Letters from the Public — San Jose City Council, December 3, 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 "re- engage" 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

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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 demand
2 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 $22M
3 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/asoplan20 24 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 Development 5 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 Office
6 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 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-Onsite-Veterinary- 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.

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 spay- neuter 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 Davis-
Matthews Campbell
Sustain 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-Onsite- Veterinary-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 Davis-
Matthews Campbell
Sustain 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 "re- engineer" 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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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 connue to harm the shelter’s most vulnerable—its voiceless animals. Delaying correcve acon, even by a single day, means more animals are being needlessly killed in the meanme. Currently, each week, at least four dogs are placed on euthanasia lists, and the community is provided a mere 72 hours to ﬁnd alternaves. This unreasonably short meframe 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 promong 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 organizaons to ﬁnd soluons.

The basic, automated shelter emails sent to rescues, without personalizaon or shelter-driven social media support, oen go understandably unnoced by rescues ﬂooded with similar daily messages from other shelters, nearly amounng 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 maer? Despite having a broad social media audience, the shelter itself does not promote these at-risk dogs on those plaorms. This raises the queson: what is the purpose of a shelter if not to acvely 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 liming for adopters, volunteers, community members, and rescues to arrange the necessary logiscs. Many rescues expressed interest in speciﬁc dogs on the various euthanasia lists but struggled to ﬁnd fosters within the ght meframe posed by the shelter, resulng in dogs losing their lives.

Everyone willing to help has other obligaons: family, jobs (somemes two), studying, and emergencies to handle outside of their philanthropic eﬀorts. It’s unreasonable to expect people to be constantly glued to social media, waing for the chance to hear about a dog in need of fostering, adopon, or rescue, and then be able to drop everything and rush to the shelter on a moment’s noce. 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, complicang playgroup placements that are crucial for exercise, socializaon, 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. Aer 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 cricism of the individual staﬀ member but a crique of management’s decision to immediately place him on a 72-hour euthanasia meline despite being aware of the context. To top it oﬀ, a rescue organizaon was interested in saving Pongo, but the 72-hour me limit did not allow them room to ﬁnd a suitable foster in me. Pongo—a young, vibrant dog with numerous posive social media videos and successful oungs and interacons—was ulmately 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 priorized 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 opportunies being oﬀered to prevent the dogs from mentally declining in the small kennels and because the stay for big dogs is oen longer than that of other animals. Again, the frustraon 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 mulple levels. Rescues have even oﬀered to cover the cost of a vising 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:

Addionally, 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 menon 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 posions 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 beer in diﬀerent posions. 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 cricism arises rather than addressing underlying issues. It's easier to kill the voiceless animals to make the problems go away than sit reﬂect, problem- solve and get creave. I personally don't ﬁnd pleasure in wring 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 jusce 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 creaons too. Their lives maer...

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

Thanks,
Krishna

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(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 Educaon Commiee, The recent audit has brought to light numerous, long-standing issues that connue to harm the shelter’s most vulnerable—its voiceless animals. Delaying correcve acon, even by a single day, means more animals are being needlessly killed in the meanme. Currently, each week, at least four dogs are placed on euthanasia lists, and the community is provided a mere 72 hours to ﬁnd alternaves. This unreasonably short meframe 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:

rescue, and then be able to drop everything and rush to the shelter on a moment’s noce. 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, complicang playgroup placements that are crucial for exercise, socializaon, 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. Aer 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 cricism of the individual staﬀ member but a crique of management’s decision to immediately place him on a 72-hour euthanasia meline despite being aware of the context. To top it oﬀ, a rescue organizaon was interested in saving Pongo, but the 72-hour me limit did not allow them room to ﬁnd a suitable foster in me. Pongo—a young, vibrant dog with numerous posive social media videos and successful oungs and interacons—was ulmately 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 menon 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 posions 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 beer in diﬀerent posions. 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 cricism arises rather than addressing underlying issues. It's easier to kill the voiceless animals to make the problems go away than sit reﬂect, problem- solve and get creave. I personally don't ﬁnd pleasure in wring 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 geng that second chance, and of those who now face uncertain futures...

These animals cannot speak for themselves or demand jusce 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 creaons too. Their lives maer...

Thanks,
Krishna

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FW: City Council Meeting - Agenda Item 3.3 (SJACS)
From City Clerk <[email protected]>
Date Mon 12/2/2024 8:36 AM
To Agendadesk <[email protected]>
2 attachments (323 KB)
SJACS-FY2023_2024annualreport_Maddies.PNG; Audit-Maddies.PNG;

From: M Wagner <
Sent: Monday, December 2, 2024 8:34 AM
To: City Clerk <[email protected]>; Tubera, Katerina <[email protected]> Cc: The Oﬃce of Mayor Ma Mahan <[email protected]>; District1 <[email protected]>; District5 <[email protected]>; District 6 <[email protected]>; District7 <[email protected]>; Mossing, Mackenzie <[email protected]>
Subject:

Re: City Council Meeng - Agenda Item 3.3 (SJACS)

Submitting for the City of San Jose Public Record

AGENDA ITEM: 3.3

TOPIC: City Audit Recommendations (39)

DATE: 12/2/2024

Dear City Council,

After having read the recently released City Audit of the San Jose Animal Care Center which was requested by the Mayor's Office back in October of 2023, I believe that it is highly questionable whether or not the current Management team at SJACS will be capable of implementing 39 recommendations made by the audit by December 2025.

The Audit clearly highlights massive incompetence and negligence by the entire SJACS Management team; it's three directors and two shelter managers.

