Sudden change in chiefs at county animal shelter

After less than a year on the job, Brigid Wasson, director of Sonoma County Animal Services, was fired this week without advance notice, leaving behind a department in ever greater turmoil.

Wasson, who served in the top post for just 11 months, is being replaced by Brian Whipple, a supervising animal control officer, whose interim appointment makes him the third person to lead the troubled agency in the past 14 months.

Wasson said she was approached by two managers in the county’s Department of Health Services - Ellen Bauer and Dan Taylor - at about 3 p.m. Monday and told to pack her things. She was then escorted from her office at the county’s animal shelter north of Santa Rosa.

“I’m in total shock,” said Wasson, who was a month from completing her one-year probationary period as a new county manager. “I didn’t see this coming, I didn’t sleep last night.”

Wasson was fired by Health Services Director Rita Scardaci, whose department has overseen Animal Services since late 2010, when a leadership shakeup at the top of the agency occurred, setting off what has been a tumultuous four-year period for the county’s shelter and animal patrol division.

Wasson’s dismissal comes less than two weeks after high-profile animal welfare advocate Odessa Gunn aired her concerns about conditions at the county shelter off Century Court. Gunn alleged that pets were enduring sweltering temperatures inside the shelter, putting the animals at risk. Wasson disputed the claims but later made some changes to address some of the concerns. The two women, however, never spoke or met.

County officials would not disclose on Tuesday why Wasson was fired, citing confidentiality rules that pertain to county personnel matters.

Bauer, the county’s public health director and Wasson’s direct supervisor, simply said the Animal Services division was in a time of “transformation.”

Scardaci, who Bauer said was traveling Tuesday, did not return calls for comment.

The dismissal raises serious questions about the strength of leadership overseeing the animal control agency and the county’s ability to stabilize the operation going forward. County officials acknowledged they were concerned about their ability to attract and retain a new director and restore morale within the agency, including about 30 employees, a corps of 50 active volunteers and an annual budget of $4.9 million.

The agency has long operated under the watchful eyes of a passionate cadre of animal welfare advocates, who have pressed the county to improve shelter conditions and decrease rates of animal euthanasia.

“There’s a delicate dynamic any time you’re dealing with animals and the public. It does take someone with very strong leadership capabilities to deal with those complexities and assess public concerns,” said Sonoma County Supervisor Efren Carrillo, who has been highly involved in discussions about the agency’s organization within county government. “Morale is something we’ll have to work on, and we need to focus on recruiting someone who will have some longevity.”

Carrillo said Scardaci told him and his Board of Supervisors colleagues on Friday that she had decided to terminate Wasson before her probation period ended.

“I talked to Rita Friday and she informed the board of the decision,” Carrillo said.

Wasson, a former manager of Santa Clara’s animal shelter, was brought on as director of Animal Services in September in a move that Scardaci said at the time would help the embattled agency to continue “moving in the right direction.”

She was charged with implementing more than a dozen sweeping changes at the agency, including the reduction in euthanasia rates for sheltered animals, improving data collection on animal intake, and launching a social media presence for the shelter.

Bauer said Tuesday that Wasson had largely met those goals, raising additional unanswered questions about why she was dismissed. Bauer said the number of rescue animals placed in homes has increased while euthanasia rates have declined during Wasson’s tenure. The shelter’s live release rate is now at 85 percent, up from 59 percent in 2008, according to the county.

Bauer also commended Wasson’s overhaul of data collection on lost and recovered pets, an effort that animal welfare advocates have applauded in recent months.

“Brigid brought a fresh perspective on ways to modernize animal services, including the use of data to identify potential program improvements and efficiencies,” Bauer said in an email to Animal Services staff on Tuesday morning announcing Wasson’s departure and Whipple’s appointment. Whipple, in his post with the county since November, has served in field and management posts with animal care and control operations in Oregon, New Hampshire and Delaware.

“We’re trying to change from the old days when people thought of us as just a pound, and I don’t think we’re there yet,” Bauer said Tuesday in an interview. “We’re looking for ways to evolve and better involve the community.”

