City officials are tight-lipped today about a crisis at the Los Angeles Animal Services department, where General Manager Staycee Dains is on an unexplained two-month leave of absence and the recently named president of the department’s board has left his position after chairing just one meeting.
Annette Ramirez, who led the department on an interim basis for a year and a half before Mayor Karen Bass tapped Dains for the GM position last year, has taken the reins once again while Dains is on leave.
“I am writing today to share updates about our Department’s leadership. General Manager Staycee Dains is currently on leave and in her absence, I will be serving as Acting General Manager,” Ramirez wrote in a letter to staff on Friday. “You should know that our Department will continue operating at full capacity and serving all of its general functions. I have spoken with supervisors and team leaders and I feel confident that we will keep moving forward.”
Los Angeles Animal Services General Manager, Staycee Dains, speaks for the first time on the state of the shelters after volunteers and rescue groups accused the organization of not prioritizing the well-being of animals or the safety of people at their shelters. Tracey Leong reports for the NBC4 News at 6 p.m. on Monday, June 17, 2024.
LAAS officials have not replied to questions about Dains’ leave of absence, and it was not clear when or even if she would return.
The Mayor’s Office referred questions about Dains’ status to Ramirez’s memo. Dains, who formerly led Long Beach’s animal services department, has not responded to attempts to reach her for a comment.
The Board of Animal Services Commissioners, which sets policy and conducts oversight of the city’s six animal shelters, is dealing with its own major shakeup.
The board’s scheduled Aug. 13 meeting was canceled, and James Johnson, who was named to replace Larry Gross as board president in July, is now out, leaving two of the panel’s five seats vacant.
Johnson was appointed to the board by Bass in 2023 and was elected its president by the board July 9 after Gross announced his voluntary departure. The first meeting chaired by Johnson on July 23 was rocky, as Johnson clashed with a member of the public who criticized Dains, and made a failed attempt to pass a $25,000 contract for “safety and engagement” services, then offered to raise the funds himself after commissioners opposed the effort.
The next scheduled LAAS commissioners meeting is Aug. 27 at City Hall.
The shakeups come as the shelters continue to suffer a worsening overpopulation crisis, with too many unwanted animals and not enough space, staff members, volunteers or adopters.
According to the LAAS website, 1,450 dogs were in the city’s six shelters as of Saturday, far over the department’s capacity of 737.