Failure is built into MCAS government when cronyism replaces public service, where contrary opinions are designated as ‘unprofessional’ or ‘undermining the mission.’
The recent advancement of Andrew Mathias from Animal Care Supervisor to Operations Manager at MCAS by Director Erin Grahek and Director of Community Services Margi Bradway represents an enormous betrayal of public trust. Andrew Mathias, originally hired by former Director Jackie Rose, collaborated with Jackie Rose to reverse all humane policies and public participation at MCAS. He personally ended Open Paw, a program intended to reduce shelter stress, deprived animals of needed care, and was instrumental, along with former Director Rose, in trivializing the 2018 Audit recommendations, and developed the “waiver” system that disowning all responsibility for all animal care (Kennel Cough waivers, Fear Waivers, Handling Waivers, etc.).
“Longtime volunteer Kelley Sherman and former volunteer Debbi Stegemeyer remembered Andrew Mathias, one of the shelter’s two animal care supervisors, telling volunteers at a meeting shortly after the 2018 audit was released that they didn’t have to worry about its findings. ‘I want you all to know that MCAS is already doing good enough,’ Sherman recalled Mathias saying. Mathias declined to comment to The Oregonian/OregonLive.”
Andrew Mathias applied to the position of Operations Manager in July 2022, but was rejected as a candidate due to an implicit lack of shelter and animal experience alongside administrative leadership skills. Skills that he has not developed since July 2022, based on repeated management failures documented by local media, no matter what scapegoats the shelter may create.
“From: Jamie Waltz
Sent: Monday, July 18, 2022 8:25 AM PDT
To: Erin Grahek
Subject: Re: Shelter Manager Next steps
Thank you for having this conversation with Andrew.
Jamie
On Fri, Jul 15, 2022 at 5:01 PM Erin Grahek <erin.grahek@multco.us> wrote:
Thanks for all of your support in this process. I met with Andrew a
few minutes ago and let him know that I was not going to be
offering him the position. I did say that Heather would be a good
source of interview feedback, having been on both panels.
I told him that I wanted to continue to explore and find a candidate
that had good shelter/animal experience and organization skills and
the higher level of management experience and strategic visioning
skills. That I really see this position being a support to the
management team and the director, therefore needing to be a
both/and candidate.
He seemed to take it well, we had a good talk. We will see.
Take care and have a good weekend.”
The slow slide to failure that began long ago accelerated rapidly in 2016 when Jackie Rose was appointed director, or rather, as dictator. Ms Rose, unsupervised, reformed all policies, concentrating power in her own and managers hands, leaving workers, citizens, rescues and expert consultants powerless. Those policies, all unexamined, remain in place today. They have created a collective culture of unchecked arrogant entitlement. These are some examples:
- Once, owners who had surrendered their impounded dogs while in a state of emotional distress were permitted to reclaim them with the appropriate infraction ticket and corrective restrictions if a violation had occurred. Now, within minutes, they have no right to reclaim. It is entirely up to the management’s discretion. There are no rights to appeal.
- Experienced rescues are forbidden to appeal euthanasia decisions by the Shelter Review Committee, a group of in-house managers with limited animal behavior backgrounds or rehabilitation experience. MCAS now permits no discussion and refuses to listen to options that will save animals’ lives without any risk to the public. In every case a process that will save lives has been replaced by policies dictated by a corrupting absolute power.
- The new volunteer policy manual warns volunteers to not question management judgments to kill specific animals, nor disclose these dispositions to the public, nor advocate for animals when they saw a decision they believed was unjust or there would be consequences, designating such actions as “unprofessional” or “undermining the mission of MCAS.”
2024 MCAS Volunteer Handbook
“Volunteers are expected to act professionally at all times when engaging in MCAS
activities. This includes adhering to, and showing support of, the policies and directives of MCAS staff and refraining from allowing conflicting personal views to overshadow the expertise and purpose of MCAS…” (Page 5)
“…Multnomah County Animal Services maintains the sole discretion to determine animal dispositions and outcomes. Volunteers may not solicit changes to determined dispositions or individual outcomes without express approval from MCAS, including seeking rescue for animals on behalf of MCAS, seeking adoption placement for animals that are not available for adoption, or otherwise disregarding the disposition determination processes in place at MCAS. These activities undermine the mission of MCAS.” (Page 10)
We see a glimpse of the consequences of this policy in an Koin article by Jashayla Pettigrew, Former animal shelter volunteer sues Multnomah County over ‘unlawful’ termination.
“The lawsuit claimed MCAS employees regularly shared their frustrations with shelter leadership, and Bedrosian sometimes joined to discuss her concerns with their euthanasia and adoption policies.
According to the declaration, shelter leaders warned the volunteer against questioning their actions and policies in April 2023 — stating she made people feel ‘uncomfortable.’
About two months later, a volunteer coordinator told her that only staff could discuss topics like adoption and euthanasia.”
