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DAS Minutes 02/26/2025 (Draft) February 26, 2025 Page 1 Collier County Board of County Commissioners February 26, 2025 Domestic Animal Services Advisory Board Meeting LET IT BE REMEMBERED that the Collier County Domestic Animal Services Advisory Board, in and for the County of Collier, having conducted business herein, met on this date at 6 p.m. for a MEETING at Growth Management Community Development Department Room 609/610 2800 N. Horseshoe Dr. Naples, Florida, with the following members present: CHAIRMAN: Laurie Harris Michele Antonia Kelly Hyland Susan Mehas -absent Allen Schantzen Jonathan Foerster Meredith McLean Alexandra Casanova Jamie French Any person needing the verbatim record of the meeting may request a copy of the audio recording from Domestic Animal Services. February 26, 2025 Page 2 February 26, 2025 6:00 pm I. Call to Order 6:02 PM II. Roll Call – Establish a Quorum III. Pledge of Allegiance IV. Approval of Agenda Motion made and carried V. Public Comment – Assumed that all comments were from volunteers. A. Hobby Breeders. Spending – excessive inventory, no funds for essentials. B. Commitment to replacing old kennels rather than fix them. Yard conditions are hazardous to transitioning from building to building. Call for more accountability – continuous lack of results. Suggestion for visitor registration and ID. Request for repair of washers and dryers. Request for leashes and toys. Lack of Safety Director position, smoke detectors, cameras and evacuation plan. C. Request for Hurricane Preparedness Plan. Need for backup generators, sound dampening boards, visitor registration. Need for “Do Not Open Kennels” signage. D. Enhanced Staff awareness of time spent in the Play Area. Staff spending 45 minutes to an hour in Play Area. This was viewed as an “extra break” as Staff were observed on phones and not attending dogs. E. Email from Ms. Mehas explaining absence from meeting. VI. Approval of Minutes Motion made and carried to approve minutes of January 15, 2025 with spelling correction. VII. Staff Report A. Open positions. Utilization of interns. Utilization of February 26, 2025 Page 3 outsourcing through Humane Society. Need for Written Procedural Practices versus verbally communicating. B. (00:31:00 – 00:37:00) Numbers as of Sunday – 99 Cats, 78 Dogs, one Guinea Pig, one Gecko. 323 Code Enforcements, 210 closed, 56 Citations. VIII. Old Business A. Building 4 & 5 updates. Request to phase out shower curtains for sanitary reasons. Lack of AWO and volunteers for overnights. Need for written Safety and Direction protocol. Lack of communication – Newsletter only drops once a week, need for supplemental communication. B. Possible gas leak Bldg. 3. Lack of timely response by Facilities Services. C. No formalized written Work Scope for Bldg. 4. Mr. French questioning Master Plan. Lack of written Safety Protocol. Lack of training in emergency situations. No contingency planning. D. Fire Panel failed to alert fire station of gas leak as required. Building not evacuated when alarm sounded – too many false alarms. E. Request for Workshop style meeting with Commissioners. Facilities Management unresponsiveness to attend DAS meetings. Still no Building Permit for Bldg. 4. IX. New Business A. Need for written contact procedure for field issues. B. Rebranding – Cost of rebranding must be considered – shirts, business cards, letterhead, etc. Suggested to keep existing name and place some thought and focus on coming up with a new and innovative way to market and convey mission, purpose and services. C. Electric Load Analysis and Incident Action - What it is, why it is needed and how it helps. Need for written procedural action plan for emergency February 26, 2025 Page 4 shutoff. Need for consistent, uniform, formal orientation and training. (possible continuing education). D. Motion made to hold workshop. Discussion ensued on how to move forward , how request should be framed. E. Rewriting Regulations discussion. F. Discussion on processes on how items that are submitted for the Agenda are approved or denied. Request for timely and clear communication on why an item was rejected. G. Motion made and was open for discussion to invite Ms. Patterson to Board meeting to discuss various topics – Master Plan, sister departments lack of engagement, regulatory rewrite, code enforcement and accounting of how $6 million in DAS monies were spent. H. Suggestion to consider 4PM start time going forward. I. Suggestion to send email to ABM soliciting what they would like to discuss with Ms. Patterson. J. Motion carried. X. Public Comment A. Heidi Leeborne – Commented that she did not receive a response from the Board regarding an item she had requested to be added to the agenda. XI. Advisory Board Member Comments A. Visitor sign in process, with possible ID presentation, if legally permissible. B. Outcome of case that was opened in August of 2024 and presented before the ABM in December. It was pointed out that this was a Code Enforcement issue, and that Policy prevented DAS involvement outside of requesting Code Enforcement assistance. Mention was made that there was 2,000 citations, fines were not paid according to public record. This particular case was noted as closed with a notation that the “dog owners are uncooperative”. It was noted that there appeared to be an enforcement February 26, 2025 Page 5 issue with $2,000 in citation money going uncollected. It was pointed out that issues like this that fall under another department’s jurisdiction (code enforcement) should not be a major topic for discussion for fear “getting lost talking about things we can’t control.” C. Discussion on proper framework to make a motion under. D. A comment was made that this item was on the list to be discussed with Commissioner Saunders in a previously scheduled meeting, and that Mr. Saunders had canceled the meeting. E. ABMs were encouraged to attend the Board Meetings of sister Boards to help bring awareness of their actions, or lack of action, and how it impacts DAS. F. Revisited incorporating interns at DAS. G. Request to consider moving meeting start times to 4PM, possibly 5PM H. XII. Adjourn Motion carried to adjourn 08:10 PM There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was concluded at 8:10pm Collier County Domestic Animal Services _______________________________ Laurie Harris, Chairman These minutes were approved by the Committee/Chairman on ________________, (check one) as presented _______, or as amended ________.