
From Lisa Rocha
Date Wed 11/13/2024 9:19 PM
To Tubera, Katerina <[email protected]>
I’m a community member that is deeply concerned about what is happening and not happening at the shelter. Clearly there is a crisis happening and nothing is being done to address it.

A few years ago the shelter offered low cost spay/neuter services which helped eliminate unplanned litters. This program needs to be reinstated.

There needs to be a moratorium on breeders licenses
All animals should be spayed/neutered before being returned to family, sent to rescue or adopted The city should look into setting up satellite locations for dog overflow instead of killing sentient beings Unfortunately when you have unqualified people in management positions running the shelter with untrained/unqualified staff the animals are the ones who suffer.

L Rocha
Sent from my iPhone
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Questions for 11/14 NSE Meeting
From Rebecca Thorp
Date Thu 11/14/2024 12:05 AM
To Tubera, Katerina <[email protected]>
Good evening,
These questions are related to the release of the audit of San Jose Animal Care Services.

Who holds the shelter accountable to the deadlines agreed upon in the audit? The audit documents a multitude of issues that clearly depict a lack of leadership. What is being done about the way the shelter is managed? Without a change in management, change cannot be counted on as the majority of these issues have been brought up for years and been ignored by management.

Committees have even been created and fallen to the wayside and promises of improvement and change left unfulfilled. What change in leadership is being made now to ensure the goals of the audit are fulfilled?
Thank you.

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November 12, 2024
To: Neighborhood Services and Education Committee
Re: Reports to Committee - San José Animal Care and Services Audit Report:

ANIMAL CARE & SERVICES: ADDRESSING CAPACITY CONSTRAINTS AND UPDATING SHELTER

PROTOCOLS WILL HELP IMPROVE ANIMAL OUTCOMES
The audit validates the concerns the community has expressed to the Neighborhood Services and Education Committee (NSE) for many years. It confirms that:
➢ Animal Care and Services (ACS) has insufficient resources ➢ There are gaps in management practices
➢ External resources are not being utilized effectively ➢ The care of animals has been negatively affected
While the audit is a good first step in solving these problems, it fails to address some critical issues. In addition, many of ACS’s responses to the audit recommendations propose developing a plan and have a target date of December 2025. Actual implementation of the proposed plan would depend on budget approval in the FY26/27 budgeting process. If approved, funds would not be available, and implementation could not begin until July of 2026, more than 19 months from now. The shelter’s problems are too severe to wait that long; the shelter is in crisis now. Animal care is compromised, community needs are not being met, and the population of animals is growing exponentially. ACS responses that depend on budget approval for implementation must be available for consideration in the FY25/26 budget cycle.
● Recommendations #1 & #2 - Shelter Capacity
Recommendations concerning current capacity, future demand, and required resources should be expanded.

ACS’s capacity assessment and determination of future demand require a comprehensive approach that includes community services and needs beyond kennel space. This assessment should reflect the types of requested services ACS cannot provide, such as animals turned away or calls to ACS that are not answered, and incorporate feedback on unmet community needs. For example, ACS should analyze data on services such as calls for stray animal pickups and requests for TNR support that currently go unmet.

If capacity planning is limited to only in-house needs, critical services are overlooked, like TNR, which doesn’t rely on traditional kenneling but is an essential aspect of capacity management. 1 We ask the committee to recommend that ACS conduct a broad survey of the community’s needs and priorities similar to that undertaken by the City of Austin Animal Services.1 ACS should integrate these findings into future demand2 and resource planning, as required by recommendation #2.

ACS has proposed a target date of December 2025 to evaluate its current capacity, forecast future demand, and identify the resources required to meet that demand. This timeline is unacceptable, given the shelter’s crisis. ACS should already be aware of its capacity of care, even if it has chosen to exceed that number in response to an increased animal population. ACS must determine and disclose its current capacity for care in its December 2024 annual report, allowing NSE and the community to understand the immediate limitations.

Forecasting future demand and necessary resources is a standard part of the budgeting process and is required to justify requests for budget increases. ACS should complete this analysis to support its budget request for FY 25/26 and continue performing these evaluations for subsequent budget cycles. *Note that using the Human Animal Support Services (HASS) Budget Calculator, the estimated budget for ACS should be over $22M3
Recommendation #4 - Kitten Intake Policy
The recommendation to change ACS policy on newborn kitten intake should require community input and the creation of alternative pathways.

