LA Times is reporting that LA Animal Services’ manager Ed Boks has resigned as of today. It’s been long overdue. Speculation is that it is in response to this:

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa hired Ed Boks the Director of Animal Services without checking out his references. He did not know that Boks had just been sued for racial discrimination and unlawful termination a month before he hired him. When the City was apprised of the lawsuit in January 2006, Boks told the Mayor that the lawsuit “had no merit.” Antonio did not investigate and took him at his word. Judge Kimba Wood in New York has ruled otherwise.

In an opinion and order dated March 27, 2009 Judge Wood stated that “Viewing the available evidence as a whole, the Court finds that a reasonable jury could conclude that Defendants terminated Plaintiff because of his race.” Since the judge’s ruling the City of New York has decided to settle with the plaintiff Wesley Artope. The exact amount is unknown at this time.

How I love gossip. Goodbye Ed, you won’t be missed.

Links: LA Times, Cleveland Indy Media Center

The LA Times has a short article in todays paper about Tuesdays meeting regarding LAAS General Manager Ed Boks and Assistant General Manager Linda Barth. It sounds like this quote taken from the article pretty much sums up the tone of the meeting:

“Employees are fed up,” said Keith Kramer, manager of the West Valley animal shelter and executive board member of the laborers’ union’s Los Angeles chapter. “We’ve given the mayor’s office every opportunity to do something and they haven’t. We’re hoping the City Council can convince the mayor’s office to act.”

Unfortunately, the mayor is the one who appoints the General Manager and he has been steadfast in his support of Ed Boks despite overwhelming evidence of his lack of leadership. Here’s hoping the City Council can put pressure on Villaraigosa and convince him otherwise. You can find the full link to the article here.

A few weeks ago it was announced that members of the L.A. Animal Services staff presented their vote of “No Confidence” in General Manager Ed Boks and Assistant General Manager Linda Barth to the Los Angeles City Council. Things are finally starting to heat up. Tomorrow, Tuesday, October 7th at 6:30 PM, there is a meeting at the Van Nuys Civic Center where people will be given their chance to voice their complaints about Boks/Barth. As with all issues, it’s better to come prepared. To that end, I would suggest reading the very detailed history of LAAS under Boks as documented by the anonymous poster “Madison Barkley” which can be found here. Although it’s quite biased, it does provide a lot of concrete evidence using LAAS numbers on how little has been done to achieve No Kill status in Los Angeles. You will find the meeting information after the jump. (more…)