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Merit Appeals Board January 16, 2026 <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />MS. TOKIHIRO: Yes, so— <br /> <br />MR. THOMAS: —according to what entity? <br /> <br />MS. TOKIHIRO: So, now it’s its own agency. So, when it fell under the Police Department, it <br />wasn’t an agency per se. It was just a role of the Police Department to take care of animal <br />control—and so, the positions that the Animal Control positions, at that time, were all contracts. <br /> <br />So, then, as the agency was established—then the positions were converted from contracts to <br />civil service positions. <br /> <br />MR. THOMAS: So, can we say, yet, that there are enough positions to cover the workload or is <br />that going to have to be tested in real life? <br /> <br />MS. TOKIHIRO: So, I believe when all the positions are full, it would be—they’re filled—it <br />would be a sufficient number of positions based on an analysis of the operation. They have had <br />vacancies that we’re working to fill, so they continue to be—they have less staff than they would <br />like, but we’re moving forward with trying to assist them to fill all those vacancies. <br /> <br />MR. THOMAS: So, is the new Director—the hiring authority—the one who’s going to make <br />the decisions on staffing? <br /> <br />MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. So, in combination, any department or agency head would have those <br />kinds of discussions and make recommendations to the Mayor and the Managing Director, as far <br />as adding additional positions, et cetera. If they wanted to do some kind of reorganization or add <br />additional positions, that would have to be something that they would work on with the <br />Department of Finance and also with the Mayor’s Office. <br /> <br />MR. THOMAS: But that involves changing positions and so forth that—but actually hiring <br />decisions of particular individuals—that’s the purview of the director, right? <br /> <br />MS. TOKIHIRO: Correct. The appointing authority is the department or agency head, right. <br /> <br />MR. THOMAS: How long do you think it’s going to take to get them staffed up? It’s been an <br />issue for quite a while hasn’t it? How do we manage an effective animal control program— <br /> <br />MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. So, when we try and assist them with those vacancies, that’s where <br />we’re recruiting for the positions at multiple levels. And so, that allows us to get qualified <br />applicants that, maybe, don’t have the amount of experience needed for the highest level <br />positions—and then, to train them up internally, and then as they gain that experience we <br />allocate them to the next class in the career ladder. <br /> <br />So, I think, right now, when an agency doesn’t have an Administrator—it becomes a little bit <br />challenging to move forward in all of those aspects. So, we’re really looking forward to getting <br />Page 7 <br /> <br /> <br />