Fired Ex-GM of Animal Services to become City consultant
by Mary Cummins, Animal AdvocatesWhat do you do with a guy who was so incompetent at his job that you had to fire him? What do you do with an at-will employee who begged for severance to which he wasn't entitled? What do you do with a guy who lied on record to City Council, Animal Services Commissioners, the public and the Mayor? Well, in LA you hire him back to consult on the same subject for which he was found to be incompetent, give him a great letter of recommendation and you double his salary. Ya gotta love LA.
Guerdon Stuckey will now be paid $50K for 12 weeks of work consulting the City on animal services issues such as community outreach, spay/neuter and increasing animal adoptions. I can only hope that in reality Stuckey will just be sitting on some beach somewhere contemplating his navel. On top of that in his "consulting contract" it states he was let go merely because there was a change in Mayors. He did a fine job and was extremely qualified. Excuse me, but the Mayor in writing stated he was fired because he was doing a bad job. I pity the next City he suckers. What's interesting to note is that Stuckey's previous position in Maryland was made just for him then was deleted after he left for LA. Hmm.
In all honesty the City Council was backed into a corner. This at-will employee was threatening to sue the City for firing him. He may have ultimately and unfairly even played the race card. He of course had no chance at winning any wrongful dismissal suit but that's not the point. City Council needed to get rid of this little mess cheaply and easily but how. You can't give him severance as that would be illegal. You can't give him money straight out as that would be a gift of public funds. The City can only give him money in exchange for work so work he must do.
He will now consult the City Council on animal services issues even though he was found to be incompetent in this area. City Council already has someone in charge of animal services issues, not like it matters. I'm at least grateful that Councilmen Zine, Weiss and Rosendahl spoke up about the real issues and voted against this motion. It passed nine to three anyway, just as I expected. At least the Stuckey issue is finally behind us. As this was the first appeal of a fired at-will employee, it will be interesting to see if Pandora's box is opened just like the DWP contract. Time will tell.
Posted by Mayor Sam @ 2/01/2006 08:17:00 AM
21 Comments:
It's black history month and this negro played the race card. This isn't any different than Hahn firing Bernard Parks and Parks becoming Councilman now is it?
Gordey Stuckey for City Council!
A new "no-kill" policy for the homeless on skidrow.
MAN, do I want to run that campaign. . . (I wonder what district he lives in -- not that that's ever been a problem, right AV???)
Now every fired at-will employee will be lining up with their hand out. City Council caved. Kudos to Zine, Weiss et al for voting against it.
You fire a guy for being incompetent then you hire him back to consult for twice the pay working from home and you give him a letter of recommendation? Where do I sign up for this gig? If my taxes are paying for this kind of crap, I'd like to get in on the action personally.
Zine, Weiss, and Rosendahl are heartless. If their families were attacked, they'd be singing a different tune. Stuckey made us proud to be animal services employees again. We share the same goal of reducing kills.
i have a vacant house in CD 9 for Stuckey to use so he could run for CD 9? Keep it BLACK!
parks was actually elected. Stuckey punked the council and made your beloved AV look like an ass!
I love L.A. politics.
Throw in some good old Japanese fist fighting, air it live on the city channel 36, get a tub of popcorn, a coke (with JD) and it's on!
Stuckey knew ahead of time that he would be attacked by activists. He even said he looked forward to it! (see below article) All of a sudden it's oh, poor Guerdon? He signed up for the job eyes wide open. If you don't want to be attacked, don't take a hot job.
Also, please note that only the bad employees are being attacked. You don't see ADL picketing the homes of the good employees who do a good job and save animals.
Article Published: Sunday, October 03, 2004 - 7:16:19 PM PST
Stuckey's ready for L.A. post
New animal control chief wants to meet activists
By Rick Orlov
Staff Writer
Guerdin Stuckey insists he knew what he was getting into when he agreed to take
on the job as general manager of the troubled Los Angeles Animal Services
Department.
Despite the risk of immediate political opposition and the likelihood of
protests at his home and offices from aggressive animal rights activists,
Stuckey says he is prepared.
