After considering the option of placing the entire commissioners court in charge of the Montgomery County Animal Shelter, Montgomery County commissioners voted to leave oversight of the county animal shelter to only Precinct 4 Commissioner Jim Clark.
Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack recommended the change to shelter oversight during the Commissioners Court meeting on Tuesday, however commissioners voted against the motion following comments from Clark and Director Todd Hayden.
“I would like to see the animal shelter placed under the court as a whole,” Noack said.
The commissioners ultimately said they did not support the change in oversight because they would not be able to communicate with one another for related matters because of open meetings laws.
However, Noack filed a second motion stating that the hiring of a new animal shelter director should be handled by the commissioners court as a whole, rather than Clark. The motion was approved.
Clark was given the authority to oversee the shelter in 2015, when the county rescinded its contract with Care Corporation following public complaints from volunteers and stakeholders about the shelter’s management.
Since then Clark hired Dr. Michael White as the shelter’s director on Feb. 16. However, White was replaced with its current director, Todd Hayden, after White resigned from the position eight days after assuming the position.
However, shelter volunteers have continued to bring concerns about the shelter’s management to commissioners during public comment portions of its bimonthly meetings.
On Tuesday Deidrea Robbins, who fosters animals from the shelter, presented a petition asking commissioners to remove Clark from oversight of the shelter.
“There is a long list of complaints about how the shelter is being managed, and the community has lost faith in commissioner Clark’s ability to [oversee] the shelter,” Robbins said during the meeting. “The lack of oversight and accountability at the shelter is why 3,259 people have signed the petition.”
Clark said many of the concerns at the shelter are in the process of being addressed and that the new budget to operate the shelter will not be implemented until Oct. 1. This year the shelter has appointed new foster, rescue and volunteer coordinators and launched a community cat program. Officials also plan to establish a full-scale, countywide spay and neuter program.
“That is [an] item that has been discussed today, that we haven’t funded the animal shelter,” Clark said. "Well, the animal shelter budget became a big controversy ... Everything that was discussed today is on our radar. When you don't have the funding for it and you don't have a cohesive unit working in a positive direction, it is not going to happen.”
Hayden said he would step out of the shelter director role once a new director is found under the direction of the court.
“There is a lot of people trying to get back to the glory days of where [the shelter] was before, but it wasn’t good then,” Hayden said. [The county has] committed money to the shelter, we have a new veterinarian coming on board … There is a plan for spay and neuter, we are six to nine months out, but that will be fixed relatively quickly.”