Phasing out newborn kitten intake from ACS services requires careful consideration. This would be a significant policy change that should involve community and partner input, as it shifts the burden of care onto a community that depends on the shelter to provide these services during kitten season. The recommendation only requires the shelter to determine whether it has the resources to continue offering this service. The shelter should also be required to develop and fund alternatives with appropriate support to ensure kittens receive the necessary medical care and are eventually neutered to stop overpopulation.
● Recommendation #5 - Community Education
The recommendation should require education on the prevention of overpopulation.

The recommendation to educate the community on treating newborn kittens should require that such education emphasize the importance of prevention, such as neutering kittens and mothers, to prevent overpopulation.
3 HASS Budget Calculator: https://www.humananimalsupportservices.org/the-hass-budget-calculator/ 2 City of Austin Animal Services Office - Community Survey Report 2024: https://publicinput.com/asoplan2024 1 City of Austin Animal Services Office Survey: https://publicinput.com/asosurvey2024_eng 2 ● Recommendation #6 - Pathway Planning
The recommendation should recognize the unique needs of cats.

The recommendation on pathway planning should require the shelter to develop comprehensive criteria for assessing cats for adoption, return-to-field, and suitability for placement in cat garden homes. This approach can provide more transparent and humane outcomes, particularly for community cats.
● Recommendation #9 - Spay/Neuter Services
The audit fails to recognize
(i) the need for the immediate implementation of robust programs for TNR and low-cost spay and neuter services to control demand and
(ii) ACS must increase its internal capacity to provide such services The lack of accessible, affordable spay and neuter options is a critical issue. Demand for TNR services has become overwhelming, with appointments unavailable until 2025. Unless the overpopulation crisis is immediately addressed through a substantial increase in spay and neuter services, the shelter will continue to be overcrowded, reactive, and unable to meet community needs.

Shelter data demonstrates that stray cats and their kittens are the primary drivers of demand for ACS services. The fastest way to lower demand for ACS services is to control the population of stray cats and kittens through robust TNR and low-cost spay and neuter programs.

ACS has attempted to enhance its capacity by utilizing agreements with external vendors; however, it has struggled to make significant progress due to a shortage of available vendors and the difficulties associated with contracting with the city. Therefore, expanding ACS’s in-house spay and neuter capacity is essential.

Recommendation #11- Association of Shelter Veterinarians Guidelines The shelter’s parasite treatment may not be aligned with ASV Guidelines.

The audit did not review the shelter's policy of no flea medication for trap-neuter-return (TNR) cats, even those with lengthy stays. We request that this policy be reviewed to ensure compliance with the ASV recommendations for parasite treatment.
3 Recommendation #19 - Data & Reporting
This recommendation should include a requirement to track and provide information on services requested and not provided.

The recommendation should require ACS to keep records of animals that have been turned away to determine the community’s demand for services accurately. The community has requested this data for multiple years. The shelter has made limited efforts to comply and only made this data available to the community in an unusable handwritten format in response to official data requests. The information provided includes all animals entered on the entry log, including those participating in the Doggy Day Out program. Since the log is handwritten, finding and separating information concerning animals denied services is extremely difficult.

Additionally, we ask for NSE to recommend ACS participate in Shelter Animals Count, a key data source for industry benchmarking that ACS has not contributed to since February of 2023 despite being used as a resource for this audit. 4
Recommendations #22, #23, #24 - Rescue Engagement
The deadline for ACS’s response is too late.

ACS states it will develop a communication protocol and update rescue group contacts by December 2025. Accelerating this process is essential to improving rescue engagement and maximizing live outcomes.

Recommendation #37 - Maddie’s Fund Recommendations
Maddie’s Fund recommendations from July 2022 were provided during an extreme shelter crisis. The proposed Community Action Committee should review these recommendations to identify solutions that enhance and expand ACS services to the community instead of shifting responsibility to the community to limit intake numbers. It is important to understand that simply restricting intake will not resolve capacity issues. Urgently prioritizing spay and neuter efforts is essential to alleviate the pressures on the shelter.

