Panel Member’s Anger Doesn’t Stay Bottled Up

Members of the Animal Regulation Commission usually join the panel because they’re passionate about animals.

But that passion, sometimes, makes them act like, well, animals.

A case in point occurred Monday when Commissioner Gini Barrett, upset at comments made by fellow Commissioner Russ Cook, shouted an obscenity across the room and then launched an empty water bottle at him.

Her aim was off, however, and the plastic bottle instead bounced off the arm of newly elected commission President Steve Afriat.

“I told Gini later that she has to work on her aim,” Afriat quipped after the incident.

He was not injured. “I was too numb from the incident to feel any pain,” Afriat said.

Cook could not be reached for comment after the meeting, but witnesses said he responded with a chuckle.

Barrett, an Encino businesswoman and wife of state Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), admitted that her actions were unprofessional, but said that Cook had been critical of her for years and that she was “at the end of my rope.”

She said she only wishes she had come up with a more witty retort.

“I’m sorry that I did not handle it brilliantly and cleverly,” she said.

The panel members serve at the pleasure of Mayor Richard Riordan, who appoints members to more than 40 city commissions. A spokesperson for Riordan said the mayor has not been briefed on the incident, but added: “This is not the kind of behavior we expect from commissioners.” The hostilities were sparked when Barrett presented the panel a report she had drafted on the goals for the Animal Regulation Department.

Cook criticized Barrett’s plan, complaining that he and the public were never asked to contribute suggestions for the department’s goals, according to those attending the meeting.

But Barrett said the goals in her report are not set in stone and that she is willing to accept comments and suggestions from the commission and the public.

Barrett said Cook was being “disruptive and destructive.”

With that, she launched the obscenity and the water bottle across the commission table.

In the past, Barrett and Cook have locked horns over Cook’s proposal to institute a “no kill” policy in the department. Under this plan, the department would rely on volunteers to find homes for stray dogs and cats instead of euthanizing nearly 45,000 animals each year.

But Barrett and others have criticized Cook’s plan, saying the department does not have the money to shelter all the animals until volunteers can find them homes.

The incident was not surprising considering the passion-evoking topics that the panel must wrestle with: how many animals will be euthanized each year, whether or not to trap coyotes, how many cats can be crammed into a shelter cage.

The meetings are usually attended by animal rights advocates who often criticize the commission for not doing enough to protect stray animals or native wildlife.

Two years ago, Lynne Exe, a commissioner from the San Fernando Valley, abruptly resigned from the panel, saying animal rights advocates had gained too much influence over the panel, particularly with regard to its coyote trapping policies.

Monday’s meeting was the first for Afriat as president. Barrett, who had previously held the president’s post, stepped down two weeks ago to concentrate on reducing the city’s pet overpopulation problem.

Said Afriat of his first meeting: “I guess the honeymoon is over.”