Culver City’s first Animal Services Officer quietly resigned and departed last month, in contrast to last winter’s protracted and heated City Council argument over whether such an agent was necessary in the first place.
Young Stephanie Yarbro, who spent three of her six months on the job being trained by an expert from the Police Dept., Sgt. Mike Webb, said she intended return to school to become a veterinarian.
It is not clear whether a successor will be hired — for reasons unrelated to last year’s political dispute.
Ostensibly, the call would go to Police Chief Don Pedersen because the program operates under the auspices of the Police Dept.
In fact, the call likely will be made by City Manager Mark Scott. He said the hiring of a replacement “ultimately is a policy decision” that hinges on City Hall’s ability, under crisis budget conditions, to afford an Animal Services Officer.
Finances aside for a moment, Mr. Scott hopes that aa hometown successor can be appointed, based on the positive review he awarded Ms. Yarbro.
“I don’t doubt that this position, done well, will serve the community,” the City Manager said with vigor.
He raved about the quality of Ms. Yarbro’s brief but impressive work. Mr. Scott mentioned an incident when the diminutive Ms. Yarbro was called to a neighborhood where a pit bull had been wounded by a gun blast and was regarded as a longering menace.
Residents were surprised and skeptical when the dainty young Animal Services Officer stepped out of her vehicle. Deftly, she corraled the dangerous dog, and thereafter, cynics retreated.
Meanwhile, at City Hall
The subject of whether Culver City needs — and can afford — its own Animal Services Officer has been a running dispute that has engaged the last two editions of the City Council.
Animal activists in the community, strongly dissatisfied with allegedly poor treatment of various animals by County officers, long have believed that a hometown officer was a panacea.
They found a champion on the Council in Gary Silbiger, shortly after he was elected almost eight years ago Hiring a hometown officer joined the drumbeat of causes that Mr. Silbiger regularly trumpeted with enthusiasm. He never became discouraged when colleagues rejected his ideas, and backers loved that quality about him.
Periodically when he would introduce the concept anew, he was consistently outvoted — until, that is, ally Chris Armenta and sometimes-ally Mehaul O’Leary were elected.
Last winter, the stars over City Hall were aligned for the first time to hire an Animal Services Officer.
Historicaly, the main beef of proponents was that many animals were routinely treated cruelly, and too many were killed, at the County Shelter in Carson.
The opposition contended that hiring a 40-hours-a-week local officer did not make fiscal or physical sense. County services would be needed anyway for the remaining 128 hours of the week.
But a pivotal change came when the City Council entered into an agreement with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to accept Culver City pickups at its shelter in Hawthorne.
Sentiment on the Council notably shifted. Commonly, Mr. Silbiger and Mr. Armenta vote in unison, as do Mayor Andy Weissman and colleague Scott Malsin.
The diffeence-maker often is Mr. O’Leary, as he was in this instant.
To engineer a compromise-shaded peace, Mr. O’Leary suggested a two-year pilot, or experimental, program.
Under those terms, a search was conducted, and Ms. Yarbro was chosen.
However, her inherent love for animals may, in the end, have overcome her desire to be an enforcer of the law as well.
Finally, another cloudy, unsettled matter is whether the program, for which the initial outlay was in excess of $100,000, is paying for itself, as partisans promised.