In fact, the audit found that this management team wasn't even in compliance with basic Association of Shelter Veterinarian (ASV) Guidelines. As you are well aware, much of the information that is contained in this audit has been expressed to you given the concerns shared by the community for well over 2 years.

12/2/24, 5:09 PM Mail - Agendadesk - Outlook
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On December 12th, 2023 at the NSE Committee Meeting, Public Works Director Matthew Loesch stated that only 9 out of 21 of the Maddie's Fund Audit Recommendations had been implemented from their audit of August 2022. (see page #15 attached from the SJACS FY 2022-2023 Annual Report)

However, page #83 of the Audit (see attached) questions how many of these Recommendations were actually "implemented" by the SJACS Management team. In fact, the audit states:

"ACS has considered many of the recommendations as 'completed,' even though some had merely been considered for implementation."

The Audit does not make clear which Recommendations from the Maddie's Fund Audit of August 2022 were found to be merely considered. However, as of December 14th, 2023 Public Works Director Loesch has claimed that 9 had been implemented in 16 months.

QUESTION:

If it took 16 months for this Management team to "implement" 9 Recommendations from the Maddie's Fund Audit, why would anyone have confidence in this same team implementing 39 Recommendations from the City Audit in the next 12 months?

Furthermore, NSE Chairwoman Dev Davis requested Mr. Loesch to provide a "work plan" for today's December 3rd City Council Meeting. However, given the Mayor's Memorandum from November 27th, it appears that the presentation of this "work plan" has been postponed until May of 2025.

Why?

The lack of urgency to implement these recommendations is puzzling.

In the meantime, more animals will continue to suffer and die.

Sincerely,

Michael Wagner

Former board member, Kitten's First for the San Jose Animal Care Center (2019 - 2021)

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FW: Item agenda 3.3 for city council meeting 12/3/24
From City Clerk <[email protected]>
Date Mon 12/2/2024 11:16 AM
To Agendadesk <[email protected]>
-----Original Message-----
From: Anne Deschenes <
Sent: Monday, December 2, 2024 10:25 AM
To: City Clerk <[email protected]>
Subject: Item agenda 3.3 for city council meeting 12/3/24 [External Email. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources. Learn more<https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification>]
[You don't often get email from Learn why this is important at https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification ]
My name is Anne Deschenes and I live in District 5 in San Jose. I am writing in to express my desire for the city council to accept the results from the audit regarding the status of the San Jose Animal Care Center. For a city this size and the amount of money for their budget it is a disgrace for how animals the SJACC are being cared for. I have been a volunteer transporter for FETCH for the last 4.5 years. Transport requests have fallen dramatically since the shelter chose not to work with rescues. There was a time when I transported animals TO SJACC from Salinas and Los Banos because those shelters were overwhelmed and SJACC had room. This was during a time when the shelter actively worked with rescues all over the Bay Area and even beyond to Washington state.

I have also witnessed the staff tell the public who came in with found animals to keep them themselves or release them back where they found them because there wasn’t any room. You cannot release an animal, especially a dog, back out to fend for themself in an urban area. This would be like telling someone who found a child to just leave them where you found them.

The rank and file staff work hard and do the best they can. I feel since the management was changed a few years ago the care that animals have received has diminished. Please hold management accountable for the sub par care that is being given to the animals. And hold them accountable for implementing the recommendations that are given in the audit.

Thank you,
Anne Deschenes
Sent from my iPad
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FW: Re San José Animal Care and Services Audit Report 12/3 Public Comment Agenda Item #3.3 From City Clerk <[email protected]>
Date Mon 12/2/2024 11:16 AM
To Agendadesk <[email protected]>

From: Krista Wirth <
Sent: Monday, December 2, 2024 11:14 AM
To: City Clerk <[email protected]>
Cc: District 6 <[email protected]>; District7 <[email protected]> Subject: Re San José Animal Care and Services Audit Report 12/3 Public Comment Agenda Item #3.3

Some people who received this message don't often get email from Learn why this is important Dear Honorable Mayor and City Council Members,

I am a District 6 constituent and lifelong San José resident. I volunteer with the dogs at San Jose Animal Care Services (SJACS). I am also a law student studying animal law and serve on the Board of Directors of a nonprofit spay/neuter clinic in the East Bay that is working to increase access to spay/neuter and other lifesaving veterinary care.

Thank you to all of the staff and volunteers at SJACS for their hard work caring for the animals in our community. And thank you to the City Council for discussing the City Auditor's Report at the upcoming council meeting.

I am writing to kindly echo similar comments encouraging the city to increase community access to affordable spay/neuter services.

Unfortunately, veterinary care has become increasingly unaffordable for people at all income levels and especially for underserved community members. There are several reasons for this, including a shortage of veterinary professionals and private equity investment in veterinary care.

There are some exciting developments at the state level that aim to help reduce the pet overpopulaon crisis, including recently passed legislaon that allows California veterinary schools to establish high-quality, high- volume spay/neuter training cerﬁcaon programs (see hps://www.gov.ca.gov/2024/09/26/governor-newsom- signs-pet-insurance-reform-bill-takes-acon-to-support-animals-and-pets/), but the beneﬁts of these iniaves are many years away.

I know increasing community access to spay/neuter may be easier said than done, but I kindly encourage the city to make this a priority. Increasing access to affordable spay/neuter is one of the most 12/2/24, 5:09 PM Mail - Agendadesk - Outlook
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This message is from outside the City email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources. effective ways to reduce strain on the shelter and city resources in the long term. There is also a need for increased access to affordable essential care like vaccinations.