Wasson, reached by phone Tuesday, said she was still traumatized and confused by the move. She struggled to give any explanation for why she was fired. The timing, in the wake of the dispute with Gunn, a Santa Rosa resident and the wife of former cycling star Levi Leipheimer, was “curious,” she said.

“I thought I was doing a great job,” Wasson said.

Some animal welfare advocates said Wasson was a good director and that she was unfairly targeted by the county and her critics.

Sheri Cardo, a former spokeswoman for the Marin Humane Society and a longtime animal welfare advocate in Sonoma County, said she was disappointed when she learned of Wasson’s departure.

“Brigid was an integral part of the changes we’re making,” said Cardo, who is working on proposals to upgrade animal intake. “I hate to see this community go through more tumult with our animal shelter … It’s discouraging to develop a relationship with a director who is making progress, only to find out that she’s fallen prey to the revolving-door syndrome.”

Gunn was backed up in her complaint against the county by Kiska Icard, executive director of the Sonoma Humane Society, who took the county to task for alleged inaction after Gunn first raised the issue after a visit to the shelter July 26.

Gunn and Leipheimer are major donors to the Humane Society’s Forget Me Not Farm, which assists troubled kids. Gunn also is a member of the farm’s board of directors.

Gunn said she met with Scardaci last Thursday to voice her concerns about the county’s animal shelter and identify potential solutions.

“We discussed how we could make the shelter, and the conditions for the animals, better,” Gunn said Tuesday. “I believe that Rita heard our concerns, and that she wants to make things better.”

She said she first learned of Wasson’s dismissal Tuesday. “I just wanted to help make conditions better at the shelter,” she said. “I wanted to meet with her but I was never able to.”

Wasson said she never had the opportunity to speak directly to Gunn about her concerns and that Gunn had gone over her head, to Bauer, her boss.

“I wish she would have come to me,” she said. “She could have. I was there that day.”

She said after she learned of Gunn’s complaint she dispatched county maintenance employees to survey shelter conditions.

They checked ventilation, installed five temperature gauges, and “we were even trying new things like cooling pads for the animals and giving them frozen Kongs stuffed with treats to keep them cool,” Wasson said. “I think we all wanted to see conditions improve, but those changes don’t happen overnight.”

Wasson said when she left Monday, the shelter was full, with roughly 80 dogs and about 50 cats.

Wasson’s dismissal comes four years and one month after the leadership shakeup that set in motion the recent turbulent period for Animal Services, one that has made it arguably the most besieged division in county government.

In July 2010, Amy Cooper, then the director of the agency, was fired by county Agricultural Commissioner Cathy Neville, who oversaw the animal care division at the time.

Cooper said then that she was given no reason for being removed from her job only 48 hours before her yearlong probationary status was to expire. The decision elicited howls of protest from animal care employees, sparked multiple county investigations and ultimately led to a reorganization of the departments Neville oversaw, including Animal Services. Cooper was rehired to her former post nine months later, after Carrillo, then chairman of the Board of Supervisors, had fired Neville, also with little public explanation.

County documents revealed later as part of Neville’s lawsuit against the county showed she was fired for misconduct and incompetence after several employees reported that she acted erratically and disparaged them, and after other county officials said that Neville did not show the necessary leadership on several high-profile agricultural initiatives.

Neville said the firing was illegal and politically motivated, but the county’s decision was upheld by a Sonoma County judge and a state appellate court. The state Supreme Court declined to review the case.

Cooper’s second tenure at the helm ended suddenly in June last year when she resigned, citing a need to a need to spend more time with her family.

Wasson was hired four months later.

County officials said they would now embark on a national recruitment for a new animal control director.

Supervisor Shirlee Zane acknowledged that the county has struggled to deal with public concerns about its animal care division and the director’s post, which she called one of the most challenging in county government.

“There’s been a lot of turnover, no doubt,” she said. “This is a highly emotional topic.”

Staff Writer Derek Moore contributed to this report. You can reach Staff Writer Angela Hart at 526-8503 or angela.hart@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ahartreports.