Animal Services Didn't Keep Track of Guns and Animals, Failed to Collect $1.3 Million in Fees, City Controller Wendy Greuel Says

By Dennis Romero Wed., Feb. 15 2012 at 1:23 PM

Mayor Villaraigosa.

Remember when Animal Services officers had to give up their guns, at a time when it didn't seem like the city department knew exactly how many weapons it even had?

Well today city Controller Wendy Greuel spelled it out in an audit of Animal Services: "Department officials ... neglected to perform physical inventories of their fixed assets or equipment, including guns and ammunition."

Oops. But wait, there's more:

Greuel's people noted via statement that ...

... While the audit was being performed, Department management removed guns and ammunition from the shelters. Since then, new protocols regarding access and use of firearms have been established.

Funny, when the guns were rounded up last summer, Brenda Barnette, general manager of L.A. Animal Services, told us it had nothing to do with the then-underway audit -- that it was a "separate" move.

Barnette.

Uh-huh. (You can see why reporters are always so doubting when it comes to what officials in this town say).

Anyway, Greuel also found that the department didn't even keep track of the number of animals it had in custody.

And she said that its management positions comprised a "revolving door" that made running this show a nightmare. Greuel:

Without proper management oversight, it is difficult for employees to detect when shelter animals are missing. That is unconscionable and unacceptable.

The department also forgot to collect some cash that's owed to you, the taxpayer, Greuel's office alleges:

"Los Angeles Animal Services (LAAS) neglected to collect over $1.3 million in potential revenue from dog owners" and that scofflaws are essentially forgotten about.

Her audit also says:

LAAS has not properly tracked donations and could not demonstrate that all donations were spent for legitimate business purposes.

Did Greuel address the issue that you care about most, the utter annoyance of 2,000 chronically barking dogs in this city and the failure of officials to impose $250-$1,000 fines on their owners?

Nope. But a spokeswoman tells us it might be "something we can look at in future audits."

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

Tags:

Animal Services, audit, barking dogs, Brenda Barnette, guns, Los Angeles, Wendy Greuel

We Recommend

David_Barron

Hmm, police 'Gang Task Force' units are required to disclose their personal finances while assigned to dealing with our city's gang's. Therefore, I object to the fact that Mayor Villaraigosa hasn't disclosed what he does with the tens of millions of tax dollars he receives for his 'anti-gang' program. Why won't Controller Greuel ask Villaraigosa to disclose an accounting of those millions he receives? And, what about that missing $19M? Did Villaraigosa ever account for that? Is anyone ever held accountable for mismanagement of funds? Will Controller Greuel explain why DWP utility bills are sky-rocketing, dispite California saving 56 billion dollars in energy since 1978, and will save an additional 23 billion dollars at the end of 2013, all because of the successful 'Energy Code' that was mandated back in 1978, and the fact that energy conservation has been so successful, that we have not had to build additional power plants? Will controller Greuel, audit and reveal why city departments order unneccessary brand new fleet's of vehicles, and why new ordered equipment just sit in yards unused?

And, now that Greuel is our City Controller, will she explain why the City is teetering on bankruptcy? Afterall, she was part of the problem as a council member?

Just asking, and rightly so, because, dispite our reccession, City budget adopted figures reveal that City revenue has been at an all-time high since 2006.

Taxpayer, David Barron

Rick Abrams

Unpaid licenses? When dogs die, the owners often do not pay the license fee and do not tell the department that the pet has died. They simply away the bill. A wise controller, as opposed to one only out to headlines, would know that collecting licenses fees on dead pets is a waste of money.

Lack of record keeping does not mean theft of dogs or selling of dogs.

While Greuel was on City Council she allowed the CRA/LA to siphon off $1.5 Billion in property tax dollars and give the money to its friends like billionaire Eli Broad to whom Wendy and her council friends gave $52 M tax dollars. How many dogs could have been saved with just 1/10 of the $52 M to Eli Broad.

Why not an audit of all the corrupt deals and diversion of hundreds of millions of dollars while Greuel was on the city council? http://bit.ly/cRH37r