It should be noted that the Maddie’s Fund report highlighted a “community cat program in place for many years supported by stakeholders and residents” as one of ACS’ strengths and recommended a staff coordinator for community cats. Community cats and kittens are the most significant contributors to intake numbers. A staff community cat coordinator would streamline operations, decrease the length of stay for community cats, guide trap-neuter-return volunteers, provide essential communication to the public regarding community cat issues, and support appropriate diversion, accelerating the reduction of the overall burden on the shelter.
4 Shelter Animals Count - Participating Organizations: https://www.shelteranimalscount.org/about-the-data/ 4 Community Action Committee
The purpose of the proposed Community Action Committee must be expanded.

The ongoing crisis regarding ACS shelter capacity necessitates a community-driven response. However, ACS’s proposed Community Action Committee has a limited scope, restricting community input to Recommendations #9, #22, #24, and #36b, which is insufficient. A more effective Community Action Committee would resemble the Task Force on Fees Supporting Parkland Development5 allowing stakeholders to collaborate on developing and implementing ACS’s response to the audit recommendations. This includes spay/neuter services, rescue engagement, and low-cost service options.

Conclusion
The challenges ACS faces are not unique and do not need to be addressed in isolation. We urge NSE to prioritize immediate action by integrating the community into the development of solutions and by ensuring adequate funding in the upcoming budget cycle. We recommend implementing stronger oversight, using an independent third party to facilitate collaboration with the community, and having the city council appoint committee members to the proposed Community Action Committee. We also ask NSE and ACS to consider the strategic planning framework used by the City of Austin's Animal Services Office6 which utilized a third-party facilitator to develop collaborative solutions with the community.
7 Sincerely,
Catherine Valentine
companion & community animal project
7 https://www.austintexas.gov/news/city-austin-launches-animal-services-strategic-plan-survey 6 City of Austin Animal Services Office Strategic Plan: https://www.speakupaustin.org/f6758 5 Fees that Support Parkland Development:
https://www.sanjoseca.gov/your-government/departments-offices/parks-recreation-neighborhood-services/in-the -works/fees-that-support-parkland-development
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Neighborhood Services and Education Committee (NSE) Nov, 14 2024 Comments From Elena Gaffney
Date Thu 11/14/2024 8:05 AM
To Tubera, Katerina <[email protected]>
Hello,

1. Lengthy RFP process within the city prevents professional recruitment:

To address the spay-neuter backlog at the shelter, it may be beneficial to streamline the hiring process for veterinarians through contract or consulting work, enabling qualified professionals to assist without a lengthy Request for Proposal (RFP) process. Many local veterinarians are ready to step in as contractors, coming to the shelter once or twice a week to perform high-volume spay-neuter surgeries.

This approach could significantly reduce the current backlog, which leaves around 50% of shelter animals unaltered and some animals waiting 6–9 months before adoption, often end up euthanized due to mental/behavioral deterioration.

For example, a local DVM is already willing and able to begin work immediately, but the current hiring structure lacks the flexibility to onboard contract veterinarians quickly. M. Loesh noted that due to the city’s lengthy RFP process, they cannot currently hire veterinarians as contractors and are instead trying to recruit part-time employees, a strategy that has yielded limited success.

Other shelters successfully use RFPs to bring in veterinary consultants specifically for high-volume spayneuter services. The City of Hesperia, for instance, has an RFP dedicated to onsite veterinary services:
https://www.cityofhesperia.us/DocumentCenter/View/19330/RFP-2023-24-002-Onsite-VeterinaryServices Santa Clara County also publishes a list of active contracts, including veterinarians who provide spay-neuter services at local shelters as paid contractors, showing that this model is both feasible and effective.

Accelerating the RFP process or allowing direct contracting could enable the shelter to address the backlog more effectively by engaging available local veterinarians ( as well as animal behaviorist, trainer for animals enrichment, evaluation, since animals are kept in back kennels not evaluated for months, are deteriorating while been isolated, are not placed for adoption). This approach would ensure a more animal centered approach, getting them ready for adoption sooner and reduce the extended stays that currently burden the shelter.

2. Public Spay Neuter Priority, to stop surge of animals Small Local Rescues are under increased pressure from the public, asking to solve public spayneuter due to the inability of the shelter to provide low-cost spay neuter and TNR Services for our community.

