An open letter to the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners and MCAS Director Jackie Rose The following responds to the Portland Tribune’s report of the Multnomah County Commissioners’ response to the audit: https://portlandtribune.com/pt/9-news/401082-296712-commissioners-defend-animal-shelter-despite-critical-audit The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners rejection of the facts reported in 2018 MCAS Audit followed by Jackie Rose’s sneering response trivializing those affected by those facts as “entitled to their opinions” captures the failings of this government exactly. This complicit government runs not on facts but on a robust sisterhood covenant, colleagues first, “full steam ahead” then throws those they are paid to serve, the public, employees, and homeless animals, under the bus. Much of their failing is due to an egregious entitlement. The commission and the director are completely unable to take constructive criticism without lying or engaging in an active effort to distract from the evidence. Those they serve do not count. The commissioners’ performance at the 2018 MCAS audit review lays bare just how far the commissioners and Jackie Rose are willing to go to distract away from and excuse agency problems. Facts that disturb are disappeared. Questions that must be asked are not. Excuses are made for unsupportable failure. Failure is glorified. We, the public, are the problem. The only check and balance in this system has been the audit. They attacked it. Precisely because of Ms. Rose’s new policies and practices MCAS is deteriorating further. Run like a prison, homeless animals are secured with red locks and keys into cells they rarely leave day after day. The circumstances under which they are kept: isolated, deprived of play, company and exercise, security lights blazing all night, are similar to conditions used to break prisoners of war. These are not "dangerous" dogs, but dogs driven by anxiety and fear to distraction by the stressful conditions under which they are kept. Staff under these circumstances then must test and sort frightened animals like merchandise into color bins that predict their futures, readying those that “pass” for frequent adoption sales. Staff must also work in this stressful environment where their concerns are dismissed as “opinions.” The highly publicly touted programs i.e play groups and behavior modification programs are inconsistently implemented when in effect at all. Most behavior modification programs address individual symptoms of stress; yet the root cause is a toxic environment. After more than 2 years toxic stress levels still have not been corrected. Problems at MCAS go unrecognized and unreported because it is an agency that operates behind closed doors. The only open doors to MCAS as it hides behind impression management and propaganda are audits and access to public records. Accessing public records comes at an intentionally forbidding unaffordable cost. Without oversight, accountability and transparency corrupt results follow. This is only a short list of concerns about MCAS’s performance outlined both in the 2018 Audit and also supported week after week by public records and citizens’ experiences. There is so much more to debunk based upon that evidence. Because of collective government suppression, we arrive at the position of celebrating failure when “failure is no success at all.” Caretaking means taking care of their own, not the public they serve. The examples of government distraction are endless. To wit, newly minted Commissioner Sharon Meieran praised MCAS’s 2017 dog redemption rate of 51% by using the national average 26% for comparison, gushing” almost double the national average” when in neighboring Washington County, animal services has a 67% redemption rate and is a nationally recognized animal redemption model emulated by others. Not to be outdone, Commissioner Lori Stegmann quoting Voltaire added “The saying that comes to my mind is ‘“Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good’.” Did she seriously read the audit? Commissioner Stegmann and this county government have forgotten the Multnomah County Animal Services mantra that reads: “This work matters.” It clearly does not. Gail O’Connell-Babcock --------------- Multnomah County Board of Commissioners’ response to the MCAS 2018 audit: https://multco.us/multnomah-county/news/board-responds-follow-animal-services-audit The 2018 MCAS Audit Report: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1c8Tfxbxe7dOORn9lG7LL1Dp0vlT8lM82