The evidence is now unequivocal: Civil disobedience works in L.A.
Not only does City Hall give away the public treasury to employees, contractors, developers and other special interests but it can't even get up to 80 percent of dog owners to pay for a license.
City Controller exposed the bungling incompetence in the Animal Services Department in an audit released Tuesday.
She reported that the Animal Services Department only issues 123,000 licenses when the dog population is estimated at 400,000 to 800,000 -- roughly 75 to 80 percent don't pay, she said -- and doesn't do a damn thing to collect the money it's owed.
Reports like this are exactly why Chick has earned the title of the city's watchdog.
"How can we be reimbursing veterinarians for spay and neuter services and not even bother to ask if these dogs are licensed, much less to follow up with a bill to the owner?"
That's a rhetorical question that Chick clearly knows the answer to: City Hall only goes after the law-abiding, not the scofflaws, not the criminal aliens, not the slumlords. For the most part, the law-abiding is the middle class which pays the bills and gets trampled at every turn.
Implied in the audit is how sensible people should handle the license requirement: The department sends out one notice of delinquency and then drops the matter, losing $1 million or so a year.
It gets worse: "Spending and contracting operations are haphazard and lack needed oversight...Contracts were awarded with little transparency and lacking in crucial documentation, and at times were executed without the required signatures..."
How can this agency that has been broken for so long in so many ways continue to exist? How is it going to enforce the one chicken in every yard rule let alone a mandated spay and neutering law?
Given all the other damaging disclosures about the failure of City Hall that Chick's audits have revealed, why do we even pretend there is a city government when it bungles just about everything it touches?
It's time to pull the plug on Animal Services and contract it out to the SPCA or someone who could bring in five times as much money and do a better job. That might just happen if everyone stops paying the license fee.
Here's the schedule of fees in case you forgot:
|
Dogs - Altered** |
$15 |
|
Dogs - Unaltered |
$100 |
|
Seniors (62 +) |
No license fee for spayed or neutered pet |
|
Replacement Tag |
$3 |
|
Replacement Tag Seniors (65 +) |
Free |
Click here to Chick's audit of Animal Services and other audits.
Ron Kaye is the former editor of the Los Angeles Daily News where he spent 23 years helping to make the newspaper the voice of the San Fernando Valley and fighting for a city government that serves the people and not special interests.
Twice in recent years, Los Angeles Magazine listed Kaye among the city’s most influential people, specifically in the area of politics. Kaye has been variously described in the media as the “accidental anarchist,” “the Patrick Henry of the San Fernando Valley” and a “passionate populist.” He is now committed to
carrying on his crusade for a greater Los Angeles as an ordinary citizen. Previously, Ron worked at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner,
Associated Press, Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Australian as well as papers
in Fairbanks, Alaska and Yakima, Wash. He also wrote for Newsweek magazine, The Guardian in London and the National Enquirer.
I'm embarrassed to admit I have a legally registerd dog in the city of los angeles - that's almost like wearing a "KICK ME" sign taped to your back.
Will Chick be forwarding the contract problems to the DA for a fraud investigation?
Guilty! I've had dogs for years and stopped licensing them when Animal Regs stopped coming around, and I couldn't deny having a dog with a German shepherd nipping at the instector's heels.
I guess now I'll have to lie, memorize a birthdate and say I'm over 65...way over.
"KICK ME" Valley Gurl is funny!
Correct use of the training leash is important, not only during training sessions, but at all times. Always having a loop over your thumb and your hand closed into a fist, prevents even the strongest dog from unexpectedly jerking the leash through your fingers and breaking free. Whether it's the hand-loop or a loop formed by marrying the leash over your thumb, the result is the same. Pulling on the leash merely causes your grip to tighten