Just a few years back - Low-cost spay-neuter resources used to be plentiful, and were posted on SJ shelter website. SJ Shelter USED to do a lot of in-house public spay-neuter, plus utilize a wide range of local veterinary clinics to support the population needs:

BEFORE on SJAS website ( currently Terminated):
https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:US:01a1fe19-eacd-4948-91c4-1b4f1f3a2758

3. We would like to extend our gratitude for your proposal to establish a Community Action Committee, in alignment with the recommendations of the City Auditor’s review. This initiative is timely and crucial for addressing the current challenges in our community, and we are eager to support the effort.

We have gathered a list of community members who have expressed strong interest in participating— enthusiasm for this project is high. To proceed effectively, could you please share the criteria for participation? We were unable to locate an existing ordinance specific to San Jose, but we did find a relevant ordinance within Santa Clara County, which may offer a useful framework to consider: Santa Clara County Animal Advisory Commission Ordinance
This message is from outside the City email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources.

We are committed to contributing to solutions for shelter needs and the ongoing community overpopulation crisis. We look forward to collaborating with the city and supporting this important effort.

Please let us know the next steps in moving forward.

Name Address ( City)
Organization/Role ( if
applicable)
Advocate/Shelter
Volunteer/ Community
member
Elena Gaffney San Jose
Angel's Furry Friends
Rescue, 501c3/Founder
Jennifer Flick San Jose
Scritch Kittens,
501c3/Founder
Jenna Skinner San Jose
Gatos De La Noche,
501c3/Director
Ana Spear San Jose SJACC Volunteer
Rebekah DavisMatthews CampbellSustain Our Shelters,
Community Group/ Founder Community Member
Lakshmi Lyer San Jose Community Member
Melissa Snow San Jose Community Member
Dawn Livingston
Newark (work in
SJ) SJACC Foster
Kathy Matzelle San Jose SJACC Volunteer
Ilona Klimenkova San Jose Community Member
Angela Pastor-Davis San Jose Community Member
Thank you,
Elena Gaffney
Angel's Furry Friends Rescue
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Re: Neighborhood Services and Education Committee (NSE) Nov, 14 2024 Comments From Elena Gaffney
Date Thu 11/14/2024 8:13 AM
To Tubera, Katerina <[email protected]>
1 attachment (121 KB)
Y Koshta DVM CV.pdf;
You don't often get email from [email protected]. Learn why this is important My apologies, forgot attachments.

Intake Total: The overall animal intake has fluctuated over the years, peaking in 2018-19 at 18,584 then declining 2021-22 to 15,670 then declining to 11,584 in 2022-23, before increasing again to 13,668 in 2023-24.

Spay-Neuter Total: The number of spay-neuter surgeries performed saw a gradual decline from 10,002 in 2018-19 to 3,480 in 2022-23, before increasing to 4,769 in 2023-24.

Misc Surgery In-House: This category was added in 2020-21, with 136 surgeries that year. The number increased slightly to 212 by 2023-24.

Spay-Neuter Offsite: This service began in 2022-23 with just 1 surgery, rising significantly to 474 in 2023-24.

Spay-Neuter TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return): The TNR surgeries started at 128 in 2018-19, declined in the following years, then surged to 846 in 2022-23, followed by a slight decrease to 769 in 2023-24.

Public Spay-Neuter ("Owned by the Public" Animals): This category saw a sharp decline from 1,916 in 2018-19 to just 2 in 2020-21, with zero entries in the last two years (2022-23 and 2023-24).

Total Spay-Neuter: The total number of spay-neuter surgeries also decreased from 10,002 in 2018-19 to a low of 4,463 in 2022-23, with a slight recovery to 6,224 in 2023-24.

Overall Trends:

There's a general decline in the total spay-neuter numbers until 2022-23, after which it starts to recover slightly. Public spay-neuter for owned animals has declined sharply and then disappeared.

On Thu, Nov 14, 2024 at 8:03 AM Elena Gaffney <[email protected]> wrote:

Hello,

1. Lengthy RFP process within the city prevents professional recruitment:

Other shelters successfully use RFPs to bring in veterinary consultants specifically for high-volume spay-neuter services. The City of Hesperia, for instance, has an RFP dedicated to onsite veterinary services: https://www.cityofhesperia.us/DocumentCenter/View/19330/RFP-2023-24-002-OnsiteVeterinary-Services Santa Clara County also publishes a list of active contracts, including veterinarians who provide spay-neuter services at local shelters as paid contractors, showing that this model is both feasible and effective.

