AHA Report

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The AHA report was commissioned by the County during a recent period of stakeholder turmoil due to managment decisions affecting the dogs. One of the issues affecting the shelter was the lack of stakeholder involvement in shelter processes. In addressing this problem with the AHA process, management didn't involve any stakeholders. Stakeholders were not included in the selection of a consultant to do an evaluation, or preparation of a scope of work. The AHA had only done 2 evaluations prior to this and does not make those reports available on their website. The AHA did a stakeholder survey for this contract but did not include the results in their report. They were paid only a small amount so did not have time to interview many stakeholders. The feedback provided by the stakeholders they did interview were not included in the final report. The report was not issued as a draft for stakeholder review and comment prior to finalization as is commonly done by most  organizations. (See report here.)

 

The AHA concluded that the problems at the shelters were significant enough that the County should consider finding another group to run them (governance). In lieu of that, the County could hire additional staff and implement a number of recommendations to improve their performance. Rather than have the discussion about governance up front, the County chose to ask for additional taxpayer money to hire the additional staff talked about in the report, increasing shelter spending by more than 10%.

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The County then established an Advisory Group, the Oversight Team, to discuss the list of recommendations in the AHA report. The OT consists of about 1/2 County staff or consultants and 1/2 stakeholder representatives. Theoretically the recommendations would not be implemented until discussed by the OT, but in reality a number of critical recommendations such as how medically needy strays are treated were implemented right away. (See letter here.) (See Oversight Team website here).

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The OT originally had one dog volunteer representative selected by the County from the Santa Maria Shelter. The SB shelter dog volunteers petitioned management to have a representative on the team and this proposal was accepted in August of 2015. However, the SB volunteers still see problems with the process.

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Until these problems are addressed and resolved, it does not seem that County-originated initiatives will help improve the shelters. The stakeholders are currently working on creating an Animal Welfare Commission that will have true oversight authority over the Animal Services Department so that the necessary changes to make the shelters World Class Facilities can take place.

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Data from the end of the County's Fiscal Year 6-30-2016 show that more than $100K has been spend on this effort in addition to what they paid to the AHA. In addition, the County has incurred more than $100K in labor costs for the Oversight Team and its subcommittees  The labor cost for each employee is their salary + benefits times 1.4 to account for the overhead costs necessary for each employee position. For someone paid $35/hr, this can double the costs to the project.