Notes from the April
14, 2014 FSAC Board meeting:
Carol Furr and I
attended this meeting. As usual, these
are my notes, not official minutes or a transcript, my/our comments are in
italics and/or parens – depending on formatting problems when posting.
Treasurer’s
Report: Mr. Newton reported that they
deposited $20,000 with the Delaware Community Foundation to establish an
account. They will be depositing other
monies, such as restricted bequests, into that account. They sold the Pearsons
Corner Road property for just under $50,000.
Mr.
Newton presented materials illustrating the approved budget, the revised budget
and the difference between the two.
It
was again noted that they are keeping the dog control and shelter operations
costs separate. This way, if the State
takes over animal control, they’ll know what the shelter costs are.
(This was a
question that I asked way back in 2012 – how do they know what shelter costs
are since they don’t keep shelter and animal control monies separate. The board
president, Alex Moore, has been saying they were going to separate the monies
so they know what the costs are for a couple of months now.)
Grants
were discussed, with the information that even if they don’t get those grants,
the money is in the budge for kennel improvements and fencing. They are planning to put air conditioning in
the back kennels, but to get this, they must upgrade the furnace, going to
natural gas from propane.
(I must make a
correction here; last month I reported that FSAC had received a grant that was
going towards kennel improvements and fencing; they have not received this
grant, they have applied for it.)
Comments
were made that they are very happy with the accountant that comes in three days
a week, and that they will be more prepared for the yearly audit, which will
cost less because everything will be ready.
There
are three vets on contract, but no full time vet yet. Two of the three vets are local. They also have a relationship with animal
hospitals in each county for emergencies.
Mr.
Newton said that accounting and legal costs have increased, but there is a
reduction in salaries because they no longer have a full-time book-keeper. Mr. Usilton noted that it was a higher cost
to adapt Quickbooks 2002 ato QB 2013.
Fundraising
Committee Report: Ms. Kisner reported
that there will be no “Scamper” race this year.
The Hansen family (sponsors) are upset with FSAC; they say that FSAC
didn’t “reach out” to them after the last race to let them know where the
monies raised went. Ms. Kisner said it
was not her job to tell them that, to contact the shelter.
(And they wonder
why the sponsors are annoyed?)
They
are working with a new race organizer for next year. The next Evening with the Animals will be
November 15 @ the Modern Maturity Center, the band is Mike Hines. The menu is nicer and the cost is less than
50% of last year’s expense.
Plans
were made for the Planning and Objectives Committee to meet; the Fundraising
Committee was asked to attend this meeting.
(I believe FOIA
makes allowances for committees made up of only Board members, but the
committee must be less than a quorum. This was an awful lot of people for this
committee meeting. And in February, DAG
Jason Staib said there was a problem with their committees. FOIA violation?)
Executive
Director’s Report: Mr. Usilton reported
that they had adopted out 80 more animals this year than last year. 186 were returned to owners last year; this
year 323 animals were returned. He
attributed this to posting on Craigslist, their own website and another Lost
and Found page pulls their posts (and shares them - Lost Pet PR) . He also felt it was because they have all the
contracts, and there is only one place to look for animals and make a lost and
found report.
He
reported that they are marketing animals better, animals are healthier when
they are adopted they have a relationship with the vets so that people can get
a free vet exam within 5 days of adoption.
He also said that it was due to the kinds of pets they have, and that
people will “drive from timbuktu to get a nice fuzzy little family pet.”
He
reported on a repeat case of animal cruelty; the previously convicted pet
owners were banned from having pets for 15 years, but 8 more were just
impounded, including three that had been removed before. Friends had adopted the animals and returned
them to the original owners. Those
owners will be re-charged with animal abuse, the friends will be charged with
conspiracy for adopting the cats on false pretenses.
FSAC has found some warehouse and office space in the
City of Wilmington. The lease is for a
year to coincide with that contract, and the space will provide office space
for 5 officers, a kitchen, 10 kennels,
This
will save them $7,000 in kennel space.
Mr. Moore asked if it would be used for the New Castle contract as well;
Mr. Usilton said no, not at this time.
Mr.
Usilton reported on legislation in the General Assembly. He asked board members to review the
information distributed about the bill introducing additional reporting
requirements for non-profits. He asked
them to call their legislators, saying that they don’t support this bill.
There
are 2 bills that they support, involving dangerous dogs.
“One
is HB 297. If your dog attacks one of
your family members or somebody else on the dog’s own property it is excluded
from being a potentially dangerous dog.