BEFORE on SJAS website ( currently Terminated):
https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:US:01a1fe19-eacd-4948-91c4-1b4f1f3a2758

We have gathered a list of community members who have expressed strong interest in participating— enthusiasm for this project is high. To proceed effectively, could you please share the criteria for participation? We were unable to locate an existing ordinance specific to San Jose, but we did find a relevant ordinance within Santa Clara County, which may offer a useful framework to consider: Santa Clara County Animal Advisory Commission Ordinance
We are committed to contributing to solutions for shelter needs and the ongoing community overpopulation crisis. We look forward to collaborating with the city and supporting this important effort. Please let us know the next steps in moving forward.

Name Address ( City)
Organization/Role ( if
applicable)
Advocate/Shelter
Volunteer/ Community
member
Elena Gaffney San Jose
Angel's Furry Friends
Rescue, 501c3/Founder
This message is from outside the City email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources.

Jennifer Flick San Jose
Scritch Kittens,
501c3/Founder
Jenna Skinner San Jose
Gatos De La Noche,
501c3/Director
Ana Spear San Jose SJACC Volunteer
Rebekah DavisMatthews CampbellSustain Our Shelters,
Community Group/ Founder Community Member
Lakshmi Lyer San Jose Community Member
Melissa Snow San Jose Community Member
Dawn Livingston
Newark (work in
SJ) SJACC Foster
Kathy Matzelle San Jose SJACC Volunteer
Ilona Klimenkova San Jose Community Member
Angela Pastor-Davis San Jose Community Member
Thank you,
Elena Gaffney
Angel's Furry Friends Rescue
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Re: SJACS - City Audit
From M Wagner
Date Wed 11/13/2024 5:33 PM
To Tubera, Katerina <[email protected]>
Cc District5 <[email protected]>; District 6 <[email protected]>; District7 <[email protected]>; District8 <[email protected]>; District 10 <[email protected]>; Mossing, Mackenzie <[email protected]>; Munguia, Emily <[email protected]>; Taber, Toni <[email protected]>
3 attachments (368 KB)
OKR_Q1_Q2_FY2024-2025.PNG; OKR-Q4_FY2023-2024.PNG; Jennifer_Maguire-NoOKRs.PNG;

SUBMITTING FOR THE CITY OF SAN JOSE PUBLIC RECORD
ATTN: Miss Dev Davis, Chairwoman, Neighborhood Services & Education Committee TOPIC: SJACS AUDIT 2024
DATE: 11/13/2024
Dear Chairwoman Davis and City Councilmembers,
As someone that has been involved with the San Jose Animal Care Center since 2018 as a rescue donor and for 3 years as a board member of an authorized 501(c)3 partner of the shelter that operated the SJACS Kitten Foster Program (2019-2021) under the leadership of SJACS veterinarian Dr. Tiva Hoshizaki, I must say that I find the recently released Audit to be a terrible condemnation of the current shelter management team.

For the past 2.5 years, the Community has shared their concerns with top City administrators about a shelter that continually fails to meet the needs of the Community. Moreover, these concerns have repeatedly been deflected, deferred, dismissed, discounted, denied, and flat-out ignored by the SJACS Deputy Director and his Staff, not to mention the City Manager's Office.

Tragically, this Audit by Joe Rois and his team confirms the Community's repeated concerns.

Given that the Audit repeatedly shows that the shelter isn't even in compliance with basic ASV Guidelines, this certainly begs the question why the shelter's three directors and two shelter managers continue to be employed at the City of San Jose. The three Directors are all making well over $200,000 a year and the two shelter managers are making $114,000 a year. And yet over the past 2.5 years, the City Manager and her Deputy haven't replaced a single Director or Shelter Manager.

The fact that the City Manager refuses to find a Deputy Director and management team with the proper skill set is indeed puzzling, if not negligent given the findings of this Audit. The Community has made the City Manager, her Deputy, her Public Works Director and City Councilmembers of the NSE Committee highly aware of just how bad this shelter has been operating over the past 2.5 years with concerns that have been substantiated by data and documentation. This Audit clearly indicates that the SJACS management team has repeatedly failed the Community and the animals in its care and broken the public trust with their sheer incompetence. It's puzzling why the City Manager has essentially chosen to do the same with their inaction and maintenance of the status-quo.

