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DASAC Minutes 01/15/2013 2013 Domestic Animal Services Advisory Committee Minutes January 15 , 2013 • January 15, 2013 RMMLICWN APR 1 9 2013 BY: MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE COLLIER COUNTY DOMESTIC ANIMAL SERVICES ADVISORY COMMITTEE Naples, Florida, January 15, 2013 LET IT BE REMEMBERED, that the Collier County Domestic Animal Services Advisory Committee in and for the County of Collier, having conducted business herein, met on this date at 6:30 P.M. in REGULAR SESSION at Domestic Animal Services Resource Training Room, Davis Blvd., East Naples, Florida with the following members present: District I ie. CHAIRMAN: Marcia Breithaupt District 2 — VICE CHAIRMAN: Marjorie Bloom (excused) District 3__ Sgt David Estes (excused) District 4 -7._ `, Distri t 5 j Cindy Harrold Tom Kepp, Jr. Dan Martin ALSO PRESENT: Amanda Townsend, Director of DAS Melissa Shyan-Norwalt, DAS Shelter Manager Daniel Christenbury, Public Relations Coordinator, DAS Kathlene Drew, DAS Volunteer Coordinator Ekna Guevara, DAS Administrative Assistant Misc.Corres: Date: Item It Copies to: January 15, 2013 L Call to Order: Chairman Marcia Breithaupt called the meeting to order at 6:32 P.M. H. Attendance: Roll call was taken and a quorum established. III. Approval of Agenda: Dan Martin moved to approve the Agenda. Second by Cindy Harrold. Carried unanimously, 4-0. IV. Approval of Minutes: December 3, 2012 and December 18,2012 Dan Martin moved to approve the minutes of both December 3, 2012 AND December 18, 2012, as presented. Second by Marcia Breithaupt. Carried unanimously, 4-0. V. Old Business A. Directors Report Amanda Townsend: • Welcomed and introduced Melissa Shyan-Norwalt,the new Shelter Operations Manager, giving a brief summary of her background. Melissa spoke about her favorable impression of the facility and staff and was pleased and excited to be a part of DAS. • Selection for ACO Supervisor was completed and will soon be on board. • Shelter Technician Joshua Burton was promoted to ACO and 2 front desk staff left. • Recruitment was underway of 3 shelter technicians who will be cross train with front desk and back room functions to streamline operation. and customer service. • Facility needs were in various stages of completion of ongoing projects. Daniel Christenbury reported on: • Updating to the Website to make it more user friendly • A good Press article in E-Bella magazine by Mary Lundberg on the shelter. • February 21, 2013 Melissa will begin a lecture series from 6:30 to 8:00 on Dog Social Signals, with a meet and greet in the lobby after the talk. The lecture series about animals will be given once a month. Kathy Drew announced: • Pet Festival on the 19th at Naples Estates featuring the National Wiener Race. • Pets on Third event behind Tommy Bahamas on the 20th froml0 to 2 • Gearing up for a big hurricane season locally, DAS will be working with the Community Agency Act Against Disaster(COAAAD).on mitigation of resources. 2 January 15,2013 Melissa Shyan-Norwalt reported on Shelter activities. She announced; the implementing of programs in cat socialization prior to adoption adding partial privacy panels installed so animals can choose to be seen or not be seen which will reduce kennel stress and noise. Behavioral work using clicker training with the volunteers was beginning and several other small changes. Amanda Townsend talked about the prototype aluminum panels, which were both sanitizeable and safe and cost$4,700 for all three buildings, 90 runs. Due to the number of New Business items,the DASAB decided to hear public comment after each topic, rather than at the end. VI. New Business: A. Trap Neuter Return program review(Handout—Memorandum of Understanding) and Collier Community Cat Coalition Report Amanda Townsend spoke about the three-year partnership with Collier Community Cat Coalition(CCCC), whereby the Coalition manages the cat population with the assistance of DAS. The Coalition had been very responsive to the needs of the community and the feral cat populations were better off through their work. Some problems challenged the coalition; but now things were working well. After meeting with various County officials regarding the renewal of the Memorandum of Understanding, renewing the contract with a couple of changes was recommended. Those were: • Updating the contact persons and their address • Changing Section IV item 3 from "until the end of the next business day"to "120 hours"for reclaiming the cat;the same as for owners of strays. Chairman Marcia Breithaupt asked for Public Comment. Lynn D. planned to speak for the renewal. Since all the DASAB indicated they all agreed, she saw no need to speak. There