The Riverside County Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved the creation of a new ad hoc committee that will focus on improving animal services throughout the county.
“There have been ongoing concerns around the adoption process, the data, the funding, and I think it’s important that we also shed light on that and we provide that information to people,” Supervisor V. Manuel Perez said.
The move comes after months of public comment focused on concerns about the transparency, effectiveness and quality of care provided by the Riverside County Department of Animal Services.
“With all due respect Supervisor Perez and listeners, we’ve been begging and pleading with Animal Services, with your office, with city leaders for leadership for over three years now; this problem didn’t just start when you were alerted to it,” resident Tiffani LoBue said during the July 30 meeting. “You decided to do something about it after multiple media outlets started talking about it.”
Both Perez and Supervisor Yxstian Gutierrez will serve on the ad hoc committee that Perez said will work with both the department and the community with a focus on increasing transparency, improving services and securing additional funding with the ultimate goal of becoming a no-kill county.
“It’s a goal, and it may be a lofty one,” Perez said in an interview with The Record. “But it’s one that we can strive to achieve.”
But some who spoke at the meeting said they weren’t confident that Perez and Gutierrez were the best for the committee.
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“I have to say, with [a] heavy heart, that I’m opposed to this, just because the fourth district [and] fifth district supervisors are the ones that want to be part of this,” Brad Anderson said. “I feel that their environment already has been damning or destructive to what the county services should be and may be in the future.”
In responding to the criticism, Perez said after learning of concerns from the community, it took him a couple of months to really understand the concerns and the challenges before approaching Gutierrez about the potential of joining him in the creation of the ad hoc committee.
“I’m open and I’m willing, and I’m actually very happy to be part of this conversation,” he said. “Because although folks may feel that I’m not paying attention, I am, or else I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t be in this position.”
As for Animal Services, Jackie Schart, deputy director of operations for Riverside County Animal Services, said the department was looking forward to collaborating with the ad hoc committee and the community at large to provide the best possible service it could.
“Our staff work tirelessly every day for animals and for people and for all the constituents in our county, so to have a spotlight shone very specifically and knowing that people want more for animals, that’s amazing,” she said. “And knowing that we have the support of the supervisors, and now the whole board, looking forward to building more services for pets and people that love them, what could be better? It’s perfect.”
A full recording of the meeting can be found here on the county’s website.
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