In July of 2022, the Maddie's Fund Audit made 21 recommendations.

Sixteen months later, Public Works Director Matt Loesch stated at the presentation of the FY 2022 - 2023 Annual Report to the NSE Committee in December of 2023, that only 9 of those recommendations had been implemented by his Staff. Interestingly enough, the Audit highlighted these recommendations and stated that some of these 9 recommendations that were claimed to have been implemented by Mr. Loesch and his Staff were merely "considered" and not implemented.

Given that the current management team has repeatedly proven that they have mismanaged the shelter and do not command the proper skill set to even comply with the most basic of ASV Guidelines, it's certainly questionable why anyone would have any confidence that this "team" could implement the 39 recommendations made by the Auditor in a span of 12-months.

If Staff barely completed a "claimed" 9 recommendations from the Maddie's Fund Audit after 16-months, why would anyone think that they could achieve implementing 39 recommendations from the Auditor in 12-months?
Furthermore, a recommendation by the Maddie's Fund Audit to appoint a dedicated Rescue Coordinator has fallen on deaf ears by this management team.

It's been 28-months since this recommendation was made, and yet the shelter still hasn't hired a dedicated full-time Rescue Coordinator even though cat rescue participation as a percentage of intake hit 10.9% for the previous fiscal year and is currently only 11.6% for the first ten months of this year. These are unprecedented poor numbers for rescue partner participation at SJACS. For context, this is a metric that was as high as 37.8% just four years ago when SJACS had last achieved a live release rate (LRR) of 90% and was a No Kill Shelter for cats.

Sadly, rescue partners have literally been driven away from supporting this shelter given the sheer incompetence of its management team.

Moreover, it should not go unnoticed that the current "acting" Deputy Director of SJACS does not have any operations experience on her resume. Her resume largely shows a marketing and public information manager background. Again, I find it highly questionable as to why anyone would place any confidence in this Deputy Director and her Staff and their ability to turn the shelter around and implement 39 recommendations by the City Auditor, given that it has been this very SAME MANAGEMENT TEAM that has placed the shelter in such a harrowing disposition.

Interestingly enough, when conducting a recent public information request for OKR's of this management team, there were no responsive records to my request for the last 9 months.

Even though we are five months into the current fiscal year of 2024-2025, there are no OKR's for Q1 and Q2 of this current fiscal year, nor was there an OKR for Q4 of FY 2023-2024. (see attached)
Nearly a week ago, I reached out to the City Manager and her Deputy via email asking if they were aware of the fact that there were no OKR's for the SJACS Management Team for the past 9 months. Sadly, I failed to receive the courtesy of a reply.

On February 24th, 2023, my animal welfare colleague's and I attended a meeting with Mayor Matt Mahan that had been arranged by Mackenzie Mossing on my behalf. It was at this meeting that Deputy City Manager Rios was in attendance and stated that he would "reengineer" the shelter and that there "was no reason why the San Jose animal shelter could not become a model shelter for the rest of the country."
That was nearly 2 years ago, and the shelter has done nothing since but offer less intake of animals, less services to the Community ( no spay/neuter and no trap-neuter-release ), less live outcomes for the animals in its custody, and more suffering and death for the animals that come into this shelter . . . all on a budget of $15.4 million dollars - - - an increase of 77% from just four years ago.

Make no mistake, this shelter has been terribly mismanaged.

The data confirms this and so does this Audit.

It's high time for the SJACS Management Team to be held accountable and move forward with a new team.

Sincerely,
Michael Wagner

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Outlook
Public Comment: Neighborhood Services and Education Committee (NSE) Nov, 14 2024 From K Up
Date Thu 11/14/2024 10:24 AM
To Tubera, Katerina <[email protected]>
The recent audit has brought to light numerous, long-standing issues that continue to harm the shelter’s most vulnerable—its voiceless animals. Delaying corrective action, even by a single day, means more animals are being needlessly killed in the meantime. Currently, each week, at least four dogs are placed on euthanasia lists, and the community is provided a mere 72 hours to find alternatives. This unreasonably short timeframe leaves the community and volunteers scrambling to advocate, find rescues, fosters, and funding. Many dogs have lost their lives due to such unreasonable constraints.

Social Media:

Volunteers are shouldering the heavy burden of promoting these dogs on their own social media, sharing personal stories, photos, and videos in hopes of reaching adopters and rescues. They network with other groups and organizations to find solutions.

