Fired Animal Services Chief Gets $50,000 City Contract

The Los Angeles City Council awarded a $50,000 consulting contract Tuesday to the chief of the Animal Services Department who was fired by the mayor.

The contract gives Guerdon Stuckey three months to file a report on several department issues, such as the spay-and-neuter program.

Stuckey was fired in December by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who had promised to do so during his election campaign. Stuckey subsequently asked the council to reinstate him, and his attorney hinted that legal action against the city alleging wrongful termination was possible.

After weeks of discussion, the council voted 9 to 3 for the contract. In exchange, he dropped his reinstatement request.

Villaraigosa said Tuesday that he stood by his firing.

“I would not have provided him with a contract for services. That’s why I fired him,” Villaraigosa said. “The council, however, has every right to employ him in the way that they do. As far as I’m concerned, this matter is behind us and my authority to fire him has been vindicated.”

The council majority was apparently swayed by the fact that Stuckey found himself the target of a campaign -- including alleged threats of physical harm -- by some animal activists who were angered at the rate at which the city was euthanizing dogs.

Councilman Tony Cardenas said Stuckey was victimized by a lack of quantifiable ways to measure the work of agency chiefs -- an indirect slap at the mayor.

Taking a softer stance was Council President Eric Garcetti, who said that the council had not defied the mayor by reinstating Stuckey and that the contract was an acknowledgment that Stuckey had worked under difficult circumstances.

Bill Rosendahl, Jack Weiss and Dennis Zine voted against the contract. They argued that Stuckey had known what he was getting into and that the mayor had the right to fire him.

Times staff writer Patrick McGreevy contributed to this report.