Thank you very much for your time, effort, and consideration on these important issues.

Sincerely,

Krista Wirth
J.D. Candidate, Animal Law
San José Resident

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FW: Agenda item 3.3 - December 3, 2024 Council Meeting
From City Clerk <[email protected]>
Date Mon 12/2/2024 3:19 PM
To Agendadesk <[email protected]>

From: Sue Dileanis <
Sent: Monday, December 2, 2024 3:04 PM
To: Tubera, Katerina <[email protected]>
Cc: City Clerk <[email protected]>; District1 <[email protected]>; District2 <[email protected]>; District3 <[email protected]>; District4 <[email protected]>; District5 <[email protected]>; District 6 <[email protected]>; District7 <[email protected]>; District8 <[email protected]>; District9 <[email protected]>; District 10 <[email protected]> Subject:

Agenda item 3.3 - December 3, 2024 Council Meeng
Importance: High

Dear Katerina, City Clerk, Mayor and Council Members:

Agenda item 3.3

I’m writing concerning the crisis at the San Jose Animal Care Center. My taxes are funding this shelter, but the care that animals are receiving has been steadily declining. From what I have read in the audit, and from friends who are closely involved with the shelter, there is a complete failure of systems; anywhere from feeding to cleaning, medical care, coordination with rescue groups and shoddy record-keeping. The audit noted that almost 60% of shelter animals have expired rabies certificates, which is a violation of state laws. Paperwork keeping track of drugs is many times incomplete or even missing. The city audit documents just how bad things have gotten. Clearly something needs to be done.

I have seen dogs that are in filthy kennels caked with feces and urine. Their kennels are so full of feces the poor dogs don’t even have any place to sit or lay down without being on top of it. The smell is so bad the public doesn’t even want to go there to adopt a dog. I know someone who brought a cat in that clearly needed medical treatment, yet it was not done. Many health issues are not treated and animals end up being euthanized when it was completely unnecessary. Dogs are kept in their kennels for weeks and even months, without rescue groups being notified to pull them from the shelter, and without being walked, which can result in them becoming unadoptable due to stress. Rescue groups are not notified that an animal will be ‘euthanized unless rescued’ in a timely manner and with extremely short notice. There is a huge backlog of volunteers, and applications take forever to process. Some volunteer applicants are told that their application was rejected because they are at capacity. Yet there is a clear need for more volunteers.

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A Rescue Coordinator was hired, yet it was a temporary position for a few months, and when the contract ended she was not rehired even though she was doing a great job. I also think the shelter would benefit from a full time Animal Behaviorist. A dedicated position would enable the shelter to structure enrichment, socialization, behavior modification and offset the stressful conditions of the shelter environment on the animals. An Animal Behaviorist would also provide post-adoption support and owner-retention programs, increasing positive outcomes.

I would also like to bring up the fact that the previous shelter manager would send animals to trusted partners in the Pacific Northwest, but the current shelter manager has no interest in doing this. This is another wasted opportunity to save animals lives, while costing no additional funds.

Please address this situation for what it is - a crisis!

Thank you

Sue =^. .^=

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From: T errado, Jay <[email protected]>
To: M Wagner
Sent: Friday, September 22, 2023 at 01:44:08 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Average Length of Stay Metric #3
Mike,
It may reset the length of stay for the animal. We have not studied this information and I am not able to answer your question with a yes or no.

Jay T errado
Deputy Director
Public Works Department
City of San Jose Animal Care and Services
2750 Monterey Road
San Jose, CA 95111
(408)794-7223 Phone
(408)229-2262 Fax
From: M Wagner
Sent: Friday, September 22, 2023 11:17 AM
To: T errado, Jay <Jay.T [email protected]>
Subject: Re: Average Length of Stay Metric #3
Jay,
It's a "yes" or "no" question.

Your reply did not answer it.

Question: Does their length of stay go back to "Day 1" when they are re-impounded? Thank You for your time.

Mike

On Friday, September 22, 2023 at 10:48:38 AM PDT , T errado, Jay <[email protected]> wrote:

Mike,
The foster animals are re-impounded into the system to ensure that we know the animal is in the shelter.

Jay T errado
Deputy Director
Public Works Department
City of San Jose Animal Care and Services
2750 Monterey Road
San Jose, CA 95111
(408)794-7223 Phone
(408)229-2262 Fax
From: M Wagner
Sent: Friday, September 22, 2023 10:03 AM
To: T errado, Jay <Jay.T [email protected]>
Subject: Re: Average Length of Stay Metric
Jay,
I have a phone meeting later today with Matt to go over the "average length of stay" metric.

I need to ask you a question about the "intake" date before I speak with Matt.

It appears that cats (and dogs) that have been in Foster, have their intake date "reset" again when they come back into the Shelter.

Is this true?
Thanks!
Mike

From:M Wagner
To:Jay Terrado <[email protected]>
Cc:Kiska Icard <[email protected]>; Tara Davis <[email protected]>; Mallory Kinsman <[email protected]>; Matthew Loesch <[email protected]>; Angel Rios <[email protected]>
Sent:Tuesday, June 27, 2023 at 09:10:14 AM PDT
Subject:Re: Panluek Protocol
Hi Jay,I would just like to add that I recall when shelter manager Lorance Gomez was at SJACS, the panleuk protocol was updated with collaboration from Shelter Vets (Tyson and Osterman), Dr. Tiva, and coordinator Monique Rodriguez. The last version was updated on 02/26/2021. I believe this version was saved on the T drive.

