General (5)Date:5/12/2025 3:32:18 PM
From:"Michael Mavrovouniotis"
To:"Public Comment" publiccomment@anaheim.net
Subject:[EXTERNAL] CITY COUNCIL, GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT
Warning: This email originated from outside the City of Anaheim. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and are expecting the message.
On May 20 the county board of supervisors is voting on the landscaping contract for OC Animal Care (OCAC). It's county business, but this city is receiving animal shelter services from OCAC. What the county does matter
to the city.
You don’t need to ask the BOS to reject this contract. I’ll assume that this contract is legitimate and not some type of favoritism. Please tell the BOS to get the county to deliver results on this contract.
I don’t know if it's the fault of the contractor or OC Community Resources, but the shelter play yards have deteriorated badly in 2022-2024. The decrepit yards send a negative signal to staff and volunteers, whom the shelter
needs to recruit and retain. Staff and volunteers perceive the yards as an indicator of systemic mismanagement. (Some yard problems also pose safety risks.)
Most of the shelter's grass yards used to be visible from public walkways. Beginning in the Spring of 2020 (the COVID outbreak), the shelter blocked public access to some areas, and these yards remain invisible to the
public. This may be the reason for the neglect.
You can look at the “After” photos in Karen Vaughn’s piece. They came from volunteers or staff, in the weeks prior to the publication of that piece.
I am attaching a map of OC Animal Care. The “Four Play Yards” just south of buildings 5 & 6 are the worst.
On your next visit to OCAC, ask to visit and photograph the “Four Play Yards” south of buildings 5 & 6. Use the map to make sure you’re seeing the correct yards.
I’ll say it before you do: You are NOT landscape inspectors. I don’t want to be a landscape inspector myself. OC Community Resources can and should relieve all of us of this unwanted task by taking care of the yards.