RivCo Animal Services director to exit post for slot at county hospital

The Riverside County Department of Animal Services' embattled director will be moving to a management position at the county hospital two weeks from today, while a nationwide search gets underway for her replacement.

The county Executive Office confirmed Tuesday that Department of Animal Services Executive Director Erin Gettis will officially step down on Sept. 24 to become executive director for the Riverside University Medical Center in Moreno Valley.

Officials would not disclose whether Gettis was encouraged to take the position due to intensifying criticism of policies she implemented at animal services, which led to the filing of a lawsuit against the county last month.

County CEO Jeff Van Wagenen issued a statement publicly thanking "Erin for her efforts over the last two-and-a-half years."   

In her new role, Gettis will be handling government relations, helping develop strategic plans for the medical center campus, conducting research on grant opportunities and coordinating with the chief operating officer, chief nursing officer and others to improve "patient-centered and customer-based
services,'' according to an online description of the  job.   

It pays between $150,633 and $274,830 annually, and Gettis was expected to land in the upper tier, given that her current position nets her about $220,000 a year, according to public compensation records published by the California State Controller's Office.

Executive Office spokeswoman Brooke Federico told City News Service the Department of Human Resources will initiate a national search for a new director at the Department of Animal Services, utilizing the services of a pre-approved external recruiting firm. The Board of Supervisors will consider the
recruiter's recommendations and vote on whichever prospect appears most promising.

"It is difficult to estimate how long the recruitment process will take; our focus is on identifying and interviewing the best candidates," Federico said.

Gettis has been lambasted publicly, sometimes at board meetings, for policies that led to the county being characterized as worst in the nation for sheltered dog and cat kill rates.

The lawsuit filed in August, spearheaded by the Rancho Mirage-based Walter Clark Law Group, seeks a permanent injunction against the Department of Animal Services' humane euthanasia programs.

Clark called it a "ground-breaking case" that's predicated on the 1998 Hayden Act. That legislation, authored by then-state Sen. Tom Hayden, D-Santa Monica, states in part, "no adoptable animal should be euthanized if it can be adopted into a suitable home."  

The measure further bars euthanization even if a pet lacks qualities that make it ill-suited to immediate adoption, "but could become adoptable with reasonable efforts."

The plaintiffs, based on data gleaned and produced by the nonprofit Best Friends Animal Society, contend that in 2022, Department of Animal Services shelters "killed more animals than any other reporting shelter in the United States."  

Altogether, in 2022 and 2023, an estimated 24,000 canines and felines were euthanized in county shelters, according to the organization.   

Clark and his law partners alleged Gettis was unsuited and underqualified to manage animal services.

The accusations elicited barbed responses from Supervisors Kevin Jeffries and Karen Spiegel at the Aug. 27 board meeting.   

"It's time to tell contract cities, 'You need to go on your own and build your own shelters,'" Supervisor Kevin Jeffries said regarding municipalities that depend on the county for animal control. "We're going to
have to do something different. We cannot continue to be your punching bag. Because your city has hundreds, if not thousands, of animals being turned into our (four) county shelters, nationally and internationally, we receive the criticism."

Spiegel was exasperated over what she described as questionable data being floated as gospel truth.

"We've been asking all these different groups that keep quoting `we're the worst in the nation (for kill rates)' where are you getting that? And it's one group on the internet -- Best Friends," the supervisor said. "Many municipalities have the same challenges. We have had a severe amount of (abandoned and neglected) animals, hundreds at a time, coming into the shelters. Municipalities cannot take these animals. It's very challenging."