Boks’, Barth’s Last Stand at City Hall?

Go back 123 years ago this week, and you'll find that General George Custer was buried at West Point (That's Custer with his dog in the photo to the right)

In Los Angeles, on Tuesday, there will be a special evening meeting in Van Nuys City Hall of the City Council’s Personnel Committee to determine whether the Committee will ask Mayor Villaraigosa to terminate Edwin M. Boks and Linda Barth, the General Manager and Assistant General Manager, respectively, of the Los Angeles Animal Services department.

Judging by the nearly 100 city shelter employees, volunteers, animal rescuers and union leaders who recently appeared at City Council to demand that Boks & Barth be terminated, it looks like this will be Boks' and Barth's last stand.

Ironically, a few hours before this special meeting, Mayor Villaraigosa will hold a hastily arranged, and obviously pandering, press conference about neuter~spay, one of Boks’ and Barth’s greatest failings.

The invitation reads, “Mayoral Press Conference this Tuesday at 9 a.m. at City Hall. Come participate in this celebration of the new ordinance, which recently became enforceable October 1st. The Mayor will be there as will the entire City Council, featuring as well as expressing our appreciation to the law's co-authors CM Richard Alarcon and CM Tony Cardenas.”

Haikula is confused. Didn’t Mr. Boks say last week that Mr. Boks would not be enforcing the law? And didn't Bill Rosendahl say that if Mr. Boks had a handle on licensing, which he says he does not, the funding would be plentiful? Or is this yet another pandering press conference, where cameras count, and killing doesn’t?

Will Mr. Boks receive false praise just hours before the hammer falls on him and Ms. Barth? Or will the croissants, coffee and orange juice put everyone in too good a mood for terminations later in the day?

According to public records, Mr. Boks has a high school diploma and earns more than $170,000 per year.

If anyone attends these events, please let us know what happens.

(Special thanks to Binkie and Mr. Frog for helping us with this report!)

UPDATE: Haikula scoops the LA Times on SEIU Mutiny

This morning the Times has an article about a subject that Haikula scooped it on yesterday about the SEIU's en masse appearance later this morning at City Council demanding the termination of Edward M. Boks, the General Manager of Los Angeles Animal Services. Haikula wrote this story yesterday.

The Times' article illustrates that the shelter conditions have resulted in violence and severe stress to the animals due to overcrowding, and related violence to shelter employees. Assistant General Manager Linda Barth is also mentioned as a major part of the problem.

But the Times fails to report that Ms. Barth was the center of at least one major controversy at Parks & Recreation before she joined Mr. Boks.

The question is whether Mayor Villaraigosa will make another such poor hiring choice without the leadership of Nathan Winograd, the nation's leading advocate on how to run No Kill cities. Reportedly, Mr. Boks refused enlisting Mr. Winograd's assistance to establish effective humane programs. The result of such ego-driven decisions has been a multi-year massacre.