Additionally, all other protocols written by Dr. Tiva were also in collaboration with the shelter staff, Dr. Tyson and Dr. Ostermann.

As a result, I am somewhat confused as to why there was discussion yesterday at the Cat Meeting about having to "update" a panleuk policy from 20 years ago; let alone how it primarily revolved around euthanasia of those testing positive for panleuk.

Just two years ago, I recall that panleuk kittens were being pulled by rescues (such as IBOK) and/or being placed in the care of Dr. Shira Rubin.

Regards,
Mike Wagner

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Gomez, Lorance <[email protected]>
To: M Wagner < >
Sent: Tuesday, June 27, 2023 at 08:30:19 AM PDT
Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL] Re: Tuesday
Hi Mike,
Sorry to hear the meeting wasn't more productive. When I was at San Jose we updated the Panleuk protocol with collaboration from the shelter vets, Tiva, and Monique. The last version was updated on 02/26/2021. From what I remember it was saved on the T drive.

Additionally, all other protocols written by Tiva were also in collaboration with shelter staff, Dr. Tyson and Dr. Ostermann.

Hopefully, this helps. I can reach out to Jay and remind them that all this information exists. No need to spend time "updating" work that already has been done.

Sincerely,
Lorance

REV022621
Panleukopenia Response Plan

What is It?
Panleukopenia is a highly contagious feline disease that is caused by a type of parvovirus (Feline Panleukopenia Virus or FPV). It is primarily transmitted from feline to feline though fecal-oral route (ingesting fecal material of an infected feline) including any microscopic fecal material that may be present on bedding, cage doors, door handles, food dishes, or any surface, etc. due to cross-contamination, which is the transfer of bacteria, virus, and germs from one location to another. Symptoms of Panleukopenia include vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy, dehydration and sudden death. FPV can persist in an environment for months and years.

Our Role:

SJACS is committed to protecting felines in our care from this deadly virus, through strict vaccination protocol, proper cleaning and disinfection, population management, cross- contamination prevention, immediate removal of infected felines from the facility and quarantine of exposed animals.

Reporting Ill Felines at Intake:

All incoming orphaned kittens are first evaluated by Animal Care Staff. Staff will refer to kitten intake flow charts. Adult felines with medical problems shall be taken by shelter clinic upon impound. If critical and no Veterinarian on staff adult feline shall be sent to MedVet Emergency Clinic.

Reporting Ill Felines Currently Kenneled:

All felines currently in shelter care who show any signs or symptoms of disease are immediately reported by writing the animal’s information on the medical board. Any feline that appears to be in critical condition is reported directly to an on-site veterinarian. If no veterinarian is on site, then should be transported to MedVet Emergency Clinic (if 2 pounds or over) or euthanized immediately (if under 2 pounds and orphaned).

Reporting Deceased Felines:

When a feline currently in shelter care is found deceased in its kennel, it stays in the enclosure and its information is written on the medical board, when a Veterinarian is on site. When a veterinarian is not on site, the death is reported verbally to a medical staff for testing purposes.

When no medical staff are present, the deceased animal is removed from its kennel and placed in the HTL bin, along with identifying kennel card. Staff members handling deceased animal shall wear PPE and handle as if animal could be contagious. Once placed in cooler the cat’s information is written on the medical board, stating that the animal is deceased and in the HTL bin.

REV022621
The animal is outcomed from the shelter management software system by the staff member who reported the death. Outcome Type = DIED. Below is a list of subtypes to use for the designated scenarios for animals that are found dead and are currently in shelter care. Typical scenarios for animals found dead in care are IN KENNEL and STILL BORN:
• AT VET – transported to a vet clinic and dies while at the vet clinic • ENROUTE – dies after entering care but prior to kenneling or during transport • IN FOSTER - dies in foster care
• IN KENNEL – found deceased in cage
• IN SURGERY – died during surgery or during surgery recovery • PANLU – deceased animal tested positive for FPV (updated by medical staff) • STILLBORN – deceased neonates found dead in kennel prior to impound

Testing Felines:

Felines are tested for FPV when a living or deceased cat is suspected by the veterinarian of being infected with FPV. All staff involved in the handling of live or deceased felines to be tested and/or that test positive for FPV must follow PPE guidelines as posted on quarantined rooms.

Notifications:

When felines test positive for FPV, the veterinarian either contacts the foster supervisor for placement (for kittens that are eating a bit, are BCS >3/9, and are BAR-Q) or authorizes the animal for euthanasia and immediately notifies the animal care supervisor on duty of the positive result and euthanasia authorization. If foster placement is available, the animal care supervisor places a "panleukopenia" sign on the kennel. If authorized for euthanasia, the animal care supervisor ensures the FPV positive cat is immediately removed from the population and placed in the euthanasia room. Deceased cats are placed in the cooler disposal barrels by medical staff. FPV+ remains are not held for owner redemption.

The animal care supervisor verifies that any interested party has been notified of the cat’s FPV+ status and requires immediate removal from the facility. Great care must be given in communicating with the interested party regarding the seriousness of the animal’s condition as well as the shelter does not expect the client to take the animal. The cat may be held for immediate pick up within 4 hours or by COB and may not stay in the shelter if someone is not available to immediately pick up the animal. Cats that meet foster criteria may be sent to foster for treatment. If a message is left, it should tell the client that the shelter has significant information regarding the status of an animal brought to the shelter. All contacts are noted in the software system including timelines given to interested parties for pick up.

