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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAugusta Animal Services Advisory Meeting May 21, 2014 Augusta Animal Services Advisory Board Minutes Meeting Date 05/21/2014 Attending Staff: Sharon Broady, Priscilla Crisler, Edward Jefferon Attending Members: Jennifer Weaver, BB Langham, Willene Colvin, Lorna Barrett, Erin Peacher, Debbie Prince, Randy Wishard, Aimee Murphy, Linda Finnegan Absent: Taylor Bryant Guests: Commissioner Donnie Smith, Commissioner Grady Smith, Deputy Administrator Steve Cassells Meeting was opened at 5:40pm Reading of the minutes of the last meeting was waived. Minutes were accepted. Topic of local elections was brought up, with the information that we get to know our new commissioners. Updates from Staff: Ms. Crisler said they are holding moms and babies of cats and dogs until they can be spayed/neutered and adopted out. Topic was brought up again about having a contract/agreement between local rescues and AAS regarding unaltered animals. There has been much discussion on this matter and samples of agreements from other communities are being discussed. Donnie Smith said he would look into this further and get back to us with an update. Ms. Broady announced that the part time vet they had worked her last day last Wednesday, and that she has created a job description and is working to find a full time vet, at the recommendation of commissioners at a previously held meeting. Dr. Wilkes is helping when needed, and vets from Fort Gordon have offered to help in the mean time. Advisory Board Duties and Responsibilities Mr. Langham said that board members were required to either ride in the truck with an AAS staff member for a few hours or work in the kennel for a few hours or help out in the facility in some way. He stated that each member should contact the director and set up a time to do this so that each person has a better understanding of the duties of the facility staff before making assumptions. Though this may sound like a good idea, it is not listed in the duties and responsibilities. They were read aloud by Ms. Barrett: Sec. 4-1-6 Duties and responsibilities of board members. Members of the Animal Control Board shall have as their duties and responsibilities, in addition to administering the Dangerous Dog Control Law, as provided in Section 4-1-4 hereof, the following: a)To work actively in educating the public as to the need for sterilization of dogs and cats; b)To review and make recommendations to the Augusta-Richmond County Commission through the Administrator concerning the job performance of the Director of the Animal Control Department; c)To review and make recommendations to the Augusta-Richmond County Commission through the Administrator concerning the budgets and fiscal needs of the animal control department; d)To attend meetings of the Animal Control Board; e)To review and make recommendations to the Augusta-Richmond County Commission concerning the policies governing the operation of the Animal Control Department, including rules and regulations for the operation of animal shelter facilities consistent with rules and regulations of the Georgia Department of Agriculture; f)To review and make recommendations to control the animal population; and g)To notify the appropriate authorities of a vacancy on the Animal Control Board so that a person may be appointed to complete the unexpired or full term. The topic of ordinance proposals was brought up again, as to where they sit and what can be done to expedite the process, to which Donnie Smith said that he would get with city attorney Kenneth Bray to see what needs to be done. A copy of the proposal for mandatory spay/neuter and licensing was handed to Donnie Smith. Ms. Broady shared information from a recent seminar regarding spay/neuter and licensing. She agrees that these ordinances will improve conditions, and bring in some revenue, and she suggests offering vet services to the public to generate more revenue. We do need to change the laws, increase the budget, teach more responsible pet ownership. All agencies involved in the community need to have ‘buy in’ on ordinances, and we should have a complete package to pass instead of one piece at a time. She also said that we are one of the only agencies that allows for anonymous calls about animal complaints. Topic was brought up about the recent article in the paper about the numbers of animals killed/euthanized in our shelter, and Ms. Barrett said that this was a perfect opportunity for us to use that community support for getting our ordinance changes done and adding more money to the AAS budget for a full time vet. Topic was brought up about signs protecting pets in vehicles, putting the city of Augusta logo on them, making them and posting them. TWFAF, Ms. Barrett’s non profit, agreed last year to help pay for having them made. More research needs to be done on cost, getting logo, who will put them up and where they can be put up. Topic was brought up by Ms. Barrett about a grant of up to $10,000 that was available to the department through her non profit, TWFAF, for AAS, to help with expenses of an adoption event-food, equipment, advertisement, etc. Ms. Barrett sent out an email on Sunday, May 11, to the staff and members of the advisory board. There was a tight deadline of Thursday, May 15, in which to get adoption numbers and a commitment to th have the event on their chosen date of October 18, 19 and/or 20. The statistics were emailed back to Ms. Barrett at 4pm on Wednesday, 5/14, the evening before the deadline; however Ms. Broady stated that the date of the event could not be changed without discussing it at the upcoming meeting, on 5/21, which was after the deadline. When Ms Murphy went back to the topic about a missed grant, she brought up the fact that we are all very upset and frustrated because we are spinning our wheels, nothing is being done. We have been working on ordinance changes for several years, contracts to save the lives of puppies and kittens as well as adult animals for several months, working on grants, and we don’t get any response or help from Ms. Broady. In fact, we learned about the change in the law from the Dept. of Ag and the results of it, quite by accident, several months after the fact. Ms. Murphy said she feels we are being stonewalled. Then there was a comment made that they don’t ‘kill’ animals, but they ‘euthanize’ them. Someone said that they do not enjoy this part of the job, but that it must be done, to clean up the mess left by irresponsible pet owners. Ms. Murphy brought up the fact that we are there to help fix the problems, but are not able to help. It was said that the public doesn’t want to know what they do, they just want them to do it. At that point, Ms. Broady pulled out a bunch of papers that were copies of emails and articles written by Ms. Barrett that the director says ‘bashed’ her and the department. Ms. Murphy said she had read them all and didn’t find anything offensive, or ‘bashing’ in them. Ms. Broady offered to highlight the offensive parts. Ms. Murphy responded that if she has to highlight them it may be that she is the only one that finds them offensive. Copies of any of these can be emailed to anyone that would like to read them. The director then said that if anyone doesn’t want to be on the board that they should not be on the board. Mr. Langham then aggressively took control of the meeting, and told Ms. Murphy that he was in charge of running the meeting, and got back to the topic of the next scheduled th Family Fun Day on Sept. 6. There was no further discussion about it. Ms. Peacher said that she, too, sent an email to Mr. Bray to help expedite the process of creating a contract between rescues and AAS, and that she in no way bashed Ms. Broady or the department. Then she expressed frustration at the length of time it is taking to resolve this one problem. It was said that the department cannot circumvent state law and risk getting their license pulled. Ms. Murphy said that no one wants that, we want to change the laws. It was also said that people from the Dept of Agriculture should be brought to a meeting to help get this problem solved. Donnie Smith said that we need to zero in on specific problems, identify them and bring solutions. He said that we are a dysfunctional group and work from emotions and are argumentative, and at that point he left. Grady Smith then said that we do need to find common ground and work together to find solutions. rd Meeting was adjourned at 6:45pm. Next meeting is set for July 23.