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Animal Shelter Advisory Committee Minutes - 12/02/2010MINUTES �a THE ANIMAL SHELTER ADVISORY COMMITTE DECEMBER 2, 2010 MEMBERS PRESENT: Julie Gibson, DVM Marty Maxwell, Animal Welfare Organization Rep. Penny Miller, Citizen -At -Large Susan Morris, Chairman /LRCA/Zoonosis Administrator Steven Parady, recording secretary Stephen Dodge, Animal Control Supervisor Katrena Mitchell, Animal Services Administrator Lou Franklin, Director of Public Health CITY OL l �4, 4 1 ■ Members ■ ■ ■ ■ Staff ■ Staff • Staff • Staff ABSENT: Michael Smith, Councilor- District 1 ■Council Liaison I. CALL TO ORDER Susan Morris, L.R.C.A., Chairman presided. II. REVIEW & APPROVAL OF OCTOBER MINUTES The minutes from the ASAC Meeting on February 16, 2010, were distributed and reviewed. Mrs. Miller made the motion to accept these minutes, with a second by Mrs. Maxwell. Motion carried. III. OLD BUSINESS None IV. NEW BUSINESS elcomed M Mrs. Morris introduced and ws. Katrena Mitchell the new Animal Services Administrator, and Steven Parady as Ms. Mitchell's administrative assistant, and announced that Mr. Parady will be taken Diane Syrus's place as ASAC recording secretary. Mrs. Morris informed the board that Mrs. Syrus will be sitting in on the meeting to help Mr. Parady through the minute taking process. Mrs. Morris also welcomed Stephen Dodge, Animal Control Supervisor and Lou Franklin, Director of Public Health. Mrs. Morris asked Mrs. Franklin if she would like to explain the new structure of the Health Department. Mrs. Franklin advised that she would let Mrs. Morris explain the new structure; Mrs. Morris explained that Animal Control has been taken out of Zoonosis and Environmental Health and is now its own division. Mrs. Morris continue to explain that since February she been running both divisions, and had elected not to apply for the position of Animal Services Administrator. Mrs. Morris continued to explain that decision to stay with General Environmental ontro\I more in her she felt that General Environmental was much as she loved the Animal program, where she needed to be. Animal Shelter Advisory Committee February 16, 2010 page 1 Mrs. Morris explained that Ms. Mitchell was hired to run the Animal Services Division and that they would be going to council next Tuesday (December 7, 2010) and explained at that time, Mrs. Franklin, was going to recommend that Mr. Dodge be the new local rabies authority and that he would take the position by default, Ms. Mitchell would apply to be the shelter person on the board. Mrs. Morris also explained that the board would have another meeting next year to elect a new chair and advise that the chair could be anybody and they would set the next meeting date before they adjourned. Mrs. Morris then asked the members if there were any questions. Mrs. Maxwell asked Ms. Mitchell if she was the columnist in the news paper. Ms. Mitchell advised that she was the columnist. Mrs. Morris advised that Ms. Mitchell has had a lot of experience with animals. Mrs. Franklin then asked Ms. Mitchell to share her background with the board. Ms. Mitchell explained that her paid experience has been in mental health field working with at risk youth, and since she was young, animals have always been a passion. She explained she sits on the Board of Border Collie Rescue of Texas, board member of the Obedience club, work with 3B Rescue a local rescue here in town, volunteered with the local Humane Society, P.E.T.S. Low Cost Spay and Neuter Clinic, teaches agility and obedience classes and writes the column for the local newspaper. Ms. Mitchell told the board this would be a great mix of her passion of working with animals and the people skills she has. Mrs. Morris expressed to the board how excited she hoped they would be when they went to the new shelter and how nice the facility was and that facility was progressing really quickly. Mrs. Morris then asked Mrs. Franklin if Animal Services planned on being in the new shelter the first of January. Mrs. Franklin explained that the shelter was about 95% completed and that the contractor was working on pouring the floor and described that it was a sand mixture and that it was a solid poured floor so that there would be no worries of water getting underneath it. Mrs. Franklin went on to explain that it