REV022621

Signage and Set Up:

When medical staff determine that an animal has been exposed to FPV, medical staff place PANLEUKOPENIA EXPOSURE sign on the cage of the exposed animal(s) or a PANLEUKOPENIA CLEANING sign on an empty cage. The animal care supervisor ensures:
 INFECTIOUS DISEASE CLEANING sign is placed on the kennel of the FPV+ and/or exposed animal’s cage
 Room access sign is switched to AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY  Room status sign is switched to QUARANTINE PANLEUKOPENIA

Once quarantine is over, the ACA who cleaned the room returns the signs from QUARANTINE to ROUTINE HOUSING and from AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY to COME IN.

Quarantine:

Exposed felines are quarantined for 14 days and isolated from felines considered to be healthy or unexposed. Quarantine rooms may house multiple “exposed” litters that are isolated from one another.

Kittens under 4 months of age and unvaccinated cats over 4 months of age housed in a kennel with a cat that tests positive for panleukopenia are considered exposed and will be quarantined in a panleukopenia quarantine room separately from potentially exposed cats. After moving to the quarantine room, the original room will be cleaned as described below (Cleaning Room after quarantine) and the cats will no longer be considered potentially exposed.

Quarantine rooms are a priority to clean and must be well maintained in order to reduce any viral load in the room. Puppy pads, otherwise unusable laundry (such as pillow cases, laundry with holes that can be cut up for single use, etc.) or towels, if no other option is available, are used as bedding. Soiled bedding is discarded during cleaning, it is not laundered. These rooms are cleaned and animals in them fed by assigned ACAs who are not assigned to clean in other rooms and who leave the premises after cleaning quarantined rooms.

Only healthy animals identified as well-vaccinated may be moved out of the room under the direction of the veterinarian. Animals leaving the quarantine room are placed into new cardboard carriers and carriers loaded onto a cart covered in newspaper. Feral dens are left in the cage to be cleaned twice with Accel in the room.

Kennel cards for animals moved out of quarantine rooms are removed from “Panleukopenia Quarantine” binder by staff that is assigned to moving the animal to another location.

PPE:

REV022621
Booties, gloves and gowns are required in all rooms designated as AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY when cages are opened (during cleaning, feeding and animal handling). Only booties are required when cages will not be opened. Gloves must be worn and changed between touching any separate cage group of animals and touching anything new in the room, including the door handle. Hand sanitizers are not approved because they do not kill FPV and are an ineffective means of preventing cross contamination of FPV.

Gloves changed in the rooms are disposed of in garbage cans in the room. Booties, current gloves being worn upon exit, and gowns are disposed of in the garbage can stationed outside the quarantined room.

Cleaning Room after Quarantine:

When quarantine is lifted, disposable items housed in the room are thrown away (boxes of gloves, newspaper, cardboard litter boxes, pen holder). The entire room and associated items (walls, water bowls, floors, cages, cabinets, doors, garbage can stationed outside of door, watering can, litter container attached to wall) and all surfaces in the room are cleaned with Accel in the room, rinsed, allowed to dry then cleaned with Accel and rinsed again. The contact time for Accel is 10 minutes per application, prior to rinsing. Once the room is cleaned, the ACA who cleaned the room switches the sign from QUARANTINE to ROUTINE HOUSING and from AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY to COME IN.

REV022621

AUTHORIZED

PERSONNEL ONLY

OK - ANIMAL CARE STAFF

OK - MEDICAL STAFF

NO - LOST PET TOURS – SEE BINDER

NO - RESCUE PARTNERS

NO - VOLUNTEERS

NO - ADMIN STAFF

NO - FIELD SERVICES STAFF

REV022621

OK – ANIMAL CARE STAFF
OK – MEDICAL STAFF
OK – LOST PET TOURS
OK – RESCUE PARTNERS
OK – AUTHORIZED VOLUNTEERS
OK – ADMIN STAFF
OK – FIELD SERVICES STAFF

REV022621

ROUTINE

HOUSING

REQUIRED PPE:

Gloves – Upon entry, change b/w
cages

pg. 1
Rev062723
Panleukopenia Response Plan

Our Role:

Reporting Ill Felines at Intake:

All incoming orphaned kittens are first evaluated by Animal Care Staff, and then examined by an AHT and administered age-appropriate deworming, flea prevention and vaccination. Adult felines with medical problems will also be evaluated by an AHT and administered intake vaccination and flea preventative. Any medical issues shall be triaged and if non urgent the animal will be placed on Vet Check with a medical memo. If considered an emergency the cat will be taken to the shelter clinic after impounded. If critical and no Veterinarian on staff adult feline shall be sent to MedVet Emergency Clinic.

Reporting Ill Felines Currently Kenneled:

All felines currently in shelter care who show any signs or symptoms of disease are immediately placed on Vet Check with a medical memo. Any feline that appears to be in critical condition is reported directly to an on-site veterinarian. If no veterinarian is on site, then the cat should be transported to MedVet Emergency Clinic.

Reporting Deceased Felines:

When a feline currently in shelter care is found deceased in its kennel, it stays in the enclosure and a veterinarian or AHT is notified. When a veterinarian is not on site, the death is reported verbally to a medical staff for testing purposes.

The animal is outcomed after an AHT or Veterinarian has been informed.

pg. 2
Rev062723
Testing Felines:

Notifications:

When felines test positive for FPV, the Medical Director and Shelter Supervisors are notified immediately.

Signage and Set Up:

Once quarantine is over, the ACA who cleaned the room returns the signs from QUARANTINE to ROUTINE HOUSING and from AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY to COME IN.

Quarantine:

Exposed felines are quarantined for 10-14 days and isolated from felines considered to be healthy or unexposed. Quarantine rooms may house multiple “exposed” litters that are isolated from one another.

