CITY ANIMAL SERVICES HIT WITH AUDIT DIRECTOR DISCOUNTS FINDINGS.Byline: Rick Orlov Orlov (Орлóв) is the name of a Russian noble family which produced several distinguished statesmen, diplomatists and soldiers. The family first gained distinction in the person of four Orlov brothers, of whom the senior was Catherine the Great's Staff Writer A critical audit of the city's Department of Animal Services released Thursday Thursday: see week. shows the department was unable to account for nearly one-third of its field officers on any given day, along with wide discrepancies in the response time to public requests. While Animal Services Director Don Knapp said auditors AUDITORS, practice. Persons lawfully appointed to examine and digest accounts referred to them, take down the evidence in writing, which may be lawfully offered in relation to such accounts, and prepare materials on which a decree or judgment may be made; and to report the whole, together failed to recognize the full scope of duties of the officers, city Controller Rick Tuttle Rick Tuttle (born 1940) was Los Angeles City Controller from 1985 to 2001. He stressed the importance of creating a strong democratic influence at UCLA, which was in his words "the best large public university in a major city. said it shows the need for the department to keep tighter controls on workers. Animal Services has received large budget increases over the past two years to hire more officers to deal with complaints about poor responses. Deputy Controller Louisa Lund said a review of four days in the department showed that on one day, 10 of 33 field officers failed to file the daily reports of activities. Twelve of 43 failed to file the required reports on a second day. ``The department might blame this on paperwork problems, but the fact is there is no way to show if people were at work or not,'' Lund said. But Knapp said the auditors did not recognize other work being performed by the officers - for which the reports are not required. ``Animal Control officers' duties include more than responding to street addresses,'' Knapp said in his response to the audit. ``Animal Control officers are law enforcement officers and are assigned as·sign tr.v. as·signed, as·sign·ing, as·signs 1. To set apart for a particular purpose; designate: assigned a day for the inspection. 2. , at times, in the shelters, to complete criminal reports and filings, complete telephone field investigations, testify To provide evidence as a witness, subject to an oath or affirmation, in order to establish a particular fact or set of facts. Court rules require witnesses to testify about the facts they know that are relevant to the determination of the outcome of the case. at hearings, night shift supervision and training.'' Knapp said an internal department review found that all officers were working on the days examined by Tuttle's office. But the audit said the primary goal of the officers was working in the field and that should be their highest priority. ``As a result, city residents may not be receiving the level of services consistent with the number of Animal Control officers,'' the audit said. Tuttle said the office also found wide variances in the number of calls responded to at the six shelters operated by the department. South Central and the West Valley shelters had the lowest response rates. In South Central, 48 percent of the calls went unanswered while it was a 44 percent nonresponse rate in the West Valley. ``We have all heard stories about packs of roaming The ability to use a communications device such as a cellphone or PDA and be able to move from one cell or access point to another without losing the connection. dogs,'' Tuttle said. ``This shows the city's response is inadequate.'' Knapp said the auditors failed to take into account the conditions in which officers were working - particularly in South Los Angeles South Los Angeles is the official name for a large geographic and cultural area lying to the southwest and southeast of downtown Los Angeles, California. The area was formerly called South Central Los Angeles, and is still sometimes called South Central. - or recognize the differences in the types of calls. |
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