Humane Society president gives county an ultimatum: Says animal shelter won’t reopen unless oversight committee is eliminated
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“This is like an ax hanging over our heads,” Anderson said. “No other non-profit in Warren County has this kind of oversight committee.
Why are they singling us out? All we want is to open the shelter without a threat of having our funds pulled.”
On hearing of Anderson’s request, County Executive Kenneth Rogers said, “That’s not going to happen.”
Rogers admitted he has no authority to eliminate the committee and the Warren County Commission would have to rescind a resolution which it just approved in August.
Rogers also said he personally supports having an oversight committee.
“It stays as is,” he said. “If they want their money, that committee goes with the money.”
Rogers defended the formation of an oversight committee for the shelter even though no other non-profit has to answer to such a group.
“No other non-profit is given $80,000 either,” he said, noting Magness Library, which receives $116,000, is an exception since that amount is locked in due to a maintenance of effort agreement with the state for its funding.
Rogers did concede that if the committee made reasonable recommendations and the Humane Society refused to go along, the commission could withdraw its funding, but it was not the intention of the commission to run the shelter. He also said concerns that the committee would try to dictate how quickly animals would be put down or how they are cared for were unfounded.
“I don’t see that happening,” he said.
Humane Society members had originally said the county’s new method of turning in receipts and being reimbursed, rather than issuing funds quarterly, was the main reason the shelter had not reopened since the group was basically broke and had no operating funds.
But Anderson now says the organization is ready to deal with the financial requirements the commission has set forth for non-profits, and has put together enough receipts and bills to present to the county to begin operations again, as long as it is allowed to run the shelter as it always has. Members say they have no problem with the county keeping track of how the shelter spends its money, but they don’t want the county trying to control day-to-day operations and shelter policies.
The group still hopes to get some help with spay and neuter ordinances, even though officials said such ordinances are unenforceable in this state, but Anderson now says that is no longer a requirement for the shelter to reopen.
“We can work on spay and neuter ordinances ourselves,” Anderson said.
As it stands now, Anderson says the group only has two requirements to reopen the shelter, and those are to eliminate the threat of county control and provide the promised funding.
“If they’ll do away with that committee,” Anderson said, “and if they’ll pay our bills every month, personally, I’m ready to reopen it.”