Quarantine rooms are a priority to clean and must be well maintained in order to reduce any viral load in the room. Puppy pads, otherwise unusable laundry (such as pillow cases, laundry with holes that can be cut up for single use, etc.) or towels, if no other option is available, are used as bedding. Soiled bedding is discarded during cleaning, it is not laundered. These rooms are cleaned and animals in them fed by assigned ACAs who are not assigned to clean in other pg. 3
Rev062723
rooms with kittens and who properly disinfect and change clothing (if needed) after cleaning quarantined rooms. All rooms are to be thoroughly disinfected with Rescue (in pressurized pump sprayers) which are kept in each cat/kitten holding room.

Only healthy animals identified as well-vaccinated may be moved out of the room under the direction of a veterinarian. Animals leaving the quarantine room are placed into new cardboard carriers and carriers loaded onto a cart covered in newspaper. Feral dens are left in the cage to be disinfected with Rescue in the room.

PPE:

Booties, gloves and gowns are required in all rooms designated as AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY when cages are opened (during cleaning, feeding and animal handling). Only booties are required when cages will not be opened. Gloves must be worn and changed between touching any separate cage group of animals and touching anything new in the room, including the door handle.

Cleaning Room after Quarantine:

When quarantine is lifted, disposable items housed in the room are thrown away (boxes of gloves, newspaper, cardboard litter boxes, pen holder). The entire room and associated items (walls, water bowls, floors, cages, cabinets, doors, garbage can stationed outside of door, watering can, litter container attached to wall) and all surfaces in the room are cleaned with Rescue in the room, rinsed, allowed to dry then cleaned with Rescue and rinsed again. The contact time for Rescue is 10 minutes per application, prior to rinsing. Once the room is cleaned, the ACA who cleaned the room switches the sign from QUARANTINE to ROUTINE HOUSING and from AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY to COME IN.
pg. 4 Rev062723

AUTHORIZED

PERSONNEL ONLY

OK - ANIMAL CARE STAFF

OK - MEDICAL STAFF

NO - LOST PET TOURS – SEE BINDER

NO - RESCUE PARTNERS

NO - VOLUNTEERS

NO - ADMIN STAFF

NO - FIELD SERVICES STAFF

pg. 6 Rev062723

OK – ANIMAL CARE STAFF
OK – MEDICAL STAFF
OK – LOST PET TOURS
OK – RESCUE PARTNERS
OK – AUTHORIZED VOLUNTEERS
OK – ADMIN STAFF
OK – FIELD SERVICES STAFF

pg. 7 Rev062723

ROUTINE

HOUSING

REQUIRED PPE:

Gloves – Upon entry, change b/w
cages

pg. 9 Rev062723

PANLEUKOPENIA QUARANTINE

pg. 10 Rev062723

SUBMITTING FOR THE CITY OF SAN JOSE PUBLIC RECORD
ATTN: Miss Dev Davis, Chairwoman, Neighborhood Services & Education Committee TOPIC: SJACC - Average Length of Stay and Intake Date Resetting DATE: 12/14/2023
Dear Chairwoman Davis,
The average length of stay metric is undoubtedly the single most important metric that Animal Shelters like SJACC use to measure their performance. It is a rather obvious metric given that the longer the length of stay is for an animal in shelter care, the more likely it is susceptible to disease and behavioral issues from the shelter environment, not to mention draws down vital staff labor resources from medical to kennel care at the shelter.

The FY 2022 - 2023 SJACS Annual Report shows an average length of stay for Cats at 15 days. However, I would be suspicious of this number for the following two reasons:

1.) This number is obviously skewed by the massive intake of kittens during Kitten Season. As a result, I would claim that it doesn't give a very accurate "picture" of what is going on at the shelter. With the influx of kittens into the shelter that get readily adopted out, this metric just doesnt offer much in the way of value. I have suggested to Deputy Director T erradothat he filter out neonates (kittens) of 8 weeks of age or less, in an ef fort to increase the value of this metric. Sadly, my requests have largely gone ignored.

2.) Volunteers at SJACC have observed that the intake date has changed (or changes) when an Animal comes out of Foster and back into the shelter.

Believe it or not, the intake date appears to reset to Day #1 in the length of stay of the animal when it comes out of Foster. Clearly, such a "reset" would skew this metric even further and make it absolutely worthless. I raised my concerns about this potential issue with Deputy Director T erradoin an email dated September 22nd, 2023 and he responded by claiming that the foster animals are "re-impounded into the system to ensure that we know the animal is in the shelter." (see attached)
I must say, that I find the Deputy Director's reply to be quite problematic. The fact of the matter is that there really is no re-impounding given that the foster animal has always maintained the exact same ID number that it received at intake. This ID number never changes. The animal is tracked and monitored while in foster care, and even receives health checks from shelter medical staff while in foster care. When asked to comment further about my (intake date reset) findings, Mr. T errado replied:
"It may reset the length of stay for the animal. We have not studied this information and I am not able to answer your question with a yes or no."
In other words, a German Shepherd that has spent three months in the shelter, passes behavior, and goes out to foster care for one month, would have a length of stay of 124 days. But as soon as it comes out of foster and back into the shelter, that length of stay "resets" to Day #1.

Interestingly enough, there is not one single footnote or declaration/disclosure in the FY 2022 - 2023 SJACS Annual Report that alludes to the possibility that the intake date may "reset" when calculating the average length of stay metric. Not just change. But actually "reset" to Day #1.