We’ve had many instances where especially family members have been
injured by their family’s pet and the family chooses to keep the dog there and
subject their children to trauma again.”
This
bill, 297, allows FSAC to bring them before the dangerous dog panel to have the
decision made by someone other than them, looking at the behavior of the
dog. He told the board members that this
was something that FSAC supports.
SB196
is being sponsored by Senator Peterson.
She has reintroduced a bill that will identify cats as domestic animals
with regards to dog attacks.
He
was asked about the mastiff in NCC. He
said that NCC agreed to give FSAC computers and they still didn’t have them in
the trucks. The officers don’t know when
they go to a house what’s happening, so when the officer investigated a bite he
quarantined the dog at home. He went
back to the office and found out the dog had two other incidents, so the dog
was impounded the next day and brought to the shelter.
He
further said that they had asked the counties who are responsible for having a
dangerous dog panel to do that and they have not done it yet until now. He said that Hetti (Brown, Office of Animal
Welfare) got them to put the panel together and training would be held on
April 23rd.
(Please note
that this panel is called the Dog Control Panel in the law; everyone, however,
calls it the Dangerous Dog Panel.)
He
reported that in addition to the mastiff that killed the poodle and bit the
man, they have a dog that was rescued from a motel in Dewey Beach, transferred
around to a couple of other rescues, it attacked a couple of prominent dog people
in Sussex County. He said it was never
reported because the dogs that were attacked were taken out of state for
treatment, the dog attacked again and went up to Faithful Friends and is
up for adoption. He said the dog is a
pit bull, that that “we have put
together the case, thankfully, and we’re now trying to get hold of Jane
Pierantozzi.” He said Ms. Pierantozzi
has refused to call them for the past 4 days.
He
said “we have two dangerous dog cases coming up because these things have to be reported but if it’s
done underhanded and we don’t know about it we have to find out second hand.”
He
said they haven’t had a real dangerous dog case for a long time, and now they
have a whole bunch of them at once, and it’s “good that it got out in the paper
that we have dangerous dogs in the state of Delaware and how we have to handle
them.”
There
was some further discussion about the bull mastiff in NCC, and what recourse
the man who was attacked has; Mr. Usilton said it could sue them civilly, and
that the homeowner’s insurance would probably cover it.
(Did anyone
notice that he said the dog attacked people, but then said that FSAC didn’t
know about it because the DOGS attacked were treated out of state? Also, I checked with Ms. Pierantozzi, who
said that Mr. Usilton has not called her; she said, however, Ms. Warburton,
head of FSAC animal control, had contacted Faithful Friends kennel manager and
spoke to him. There is a lot more to
this incident, but it is going before the Dog Control Panel, so we will not
report on it until resolution.
Mr.
Moore brought up the bylaws change (mentioned
in several previous meetings), and was informed that the language was
e-mailed to the board members. Mr. Moore
asked Mr. Newton to explain the change.
This change moves the annual meeting from September to October, to
coincide with the new fiscal year. Mr.
Moore then asked if proper notice had been given for this change; notice was
given via e-mail and mailed to those without e-mail. The motion was made and passed to change the
annual meeting date.
(This was
already implemented last October.)
Ms.
Chase said she has been working on a PowerPoint presentation with music that
can be given at events or meetings. She
is also working on a brochure outlining the Rachael Ray challenge and updating
the calendar of events. She announced
that there would be a “guest bartender” event at Wild Quail.
(Funny, the
executive director used a photo of the same kind of event for Faithful Friends
to belittle one of FF’s board members.)
The
Rachael Ray/Petsmart challenge will kick @ Petsmart on June 1st. The shelter will hold an open house from 4-8
PM on June 4th, and invite elected officials to attend.
Ms.
Chase then played the presentation for the board, noting that she was still
working out the music accompaniment. She
hopes to use this to find sponsors, such as veternarians, banks, and other
companies. So far, the idea of
sponsorship has not been grabbing people.
She has talked to people at the ASPCA (the first and original SPCA in NY, but SPCAs are not franchised or
legally connected/affiliated with each other) and they said that everyone
has to get engaged in promoting the shelter, leaderhsip is from the top down.
There
were further comments: an e-mail contact
for sponsorship information on the presentation and some language showing what
financial donations will go towards.
Betty May Cooper said that they need an event every other day. Rosemary
Rodgers asked if the presentation could be put on a CD to show people out of
state.
Ms.
Chase said it was recommended that they increase foot traffic to the shelter
and PetSmart, and to promote special adoptions such as senior animals and black
cats.
The
meeting was adjourned.
