OAKLAND — Oakland Animal Services director Rebecca Katz is resigning from her post mid-June because of her frustration with the city’s lack of support for the department, she said.
“I gave it my best for more than three years, and OAS is in a much better position than when I inherited it, but I simply cannot continue to work at an agency that does not get the resources and support from the City needed to fulfill its mission,” Katz wrote in an email sent to volunteers April 25.
Beyond the letter, Katz has refused to comment on her resignation.
Katz said she submitted her letter of resignation to the city earlier this year, and laid out a list of “modest needs and requirements” for Oakland to provide that would change her mind. Those included hiring people for vacant positions — some of which had been unfilled for more than two and a half years — advocating for more funding and positions in the 2018 mid-cycle budget and getting the police department to “honor their obligations around animal investigations.”