Of the Advocate
When Mandi Liberty was briefly fired last year from her job at Mendocino County Animal Care and Control, her boss, Animal Control Officer Susan Bottom was very upset.
Local animal-loving groups such as the Eileen Hawthorne Fund for Animals were also unhappy about the move, which many felt was in retaliation for Liberty talking to the Grand Jury, which had sharply criticized the Animal Control department.
But when Liberty was quickly reinstated as an extra help worker by County Chief Executive Officer John Ball, the biggest celebration was a cacophony of barking, said Bottom.
“When Mandi”s gone, the animals miss her. They wait for her to come back,” said Bottom.
The “un-firing” of Liberty came about a week after the former head of Animal Control and the then supervisor of the Ukiah Shelter made the surprise Wednesday afternoon ouster. At that time, animals were also taken from the shelter, several of which may have been improperly euthanized, a county investigative report found.
A county investigation found that 22 cats were taken from the Fort Bragg shelter and 15 of them euthanized. Five dogs were taken from Fort Bragg to Ukiah, with two euthanized. Liberty and Bottom had a long history of not euthanizing animals whenever possible. Animal Control officials at the time denied that animals were euthanized in Ukiah after being removed.
That led to a review of the County”s euthanasia procedures, a process that is still under way with a five-year strategic process involving community groups as well as John Morley, a new boss in a revamped Animal Care and Control operation.
The Fort Bragg shelter is now open to the public more hours, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, with Saturday hours being considered for later in the spring.
Liberty is now a full-time employee, after being used as an extra help worker for several years, often working full-time but being paid as extra help.
She went through the application and interview process and was given the full-time position effective Feb. 27.
“I was happy to take the position; considering everything that had transpired I wasn”t completely certain that the position would be mine,” Liberty said.
“Many things are changing that addressed the Grand Jury”s questions and concerns, ranging from new dog beds to different cleaning procedures,” Liberty said.
Ball had already announced plans to make the County more efficient by consolidating departments when Liberty was removed while Bottom was away ? an action based on the euthanizing of Bottom”s own cat. The department itself got eliminated as a separate entity in that revamping process.
Morley is now both the head of the Ukiah shelter and the manager of what is still called Animal Care and Control, reporting to John Rogers in the Division of Environmental Health, who reports to the director of the Department of Public Health, Carol Mordhorst.
When the situation erupted, Dorothy Ferri of SEIU Local 707 said the union got involved despite Liberty”s status as an extra help employee, who are not eligible to join the union.
“That did not stop this union from doing everything possible to get her reinstated,” Ferri said.
“Mandi is well known in Fort Bragg for her dedication to providing quality services to the Fort Bragg community as well as protecting the rights of animals. When Mandi was fired we not only had a union issue, but we also had a community issue,” Ferri said.
“Working together, the community and the union were able to get the attention this situation needed. CEO John Ball must also be given credit for not only sincerely listening to the union and the community, but for taking the necessary actions to right this wrong. Ball did what we would never have seen under the previous administration,” Ferri said.
Morley said the County is working on getting the spay and neuter Care-A-Van to the coast more often. A stakeholders group, which involves non-profit agencies as well as Liberty, is meeting monthly.
“Another priority issue we will be working on over the next 12 months is promoting adoptions,” Morley said.
Morley said some of the Grand Jury”s concerns, such as a lack of beds for dogs at the Ukiah Shelter, were quickly fixed last fall. The new five-year process breaks down problems into different areas for action over time.
For example, Animal Control is now seeking to improve intake methods that in the past meant animals were quickly put down in Ukiah, while the Fort Bragg shelter kept animals longer.
“We need to improve certain procedures, that maybe weren”t being done on a consistent basis in the past,” Morley said. Those include health screening, checking for a microchip on each animal brought in and vaccination protocols, he said. Another problem being worked on is a lack of after hours medical care, Morley said.
A report is due in May by the stakeholders group to the CEO. Liberty said the stakeholders group is already enabling improvements at the shelter.
Liberty said there are 25 dogs and 40 cats available for adoption as of this week. Bottom said one more volunteer is needed right away at the shelter.