"I've been reading all about the situation in Los Angeles, and, I have to say,
I'm looking forward to the challenge," Stuckey said in a telephone interview
from his offices in Rockville, Md., where he has been working as director of
neighborhood and community services."
Welcome to LA folks where we have a gutless city council, a loser mayor and look who comes out ahead because our politicans have absolutely no backbone. STUCKEY
From the Times today. The Mayor disagrees with Council's consulting contract.
Villaraigosa said Tuesday that he stood by his firing.
"I would not have provided him with a contract for services. That's why I fired him," Villaraigosa said. "The council, however, has every right to employ him in the way that they do. As far as I'm concerned, this matter is behind us and my authority to fire him has been vindicated."
This is the little game they play for the "folks" in the stands.
Meanwhile, AV is behind the scenes saying "good one!" City Council. AV got to look heroic for firing him, Council gets to look heroic for saving the city from a lawsuit (without stabbing AV's paper hero in the back)- AND, best of all, the "race" card that every liberal demagogue dishes out--but can't take themselves--stays in the deck.
I'd bet you my next welfare check this was set up from Day 1, and AV told Stuckey, "I've got to do this, but I've worked it out with some puppets on city council to 'consult' you a payoff, with taxpayer money."
So he took a dive, came up swinging and made it look like he was REALLY mad and hurt, so they'd give him an pre-planned "token" (forgive the racial pun) on the way out the door.
AV don't know nuthin' about leading, but he could write a (very short) book (...with small words) about weaseling out of tight scrapes and saving face.
Stuckey stuck it to the City of Los Angeles. They just set a precedent for ALL at-will city employees. Way to go guys!
I believe from this point on, at-will managers should be know as "at-writ" managers. Bring in the suits from LA Law, and take out a suitcase full of money.
Almost makes you wanna go for a city job... next best thing to disability scams at the Post Office.
The real issue isn't Stuckey vs. Boks. It's Villaraigosa's failure to stop the massive and unecessary slaughter of perfectly adoptable dogs and cats even though he's been in office seven months.
Actually it is different from Parks. With Parks, Hahn promised not to fire him. Got the black vote. Then fired him. AV promised to fire Stuckey and did just that.
Okay, here's the plan, I get hired for the city and do a lousy job. Then I set a smoke bomb off in my home and spray paint a radical group's name on the wall(shhhhh....don't tell alf). Then I cry victim and continue to do a lousy job. Then I get fired. Then I sue. The city pays me a hefty sum of money. Sounds good.
Where do I get an application?
Do I have to be a city employee to be paid off? Why can't I just vandalize my home and sue the city? It seems paying me costs less than fighting me and that's what it boils down to. At 50 grand, it's worth a try.
3:26
I'd put all my welfare checks up too that it was set up since day one. My brother will bet all his SSI checks too.
LA politics should be something we can bet on in Vegas. I could win millions.
So if Walter Moore had turned reality on its ass and become mayor he would have "stopped the killing with a phone call" and then what? Would he personally take all 50,000 dogs and cats that go through the shelters and put them in his back yard? Or let them run loose in the streets to the delight of neighborhood activists everywhere? Or send them all to West Hollywood, San Fernando and Beverly Hills so they'd be somebody else's problem?
With "big thinkers" like Moore contributing to the public discourse, how can we fail?
Since you asked....
My plan called for: i) mandatory and free spaying and neutering, to stop the endless cycle of unwanted births; ii) requiring landlords to accept pets (to cut down on abandonments); iii) aggressive marketing to get people to adopt strays; and iv) no killing of healthy dogs and cats until we find homes for them.
Can it be done? Of course! There are about 4 million people in this city. If you get just 1.25% of them to adopt one pet, that's 50,000 right there. If you get some to adopt more than one, well, you don't even need 1.25%. So before you claim it can't be done, look at the numbers. Not only is it the decent thing to do, it's also cheaper in the long run to go no-kill than to slaughter pets year after year.
Plus, burglars tend to avoid homes with dogs, and pets reduce blood pressure. There's all kinds of good reasons to do the right thing.
http://lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=3338&IssueNum=142
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