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August 3, 2006

The TWG sent the following to the County Manager for answers to the questions raised concerning the request for more personnel. The only answer that was given was that the truck was parked at the VFD because the Animal Control officer and the Code Enforcement officer were out of town at a training meeting.

ANIMAL CONTROL CONTINUES TO ASK FOR PART TIME HELP

On the Agenda for the 8/7/06 meeting the BOC will consider hiring part time help for the Animal Control “department” for the 3rd time. It is considered to be “NEW Business” on the Agenda.

Human Resources / Personnel
Animal Control – To hire part-time staff for animal control shelter

The TWG has questioned the BOC every time this issue has been brought up. Why is there a need for more help? Comm. Pennamon has continued to ask how we went from having an Animal Control officer to having a full-fledged department. Comm. Bernard has stated each time it was brought up that the county employees can do “multi-tasking” and there is no need for more employees. Comm. Johnson has asked each time if the money has been budgeted with the answer being “No!” every time.

The prison work force, that the county pays on a monthly basis, is now working at the Animal Control Shelter every Monday – Thursday morning according to the County Manager at the last BOC meeting this was discussed (7/10/06). This help relieves the Animal Control officer from cleaning pens and feeding the animals. What does she do during this extra time?

The Code Enforcement officer, who also is seen with the Animal Control officer on a regular basis, always comes before the BOC with the need for a part time person. According to his statements and reiterated by the County Manager, the Animal Control officer is working 10-12 hours of overtime a week.

The TWG has these questions. Why does the Code Enforcement officer respond to the same calls the Animal Control officer responds to on a regular basis? (Not every call, but many of the calls.) Why does the Animal Control officer have time to ride around with the Building Inspector? What is the reason for all the overtime the Animal Control officer works? Who supervises the Animal Control officer and verifies her overtime hours? Why does the Code Enforcement officer have cages on the back of his truck and take his truck home each and every day? How many calls a day does the Animal Control officer answer? From statements made during the BOC meeting on the kennel issue, people talked about the Animal Control officer not responding to complaints, so how could she run a kennel too? What are the answers? We don’t have them and the County Manager hasn’t given these answers to the BOC or to the public.

On 7/26/06, the Animal Control truck sat parked behind the dumpster at the Jackson Lake VFD from 12:45pm to 3:45 pm. Why? Was the truck broken down or was the officer taking a break? How long after 3:45pm the truck was there, we don’t know.

See picture here:

There are many questions that need to be answered before the county hires more personnel. We have more than enough people doing very little during their 8-hour workday. Some employees seem to have so little to do that they can take off 2 or 3 days at a time without having to worry about catching up on their work.

Comm. Bernard continues to talk about multi-tasking, people that can do more than one particular job, etc., but nothing is ever done to make it happen. As he says, “Everyone doesn’t need to be working in their own little silo.” True, but when is something going to be done about it?