News - Local

Tuesday, Jul. 22, 2008

County insists it didn’t block grand jury probe of Animal Services

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The county grand jury was not kept from learning about problems at the county’s Animal Services Division, as it claimed in a report last month, according to a response the Board of Supervisors will consider today.

While jurors were shut out of two meetings, “there were many more avenues available…to gather information,” Leslie Brown of the county administrator’s office wrote in a report to supervisors.

The jury released its report in mid-June, criticizing the county for excluding jurors from a staff-volunteer meeting with a facilitator as well as an exit briefing given to county officials by the Humane Society of the United States, which recently conducted an evaluation of Animal Services.

“Because of limitations placed on the grand jury, it had no option but to write a report without complete and perhaps relevant information,” forewoman Maryellen Simkins said in a news release that accompanied the report.

The Animal Services Division has been under fire for more than a year, especially from volunteers, who have alleged unclean conditions, insensitive staff and poor management. Several volunteers have blamed Eric Anderson, the veterinarian who is the shelter’s director.

The county authorized the Humane Society evaluation in the wake of these problems.

The jury’s investigation is separate from the 205-page Humane Society report, which the county released last week.

Supervisors also hired a facilitator and created an ad hoc group to try to narrow the emotional and professional distance between the shelter’s staff and its volunteers.

Against this backdrop, the grand jury “received numerous citizen complaints” and sought to investigate, according to its report.

That report, titled “Animal Shelter Services—What’s Going On,” recommends that the Board of Supervisors find ways to facilitate grand jury access.

“The jury should not be viewed as an adversary (but rather) as the county’s watchdog doing its job to provide independent and objective evaluation of county government,” Simkins wrote in the news release.

The report requires a response from the county Board of Supervisors by Oct. 21.

Brown said grand jurors could have made more visits to the county’s animal shelter, reviewed records and subpoenaed and interviewed members of the ad hoc group working to improve conditions at the animal shelter.

Specifically, Brown asserted that if the jury had used additional strategies to get more information, it would have found that Animal Services has taken its current issues seriously and is developing processes to improve the situation.