will be used in areas where the animals will be to make clean up easier. She also explained that they were waiting on some plumbing fixtures to get in, minor completion and touches and the communication tower that was taking longer to come in then previously thought and was expected to arrive at the end of December, Mrs. Franklin believes that with that in consideration it would be mid January which is still 2 to 3 weeks ahead of schedule. Mrs. Morris the asked Mrs. Franklin how many new employees she was looking to hire at the new facility, Mrs. Franklin advised that the would be hiring 4 kennel assistants and 1 vet tech and depending on the new contract with the Humane Society they may need to hire another front end staff depending on how busy the shelter got, she also announce that before the meeting she got an email advising that the Humane Society had a meeting the night before and approved the agreement with the City of Wichita Falls. Mrs. Franklin explained that the new relationship between the City of Wichita Falls and Humane Society looks like the city will be doing all the intakes for the City of Wichita Falls and for the surrounding cities that we have a contractual agreement that currently uses the reclaim center, The Humane Society will continue doing adoptions, and come over on a daily basis and look and the animals brought in and make the determination as what they feel adoptable Mrs. Franklin advised that the city will be working with some rescue groups and looking at some ordinance changes now that Ms. Mitchell is here and will be working on policy and procedures. Mrs. Franklin would look at speaking with Darren Leiker and Jim Dockery and look at some mandatory spay and neuter laws for Wichita Falls that mirrors Fort Worth, Dallas and San Antonio where you have to have a liter permit, which is a Animal Shelter Advisory Committee February 16, 2010 page 2 special permit you will need if you want to breed an animal. That should help reduce the animal population. She stated that I believe we all recognize that the only way to reduce the number of unwanted animals is to increase our spay and neuter rate and this is the kind of direction Animal control will be headed in Animal Services. Mrs. Maxwell asked if the new agreement with the Humane Society is similar to the previous one. Mrs. Franklin replied this is a one year agreement. We want to get on our feet and see what things look like. In the past we've taken animals out to them where they did all the intakes and reclaim services. Now they're simply doing adoptions. They will be taking animal they deem adoptable and then adopting those animals out. Dr. Gibson asked if the new shelter would be handling any adoptions. Mrs. Franklin replied not to start out with but we'll need to see how things go. Mrs. Morris asked if she walked in and saw an animal she wanted to adopt but the Humane Society didn't deem it adoptable, would you still have to go through the Humane Society. Mrs. Franklin advised that at this time, we didn't have an answer to the question, that she just received the new agreement with the Humane Society. Mrs. Miller then states I would think that if there was a dog I wanted to adopt it would be just a matter of who do, I pay. Dr. Gibson stated if you have a dog that someone wants to adopt then deem it adoptable. Mrs. Miller then states that is what their job is to do. ADJOURN Mrs. Morris advised that they are required to have 3 ASAC meetings a year and before we agreed to hold them on Tuesdays, and Tuesdays just aren't working for everybody. Mrs. Morris asked if everyone is agreeable we could change future ASAC meeting to the third Thursday. Mrs. Morris then schedule the next meeting for Thursday February 17, at 12:00 p.m. at the new Animal Service Center on Hatton Road. Mrs. Morris then thanked the board for serving on her committee since it's her last meeting. Mrs. Morris asked if no further business, do I hear a motion to adjourn? Mrs. Maxwell made the motion. Mrs. Miller seconded it. Motion carried to adjourn at 12:35 p.m. and all were in favor. Mrs. Morris reminded members that those who wanted to tour the new shelter that they would be going out to do that now. A I Date CA�Ml Services Administrator c- en Parad , Animal Services Sr. A i Clerk Animal Shelter Advisory Committee February 16, 2010 page 3