The 10-year contract between OC cities and the county animal shelter is expiring. The cities must demand reforms before they renew it. This is an open letter to OC mayors and city managers:

Anaheim mayor Ashleigh Aitken, city manager Jim Vanderpool

Orange mayor Dan Slater, city manager Jarad Hildenbrand

Brea mayor Cecilia Hupp, city manager Kristin Griffith

Placentia mayor Chad Wanke, city manager Jennifer Lampman

Cypress mayor Leo Medrano, city manager Sean Joyce (interim)

San Juan Capistrano mayor John Campbell , city manager Benjamin Siegel

Fountain Valley mayor Jim Cunneen, city manager Maggie Le

Tustin mayor Austin Lumbard, city manager Aldo Schindler

Fullerton mayor Fred Jung, city manager Eddie Manfro

Villa Park mayor  Jordan Wu , city manager Steve Franks

Huntington Beach mayor Casey McKeon, city manager Travis Hopkins

Yorba Linda mayor Carlos Rodriguez, city manager Peter Grant

Lake Forest mayor Robert Pequeño, city manager Debra Rose

Santa Ana mayor Valerie Amezcua, city manager Alvaro Nuñez

In 2016 your cities signed a 10-year contract with OC Animal Care (OCAC). You paid for the construction of the animal shelter but handed control over to county bureaucrats. The county was supposed to follow a Strategic Plan, developed with community input and unanimously approved by the Board of Supervisors.

The county bureaucrats got extra overhead dollars, full control, and no accountability. The cities got an endless string of failures, starting with unqualified managers. In 2020, the county installed as shelter director Andi Bernard, a county paper-pusher with zero experience in animal sheltering. Bernard delegated to assistant director Monica Schmidt, a political scientist with a background in shelter Public Relations, way out of her depth in a large public shelter like OCAC.

From this takeover on, Schmidt threw the shelter’s Strategic Plan away. No more reporting on it, to this day. The county’s attempt to undo the plan with a shady one-bid contract caused community uproar.

Schmidt kept on some COVID-19 pandemic restrictions (including blocking visitor access to kennels) through 2024, the only regional shelter with this level of paranoia. The shelter remains a pariah in another area: It has no preventive Spay/Neuter program to reduce the feral cat population.

Schmidt sent hundreds of pet bunnies, guinea pigs, and birds to a reptile organization, attempting to hide the identity of the recipient. In a parallel regional case (shipments to Arizona) small pets were used as snake food.

Schmidt covered up the circumstances of the death of two OC dogs during transport. We have yet to get the full record on this tragedy.

Schmidt kept handing OC dogs over to a suspicious entity, despite warning signs. The results were hoarding and animal cruelty, with many OC dogs dead.

Schmidt produced fabricated shelter statistics. Not just slightly off, plainly made-up.

Schmidt lied about the shelter’s safety record, under-counting the number of animal bites in the shelter. She doubled down with a torrent of false data fed to an unsuspecting Board of Supervisors.

What about oversight? The higher-ups in the county that supposedly oversee the shelter are Dylan Wright and his deputy Cymantha Atkinson. These two met with corrupt Supervisor Andrew Do’s daughter, eager to divert taxpayer dollars to corrupt entities (which then funneled money to the Supervisor and his daughter). On the heels of OCAC scandals in 2023-2024, did Wright and Atkinson take steps to clean up the shelter’s mess?  No. They promoted Schmidt to director, even though she was responsible for the disaster and made wild misrepresentations in her resume. The community noted that one County Supervisor, Katrina Foley, seems to be Schmidt’s booster, perhaps sharing her penchant for public relations rather than tangible work.

City councils and city managers, you are not exempt from accountability for the ruinous acts of OCAC managers and their county protectors.

Any city manager that pushes for a contract renewal with Schmidt and Wright takes full responsibility for their mismanagement and their misconduct.

Any city council member that votes for such a contract becomes part and parcel of OCAC’s failure.

City officials in favor of good governance and a good shelter must make two demands: First, get rid of toxic managers. Second, transparently implement the Strategic Plan. This is what JVR, the county’s own contractor, says: 

“Is your strategic plan in action?”

“Your strategic plan shouldn’t sit in a binder. It should live in conversations, meetings, and decisions every day.”

Dear city officials, if you hire people with a track record of dishonesty and incompetence, you’re responsible for the consequences. Go to OCshelter.com for more press reports. If you give out this contract without reform, the next shelter scandal is on you.

After publication, this community opinion will be submitted as Public Comment to city councils. To add their voice, OC residents can contact their cities.

Jackie Lamirande is an OC resident and former volunteer at OCAC. She has worked and volunteered in both the non-profit and municipal shelter sector.

Opinions expressed in community opinion pieces belong to the authors and not Voice of OC.

Voice of OC is interested in hearing different perspectives and voices. If you want to weigh in on this issue or others please email opinions@voiceofoc.org.

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