Chairwoman Davis, I must say that I find this metric to be most problematic and yet another example of data being presented by SJACS and Deputy Director T erradothat is potentially highly erroneous.

Perhaps even worse, is the fact that the Deputy Director is "aware" of the possibility that the calculation of this most important metric "resets", but just hasn't bothered to study it. And yet, the public is totally unaware of this metric changing in a significant manner and is being potentially misled when reading this SJACS Annual Report from the City of San Jose.

Sincerely,
Michael Wagner
Former board member and interim President
Kitten's First for the San Jose Animal Care Center, 2019 - 2022 From: T errado, Jay <[email protected]>
To: M Wagner
Sent: Friday, September 22, 2023 at 10:48:38 AM PDT
Subject: Re: Average Length of Stay Metric
Mike,
The foster animals are re-impounded into the system to ensure that we know the animal is in the shelter.

Jay T errado
Deputy Director
Public Works Department
City of San Jose Animal Care and Services
2750 Monterey Road
San Jose, CA 95111
(408)794-7223 Phone
(408)229-2262 Fax
From: M Wagner
Sent: Friday, September 22, 2023 10:03 AM
To: T errado, Jay <Jay.T [email protected]>
Subject: Re: Average Length of Stay Metric
Jay,
I have a phone meeting later today with Matt to go over the "average length of stay" metric.

I need to ask you a question about the "intake" date before I speak with Matt.

It appears that cats (and dogs) that have been in Foster, have their intake date "reset" again when they come back into the Shelter.

Is this true?
Thanks!
Mike

From:Moore,Cameron <
To:M Wagner
Sent:Monday, November 25, 2024 at 07:45:52 AM PST
Subject:RE: SJACS - Angel Rios
He misunderstands the intent of that sentence in the report. I wish leadership would have conversations after reading the recommendations to clear up the confusion. The goal is for shelter staff to always work all live outcome opportunities; however, at the time of the consultation, the shelter was putting up so many barriers to adoption and was relying solely on rescues and transfers and missing out on other easy opportunities.

Shelters should diversify their efforts to keep animals out of the shelter (robust safety net and kitten shelter diversion programs) or once they enter the shelter to move them out quickly (return to owner, foster, adoptions, return to field for cats, transfers, etc.)
Cameron Moore
-----------------------------
P:

W: Shelter Medicine Program +
-----------------------------
College of Veterinary Medicine
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Please note: All correspondence to or from this office is subject to Florida’s Public Records Law.

From:M Wagner
To:Groen, Mary Anne <[email protected]>;[email protected] <[email protected]>
Cc:Angel Rios <[email protected]>
Sent:Tuesday, January 23, 2024 at 07:33:34 AM PST
Subject:Re: Cameron Moore - Maddie's Fund
Dear Miss Groen,
I am at a loss as to understand why staff at District 6 shows very little interest (if any) when it comes to the "issues" that have been impacting the San Jose Animal Care Center.

To this day, I still have not heard from your community outreach advisor even though I have made multiple attempts to contact her over the past two months. Quite frankly, I find this surprising given an animal shelter that saw 534 cats die in its "care" last year with over 1,000 that were euthanized and a live release rate of only72.9%
If I am wrong about your interest in the issues that concern SJACS, please feel free to reach out to me so that I can invite you to a Zoom Meeting that I will be holding this Thursday with staff from three other city council members - - - accompanied by a colleague of mine that is aWeCare Alliance Partner.

Attached for your review is an email that I received on Jan. 16th fromCameron Moore, the shelter consultant that performed the Maddie's Fund Audit on SJACS in July of 2022.

Miss Moore (from the University of Florida where Maddie's is based) was also a colleague of Dr. Tiva Hoshizaki, a professor at UFand a veterinarian at SJACS from 2017 - 2021 who foundedKitten's First for the San Jose Animal Care Center, where I was a board member for three years.

In Miss Moore's email, she clearly states that the Maddie's Fund shelter consultancy group never said that SJACS wasover-relianton rescue partners or wasout-of-balancewhen it came to other live outcomes. This was one of several false narratives presented to Chairwoman Davis and her fellow council members on the NSE Committee on December 14th by Deputy Director Terrado and City Staff.

If you are concerned about how the shelter has been operating, you should be aware of this.

Quite frankly, I am tired of hearing endless "excuses" by City Staff as to why the animal shelter has performed so poorly over the last two years. Had Deputy Director Terrado not pivoted away from using rescue partners to get cats out of the shelter last year, we would not have seen 534 cats "expire" in their kennels in the"care" of the shelter.

As you can see from Miss Moore's email (attached below),Maddie's Fund never recommended the shelter to pivot away from their use of rescue partners.

Sincerely,
Mike Wagner

Please note: All correspondence to or from this office is subject to Florida’s Public Records Law.

From:M Wagner <
To:Groen, Mary Anne <[email protected]>;[email protected] <[email protected]>
Cc:Angel Rios <[email protected]>
Sent:Tuesday, January 23, 2024 at 07:33:34 AM PST
Subject:Re: Cameron Moore - Maddie's Fund
Dear Miss Groen,
I am at a loss as to understand why staff at District 6 shows very little interest (if any) when it comes to the "issues" that have been impacting the San Jose Animal Care Center.

Attached for your review is an email that I received on Jan. 16th fromCameron Moore, the shelter consultant that performed the Maddie's Fund Audit on SJACS in July of 2022.

If you are concerned about how the shelter has been operating, you should be aware of this.

As you can see from Miss Moore's email (attached below),Maddie's Fund never recommended the shelter to pivot away from their use of rescue partners.