were no other objections. Tom Kepp moved to recommend to the BCC, the renewal of the Memorandum of Understanding between the BCC and the CCCC, with the changes to the contact person's information;and,Section IV item 3, from "until the end of the next business day"to "120 hours': Second by Cindy Harrold. Carried unanimously,4-0. Amanda Townsend thanked Megan Sorbara and Lori Piper, President and Vice-President of the Collier Community Cat Coalition as well as all its members present in the audience and announced they will be invited to make a presentation at the March lecture series on"How to help cats in your neighborhood",which drew applause from the attendees. B. BCC Policy on Anonymous Complaints(Draft of Letter to BCC) Amanda Townsend reminded everyone that Code Enforcement and DAS were two agencies no longer accepting anonymous complaints calls. 3 January 15, 2013 A draft of a letter from Chairman Marcia Breithaupt to the BCC was distributed. The letter expressed concerns of DASAB for the safety of both pets and people, due to lack of reporting in cases of animal neglect or abuse (many of which are tied in with domestic violence), if anonymous complaints were not accepted. Michele Antonia encouraged the DASAB to send the letter. She spoke about the directive to call the County Commissioner's office to report abuse and neglect. She stated many people in the county do not even know what a Commissioner is and fear the layers of government. She stated it was important for DAS to take the calls, not the Commissioners, who would not be available on weekends. Dan Martin moved to recommend sending the letter to the BCC. Second by Cindy Harrold. Carried unanimously,4-0. Amanda will provide a new copy without the "draft"for the Chairman to sign. C. DASAB position letter on State animal cruelty laws(Draft of Memo to BCC) Amanda Townsend reported the issue had been brought up several months ago that the DASAB's position was that State laws should allow for criminality at the local level wherever cruelty laws are considered. The memo to the BCC expressed the DASAB's interest in having the County's position on State animal cruelty laws addressed in its legislative agenda with the elected State officials. The DASAB requested Amanda to forward the memo to the BCC. D. DAS Rescue placement policy (Handout) Amanda Townsend read from the handout,the DAS Policy Statement on Rescue Adoptions which states the various criteria for non-profits to acquire animals for adoption placement. Discussion followed concerning the selection of favored breeds, healthier animals and easier to adopt animals; leaving DAS with less of a selection, less desirable or less healthy animals. Dan Martin noted the Humane Society obtains animals from Lee County which has a larger selection with no stipulation on which animals can be chosen. He suggested DAS open it up its policy to allow rescue groups to take out any animal they wanted. Dan Martin moved that the Advisory Board recommend the policy be changed to open the door for rescue groups to choose any animal available to encourage live releases.. There was no second. Tom Kepp had concerns that harder to adopt animals would be left at DAS and kill rate would not go down. Need was to have a mix or all types of animals. He re-stated his contention that enforcement was the only way to stop the proliferation of animals. There would not be enough homes to put them in to keep pace with the growing animal population. Cindy Harrold mentioned the policy was too vague. 4 January 15, 2013 Amanda Townsend stated DAS had a good working relationship with many rescue groups who do take some of the lesser desirable animals. Public comments followed: Sandie Nichols and Annika Matos,members of the Collier Community Cat Coalition asked if animals go to the groups like the Humane Society were they considered adopted or is still on the DAS list of unadoptable animals. Amanda Townsend responded once DAS is no longer in possession and the rescuer takes the animal it was considered "adopted"since that is the guarantee of the rescue adoption groups. Colleen MacAlister stated animals given to rescue groups go to foster homes; and, if the primary concern was for the animals, getting them out of DAS quickly was a good thing. Tom Kepp pointed out there would be no desirable animals left at DAS if rescue groups take all they want of the highly adoptable ones. Eventually, people would not come to DAS to adopt, as the easily adoptable ones will be gone and DAS will not have a good variety of animals. Cindy Harrold moved to table the discussion until the next meeting. Second by Tom Kepp. Carried unanimously, 4-0. E. Next steps for Ordinance revisions presentation to BCC(Dan Martin) Dan Martin