“…Bedrosian privately communicated her concerns with the shelter manager and was terminated the following day, according to the suit.”
A prediction from May 1, 2019, proven true.
The following is a post from my proto-blog on Change.org, following Former Director Jackie Rose’s departure from the shelter.
Fun fact: Jackie Rose departed MCAS to become Director of Ventura County Animal Services in 2019. In 2023, she ‘retired‘ after facing criticism for the same conduct she showed at MCAS due to a “small but vocal group” critical her euthanasia policies, where too many adoptable animals were euthanized.
Aftermath:
The triumphant departure of Jackie Rose to a sunnier climate;
The devastating fracture of the No Kill mission left behind.
Oregon citizens first learned of MCAS Director Jackie Rose’s April 12, 2019 departure to Ventura County Animals Services from California newspapers, where media reported that a joyful welcome awaits her scheduled arrival on May 1, 2019. There was no prior word or warning from local Multnomah government that Ms. Rose had moved on until surprised local citizens brought it to their attention.
After a 3 ½ year tenure, all that Jackie Rose left behind for Multnomah residents were unfinished audit goals surrounding continued well documented substandard care, and increased concerns about the welfare and well-being of staff and animals. Her legacy, multiple new policies that stripped away animals’, citizens’ and staff rights, continue. They are marked by a lack of empathy and passed unnoticed because of a lack of government oversight accompanied by apathy and indifference. As Bob Dylan once said, “there is no success like failure and failure is no success at all.”
Everything about Ms. Rose rejects the core of No Kill – the basic principle that every life counts and requires every effort to find and implement humane solutions. Under her leadership, “inconvenient” animals are routinely killed after being labeled “unhealthy/untreatable” even when the records demonstrate that they were only scared or had treatable conditions. Killing at MCAS has become an act of convenience, one taking place behind closed doors and disguised as “necessary” to create a perfect marketing vision.
MCAS’s progressive path forward began with a 2000 MCAS Citizens’ Task Force and a commitment to achieve a No Kill mission by 2005. After three and one-half years of Ms. Rose, MCAS could not be further from that goal. Its claimed successes are belied by unverifiable “high live release rates” that have been promoted by low adoption standards, multiple free or nearly free adoption sales, revolving door adoptions and a high adoption return rate. The mission is numbers only: “Any home will do.” Animals returned over and over again are traumatized, ultimately offered to rescue or killed. It is a factory goods model, not a humane shelter model.
The peoples’ mission lost its way under Ms. Rose’s guidance. Animals have become highly disposable: a widely supported community mission was discarded by politicians when inconvenient. The need for change starts with government culture: public service must replace collegiality. When government prizes protecting colleagues from their mistakes over accountability, democracy itself is subverted. Rationalization of failure replaces correction, motivated by a desire to keep the issue off the elected leaders’ desks. The only check on re-naming failure as success comes from George Orwell’s comment: “…It is possible to carry on this process [ ‘impudently twisting facts’] for an indefinite time: the only check on it is sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.”
Multnomah County politics must change, if there is to be any progress forward. Questions and concerns about local government should not be treated as adversarial attacks; they present serious issues that must be addressed and corrected. Problems kicked down the road worsen. Too much power regarding the appointment of the MCAS Director is concentrated in one person’s hands.
The appointment decision of the MCAS Animal Services Director is left entirely up to one person, the Director of Community Services, a person whose other responsibilities are Bridges and Transportation, a person with no knowledge about sheltering. He provides no oversight. The position of animal control director in Multnomah County is de facto independent. Citizen and staff concerns and complaints are ignored at both the MCAS and Department levels. Ask and there is no response.
Abuse of power commonly occurs when supervisors abdicate oversight. The citizens’ will to create a progressive sheltering mission beginning in 2000 has been easily tossed aside. Department Director Peoples has steadfastly ignored mounting evidence and complaints about the hostile environment created by Ms. Rose’s policies, practices, and behaviors affecting animals, the public and staff alike. He didn’t listen. Neither he nor the county commission responded to concerns. The findings of the MCAS audit reports were treated initially as an affront. Prior to the formal release of the audit, Kim Peoples and Jackie Rose, instead of first meeting with the Audit Department to advance corrections, met privately with each county commissioner to pre-empt its impact.
Jackie Rose has departed MCAS to Ventura, California. The effects of her massive overhaul of all MCAS policies, many hostile to this community, will continue in Oregon. It will be a long and rough road home. Ventura County will be her next victim.
Gail O’Connell-Babcock
2024 Multnomah County Animal Services Volunteer Handbook
Gimme Shelter Portland criticism of MCAS, and the response from Kim Peoples, former Director of the Department of Community Services
MCAS Task Force Findings, June 29, 2000
Multnomah County Animal Services Audit, 2018
Multnomah County Animal Services Audit, 2016
https://multco.us/info/animal-services-audit
Email Record: The deterioration of morale and performance at MCAS