The basic, automated shelter emails sent to rescues, without personalization or shelter-driven social media support, often go understandably unnoticed by rescues flooded with similar daily messages from other shelters, nearly amounting to spam. Yes, by sending out these lackluster emails, the shelter might claim they’ve made and effort —but have they really, in ways that matter? Despite having a broad social media audience, the shelter itself does not promote these at-risk dogs on those platforms. This raises the question: what is the purpose of a shelter if not to actively save and advocate for the animals within it? Why wouldn’t every available opportunity be used to help the animals who need it the most?
Impossible Deadlines:

The 72-hour deadline is extremely limiting for adopters, volunteers, community members, and rescues to arrange the necessary logistics. Many rescues expressed interest in specific dogs on the various euthanasia lists but struggled to find fosters within the tight timeframe posed by the shelter, resulting in dogs losing their lives.

Everyone willing to help has other obligations: family, jobs (sometimes two), studying, and emergencies to handle outside of their philanthropic efforts. It’s unreasonable to expect people to be constantly glued to social media, waiting for the chance to hear about a dog in need of fostering, adoption, or rescue, and then be able to drop everything and rush to the shelter on a moment’s notice. Therefore, living beings who are slated for euthanasia by the shelter deserve, at the very least, two weeks and two full weekends to secure a successful outcome. It’s not enough for the animals to simply leave the shelter; as a community, we must ensure they are placed in the right homes or environments once they are outside. Two weeks with two full weekends is not too much to ask in order to properly coordinate a successful outcome. Simply put, 72 hours is insufficient. It is illogical and cruel.

Lack of Spay-Neutering, Playgroups & Pongo:

Countless dogs also remain unspayed or unneutered, complicating playgroup placements that are crucial for exercise, socialization, enrichment and training. Playgroups are the number one most efficient way to get as many dogs as possible out at once if done right. Recently, a dog named Pongo who was made to deal with a series of unfortunate oversights and unnecessary constraints. After 10 months at the shelter without being neutered, Pongo had his genitals entangled with a leash or harness. He reacted as any dog in probable pain would toward that staff. This is not a criticism of the individual staff member but a critique of management’s decision to immediately place him on a 72-hour euthanasia timeline despite being aware of the context. To top it off, a rescue organization was interested in saving Pongo, but the 72-hour time limit did not allow them room to find a suitable foster in time. Pongo—a young, vibrant dog with numerous positive social media videos and successful outings and interactions—was ultimately euthanized by the shelter. Stories like Pongo’s are tragically too common.

With intake rates stable or even declining, resident dogs should be spayed or neutered quickly by shelter vets. What is the delay? Big dogs should be prioritized by the vets before all others since big dogs are the ones who need to get into playgroups. This is especially true with the lack of other enrichment opportunities being offered to prevent the dogs from mentally declining in the small kennels and because the stay for big dogs is often longer than that of other animals. Again, the frustration that naturally arises for dogs in the current shelter setup and with the current systems is then used against them, becoming a reason for staff to place them on euthanasia lists. I hope you can see the vicious cycle these dogs are trapped in and how they are let down at multiple levels. Rescues have even offered to cover the cost of a visiting vet to assist with spay/neuter surgeries once a week, but this was declined due to “lack of process” and red tape for veterinary work from outside the known shelter system. You have to create a path for outside help when the current staff is not performing to standard.

Mental Enrichment:

Additionally, dogs are kept in kennels without toys as mental enrichment. Why? When dogs are not being taken out daily, and even when they are it's only for 10-15 minutes, then why wouldn't one logically employ other items to sustain them mentally. Toys sustain dogs mentally by occupying the blandness of their hours and keeping them engaged. Also, treats for these poor animals are supplied mainly by volunteers. Why?
Staff:

Some shelter staff are undoubtedly dedicated and wonderful. I would like to mention that here. But in light of this audit, it’s crucial to reassess if the right staff is in right place to protect these animals. These positions should never have been an internship for humans to hone their skills. It should not be an onthe-job training, especially at the management level as animal lives are in the balance here. If certain roles are proving too challenging for some staff, perhaps they would thrive better in different positions. It's not easy to say something like this, but one must as there is a tendency to rush to euthanasia by the shelter management whenever criticism arises rather than addressing underlying issues. It's easier to kill the voiceless animals to make the problems go away than sit reflect, problemsolve and get creative. I personally don't find pleasure in writing emails like this, but at the other end of it, I'm reminded of the countless faces of animals who have been let down, and of those who now face uncertain futures...

