Dear Friends,
Over the past decade, Multnomah County has failed the animals and people whose health and safety it is supposed to protect.
For years, audits, investigative reporting, advocates, and volunteers have warned that Animal Services was heading in the wrong direction.
Volunteers who dedicated thousands of hours caring for animals repeatedly begged County leadership to act. They were ignored, disrespected, and some were even fired after speaking out about unacceptable conditions:
Sick animals left untreated despite obvious illness, including dogs with blood in their urine and respiratory distress
Severely ill dogs adopted out, traumatizing adoptive families
Dogs adopted out, and cats released into the community, without being spayed or neutered
Dogs adopted to potentially unsafe individuals or unfit homes
Dogs euthanized for “lack of resources,” without clear policies, experienced leadership, or a consistent chain of command for decision-making
Before leaving office, I documented the volunteers’ experiences and recommendations in a summary I shared with the Board. I hoped it would result in action.
Instead, the Chair hired a consultant and produced a 108-item checklist of activities and processes to fix Animal Services.
In her final State of the County address, the Chair actually pointed to Animal Services as one of her accomplishments because 90 of those boxes had been checked.
The animals don’t care how many boxes the County checked.
And despite the Chair’s declaration of success, advocates and volunteers on the front lines report that animal care, management, and working conditions are getting worse.
The County’s solution?
A new Animal Services facility costing roughly $70 million.
A new facility is needed. But a new building won't fix failed leadership, management, or accountability.
It’s the same pattern we’ve seen across the County: When a system isn’t working, spend millions on the next silver bullet - think “Deflection” - while leaving the broken system intact.
Most Animal Services constituents can't speak for themselves. But the problems at Animal Services speak volumes about Multnomah County: poor leadership, spending disconnected from results, and little to no accountability.
Animal Services also gives us the opportunity to prove that we can do things differently.
Leadership
As I covered in a previous email, one of the County Chair’s most consequential responsibilities is choosing the people who run County departments.
Last week, the County announced a new permanent Animal Services Director following the retirement of a director who had no animal-services background and remained in charge for four years despite deteriorating conditions.
Volunteers have publicly raised serious questions about the qualifications of her replacement and the process used to select him.
Those concerns deserve scrutiny from County Commissioners, particularly the two running to lead the County.
As Chair, I will make sure Animal Services is led by someone with the experience and demonstrated ability to turn around a failing system. And my decisions will be informed by experts - not the failed leadership responsible for the system we're trying to fix.
Organizing for results
Animal Services is currently tucked inside a department primarily responsible for roads, bridges, transportation, and land use.
This doesn’t make sense.
Animal Services protects animal welfare and public safety and intersects directly with human services, homelessness, health, and emergency response.
As Chair, I will re-organize the County’s siloed, archaic and costly system to prioritize function, minimize cost, and maximize impact, with clear responsibility and accountability for results.
Measuring what matters
Multnomah County has a habit of measuring things that sound good instead of things that tell us whether anything actually worked.
Animal Services is no different.
The County counts employee trainings, outreach events, veterinarians hired, recommendations completed, and “live releases.”
But those numbers don't tell us whether animals are healthier; lost pets get home faster; adoptions remain successful a year later; animals are routinely spayed and neutered; preventable injuries to animals and people decline; or more families stay together because they can access help when crises arise.
Those are the outcomes that matter. And those are the outcomes I would measure.
Tying spending to results
It is impossible to say what the roughly $16 million allocated to Animal Services is actually accomplishing because the County neither defines meaningful outcomes nor organizes its budget around achieving them.
Worse, there is evidence of actual misuse of funds. In 2023 an Auditor investigation found that nearly $2 million in dedicated donations for veterinary care, adoption outreach, and spay/neuter services sat unused for years, even as animals desperately needed care.
When the Auditor’s office followed up a year later, it found that the County had started spending the money - but only by shifting it around so that the restricted donations backfilled general services. There has been no follow-up since.
This is not a lack-of-money problem. It’s a failure of management and accountability.
My approach starts with the end in mind: What are we trying to accomplish? What will it cost? What are we spending now? Is it working?
Then we build the budget around the answers.
A complete Animal Services overhaul
Criticizing a broken system is easy. Fixing it is harder. And the County’s responsibilities go far beyond what we see in the news.
That's why my Comprehensive Multnomah County Turnaround Plan doesn't just address the headlines. It provides a blueprint for transforming all of the County's core responsibilities.
And Animal Services has its own complete overhaul plan.
The Animal Services Turnaround Plan draws on successful approaches from across the country and starts with a simple premise:
The purpose of Animal Services isn't to check boxes. It is to protect animals, protect people, support responsible pet ownership, reunite families with lost pets, provide humane care, and spend public dollars wisely.
Everything else should be organized around those goals.
And Animal Services raises an obvious question:
If the County can't organize itself to safely care for the animals entrusted to it, how can we trust it to safely care for people?
The good news is that systems can be redesigned - with the right leadership, the right plan, and the right people. That’s what I will bring to the office of Multnomah County Chair.
Together, we can build a County worthy of the people - and the animals - it exists to serve.
Sharon