stated two versions of the Ordinance Revision would be going to the BCC. The version that the DASAB approved and the version the County Attorney had authored. Amanda Townsend provided her interpretation of the County Attorney's version regarding the Standards of Care: The County Attorney authored a version of the Animal Control Ordinance which authorizes the enactment of a separate Ordinance establishing Standards of Care which would be applied only to permitted businesses, organizations and breeders. Dan Martin stated the DASAB version included the Standards of Care; but it was not finished. Dan Martin moved to have scheduled meetings of the DASAB sub- committee to complete the Standards of Care prior to submission to the BCC. Second by Cindy Harrold. Carried unanimously,4-0. Tom Kepp asked if any of the Commissioners had received either or both versions of the Ordinance revision. Two commissioners said they had not. Amanda Townsend responded the item was on the December 10`''agenda. She reminded the DASAB the next BCC meeting will be February 12 and the Agenda must be finalized by February 6. Her agenda deadline was January 30 or 31S`. The DASAB would need to settle on meeting schedule and finalize a document the entire Advisory Board could agree on. 5 January 15,2013 Tom Kepp moved to delegate authority to the DASAB Sub-committee to finalize the Standards of Care document. Second by Dan Martin. Carried unanimously, 4-0. It was agreed the DASAB Sub-committee would meet on January 22, 2013 at 6:00 PM; and, again on January 29, if necessary. VII. Public Comments A. Topic TBA(open discussion) None chosen B. Individual Comments Kelly Hyland stressed how important it was for everyone to make an appointment to speak to their Commissioner and express concerns and issues brought up at the meeting. The more times they hear the same concerns they will eventually address them. Steve Kirby had a colony of cats and finally got them fixed with the help of the CCCC. He thanked them and agreed it was a good idea to go to the Commissioners. Ruth Stockinger,a volunteer dog walker,praised Kathy Drew for all she does,the great programs she runs and all the volunteer team working together. She talked about the clicker program and the shade panels as excellent additions. She thanked the ACO, David Estes for the work he does at DAS. She asked what special thing could be done for the holidays; and, about ways to make the public aware of the charitable fund. Amanda responded DAS does publish information about the Fund and an annual mailing was done. Barb Rudd,a volunteer gave a big thank you to: • Amanda- for coming in on the Christmas holidays. • The volunteer dog walkers who came in over the holidays • The laundry people for neatly stacked clean towels and clean dog beds • Those who provided scarves, sweaters bows to make dogs look so nice • The shade shelters and the clicker program She had some suggestion to make things better at the shelter. • The same walkers were always there,which can become too stressful. • E-mail blast to let volunteers know what is going on • A list of volunteers sent out to them so they can contact one another • Sign up at bottom of the event announcement which would go out to all volunteers. • Outside panel, similar to the ones inside, to give dogs outside exercise without bothering each other. • Volunteers to clean cat litter when arriving or leaving Patty Teulet noted the volunteers were all raving about the improvements mentioned by Barbara Rudd. She added the step down,the chicken coop 6 January 15,2013 and the weights on the papers for the dogs were fantastic. She asked to have the tree trimmed that hides the DAS sign,giving an incidence where someone drove up and down Davis Blvd looking for DAS to adopt a dog; and,could not find it. Other suggestions were: • Ability to follow up on adopted animals, expressed by many volunteers. They have great stories to tell about the people and their adoption experience. • Listing of events put on the websites including direction to the event. • Donation letter sent to all resident with dog and cat licenses • Look into the set up of a Pay-Pal account • Thanked DAS for opening on the holidays- no lack of volunteers VIII. Advisory Board Members Comments Marcia Breithaupt,on behalf of the DASAB, welcomed Melissa Shyan-Norwalt to the Domestic Animal Services Staff. The next meeting of the Domestic Animal Advisory Board is February 19, 2013. There being no further business for the good of the County,the meeting was adjourned by the order of the Chair at 7:52 P.M. Collier County Domestic Animal Services 1/14/1 /51'it:// hqq,kidi Chairman These minutes approved by the Board/Committee on` � I• /(0 1 7) as presented IV i or as amended 7