This message is from outside the City email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources.

These animals cannot speak for themselves or demand justice and that is why many tend to dismiss their struggles. If even one foster child were lost or hurt under similar circumstances, there would be an outcry by city officials. So where is the outcry from city officials as all these animals are needlessly killed? For years, these issues have been reported without meaningful response. So many lives were lost in the delay. Why did it take an external, third party audit pushed for by the community for city leaders to begin to take the community’s concerns seriously? The city needs to also get its act together for the sake of the innocent animal lives. They are God's loving creations too. Their lives matter...

If there is genuine interest in addressing these problems, please reach out to those with firsthand experience with the problems and insight into potential solutions. Action must be taken immediately— not in a year, a month, or even a week. These animals have long been waiting at the mercy of those who have the power to do something. Please be the changemaker.

Thanks,
Krishna
Outlook
(Edited) Public Comment: Neighborhood Services and Education Committee (NSE) Nov, 14 2024 From K K
Date Thu 11/14/2024 11:50 AM
To Tubera, Katerina <[email protected]>
Dear Members of the Neighborhood Services and Education Committee, The recent audit has brought to light numerous, long-standing issues that continue to harm the shelter’s most vulnerable—its voiceless animals. Delaying corrective action, even by a single day, means more animals are being needlessly killed in the meantime. Currently, each week, at least four dogs are placed on euthanasia lists, and the community is provided a mere 72 hours to find alternatives. This unreasonably short timeframe leaves the community and volunteers scrambling to advocate, find rescues, fosters, and funding. Many dogs have lost their lives due to such unreasonable constraints.

Social Media:

Lack of Spay-Neutering, Playgroups & Pongo:

Countless dogs also remain unspayed or unneutered, complicating playgroup placements that are crucial for exercise, socialization, enrichment and training. Playgroups are the number one most efficient way to get as many dogs as possible out at once if done right. Recently, a dog named Pongo was made to deal with a series of unfortunate oversights and unnecessary constraints. After 10 months at the shelter without being neutered, Pongo had his genitals entangled with a leash or harness. He reacted as any dog in probable pain would toward that staff. This is not a criticism of the individual staff member but a critique of management’s decision to immediately place him on a 72-hour euthanasia timeline despite being aware of the context. To top it off, a rescue organization was interested in saving Pongo, but the 72-hour time limit did not allow them room to find a suitable foster in time. Pongo—a young, vibrant dog with numerous positive social media videos and successful outings and interactions—was ultimately euthanized by the shelter. Stories like Pongo’s are tragically too common.

Mental Enrichment:

Some shelter staff are undoubtedly dedicated and wonderful. I would like to mention that here. But in light of this audit, it’s crucial to reassess if the right staff is in the right place to protect these animals.

These positions should never have been an internship for humans to hone their skills. It should not be an on-the-job training, especially at the management level as animal lives are in the balance here. If certain roles are proving too challenging for some staff, perhaps they would thrive better in different positions. It's not easy to say something like this, but one must as there is a tendency to rush to euthanasia by the shelter management whenever criticism arises rather than addressing underlying issues. It's easier to kill the voiceless animals to make the problems go away than sit reflect, problemsolve and get creative. I personally don't find pleasure in writing emails like this, but at the other end of This message is from outside the City email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources. it, I'm reminded of the countless faces of animals who have been let down, never getting that second chance, and of those who now face uncertain futures...

These animals cannot speak for themselves or demand justice and that is why many tend to dismiss their struggles. If even one foster child were lost or hurt under similar circumstances, there would be an outcry by city officials. So where is the outcry from city officials as all these animals are needlessly killed? For years, these issues have been reported without a meaningful response. So many lives were lost in the delay. Why did it take an external, third-party audit pushed for by the community for city leaders to begin to take the community’s concerns seriously? The city needs to also get its act together for the sake of the innocent animal lives. They are God's loving creations too. Their lives matter...

Thanks,
Krishna

Neighborhood Services and Education Committee (nse)November 14, 2024

Neighborhood Services and Education Committee (nse)
November 14, 2024