Sincerely,
Mike Wagner

From:MWagner
To:KaterinaTubera<[email protected]>; [email protected] <[email protected]>;District5 <[email protected]>;District7 <[email protected]>;District8 <[email protected]>;District3 <[email protected]>
Cc:CityClerk<[email protected]>
Sent:Thursday,March14,2024at08:32:54AMPDT
Subject:Re:SJACS- Maddie'sFundAuditRecommendations

SUBMITTING FOR THE CITY OF SAN JOSE PUBLIC RECORD
ATTN: Miss Dev Davis, Chairwoman, Neighborhood Services & Education Committee TOPIC: Maddie's Fund Audit and Cameron Moore, Shelter Consultant DATE: 3/14/2024
Dear Chairwoman Davis & Councilmembers,
On December 14th, 2023 the SJACS Management T eam and City Staff presented their FY 2022 - 2023 Annual Report to the NSE Committee. During this presentation, City Staff essentially laid blame on the decision to use an operations model of warehousing animals and the overall poor performance of SJACS in which an unprecedented 534 cats "died in the care" of the shelter and the live release rate collapsed to 72.9% for calendar year 2023 on the Maddie's Fund Audit.

City staff claimed that the Maddie's Fund Audit of July 2022 had "recommended" that the shelter pivot away from using Rescues to get animals out of the shelter as soon as possible - - - given that Maddie's Fund had "found the shelter to be over-reliant on rescue partners" and "out of balance when it came to live outcomes for a city of 1 million residents." The above statement made by City Staff is 100% false.

In fact, the statement is confirmed to be false in a number of ways starting with the 44-page Maddie's Fund Audit itself, which doesn't even remotely make such a "finding" or "recommendation"; not to mention the following email dated January 16th, 2024 (see attached) from Miss Cameron Moore, the lead shelter consultant from the University of Florida and Maddie's Fund who conducted the audit on SJACS with her team in July 2022 and clearly states that such a "recommendation" to pivot away from Rescues was never made.

Sadly, the statement above made by City Staff in Director's positions was terribly misleading to elected city council members, stakeholders, and the public.

In fact, Page #36 of the audit (see attached) essentially says quite the opposite to this false narrative when it comes to utilizing Rescue partners "to provide immediate live outcome placement for each animal in the shortest period of time." Moreover, shelter consultant Cameron Moore can confirm the same.

Miss Moore's email (see attached) was shared with Chairwoman Davis and her staff along with Deputy City Manager Angel Rios previous to this (submission to the NSE Committee) on January 23rd, 2024.

Interestingly enough, I have never received the courtesy of a reply acknowledging my "concerns" regarding the false narrative that was presented to the NSE Committee on December 14th, 2024.

I must admit, I am rather puzzled as to why the NSE Committee does not appear concerned with the false narrative that was presented to them (and misled them) on December 14th, 2023 by the SJACS management team and city staff.

The San Jose Animal Care Center is currently on pace to be a Kill Shelter for a third consecutive year.

Animal welfare colleagues of mine and I continue to be concerned over the lack of honesty and transparency when it comes to this management team's operations of the city animal shelter.

T o date, stakeholders and the community at large have not been informed of any "updates" or progress reports given the $2.0 million dollar increase in this current fiscal year's budget that has gone to support a proposed "night shift" with ten staff positions, restarting a full TNR program, and restarting a low cost spay/neuter program for the public. Communication by SJACS management continues to be extremely poor.

Sadly, such narratives as the one that we heard presented last December do nothing to improve the live outcomes of animals.

Sincerely,
Michael Wagner
Former board member and interim President
Kitten's First for the San Jose Animal Care Center, 2019 - 2022 Founded by Dr. Tiva Hoshizaki, SJACS Veterinarian 2017 - 2021 From:Moore,Cameron <
To:M Wagner < >
Sent:Tuesday, January 16, 2024 at 12:25:47 PM PST
Subject:San Jose Animal Care Services Consult Recommendations Dear Mr. Wagner,
Thank you so much for reaching out regarding the pro bono shelter consultation awarded to SJACS.

After our July 2022 visit, many strategies and recommendations were provided in a written report to help streamline the flow of animals in and out of the shelter. I want to emphasize that rescue/transfers partners continue to play a valuable role in moving animals out of the shelter while providing immediate relief to overcrowded shelters. Many recommendations were made to help the SJACS team remove barriers and increase direct placement of animals which would ultimately decrease the reliance on transfer partners; however, I want to clarify that it was never our intention for SJACS to eliminate this live outcome avenue but instead to grow the program by identifying a transfer placement coordinator on staff who could focus on relationship building and expediting transfers. As you read through the recommendations you will not find any statements advising to reduce partnerships or mentioning the shelter being out of balance relative to other live outcome opportunities as compared to cities of similar size (it is possible that was someone’s interpretation, but certainly is not what we were trying to convey). During our research and onsite visit, our team did find many opportunities for SJACS to improve operations, reduce length of stay, reduce disease outbreaks and reduce costs while simultaneously providing additional resources to the community to keep people and pets together.

You are welcome to forward this email to any city leadership or council members who may have additional questions or wish to discuss further. Our team is very interested in the success of SJACS and is here to help in any way possible.

Thank you for all you are doing to improve the lives of animals in your community.

Cameron Moore
-----------------------------
W:Shelter Medicine Program+ Maddie’s®Million Pet Challenge -----------------------------
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Please note: All correspondence to or from this office is subject to Florida’s Public Records Law.

San Jose City CouncilDecember 3, 2024

San Jose City Council
December 3, 2024