Wednesday, June 16, 2010

tomorrow's ASC Agenda

This was just forwarded to me but with no venue. So I guess it'll be a surprise. Please excuse the crap formatting.

AGENDA


1. Call to Order Skip Trimble, Chair


2. Approval of the minutes from the April 22, 2010
Animal Shelter Commission Meeting


3. Chairman’s Report Skip Trimble, Chair

- New Parking Decals for Commission members


4. Animal Services Manager’s Report Kent Robertson

Animal Services Manager

- Statistics Oct 09 – May 2010

- Community Outreach Efforts

- List of all civil seizure cases involving cruelly

treated animals this fiscal year to date; with

number of animals; and their ultimate disposition.

Also, what if any criminal charges were filed

against the owner.

- Status of Animal Cruelty Cases referred to District Attorney’s Office

- Follow-Up Items From Prior Manager’s Reports

- Follow up Items From 4/22/10 Meeting



5. ASC Advisory Group Updates & Discussion

Skip Trimble, Chair


6. Old Business Kent Robertson, Animal Services Manager

- Animal Services Citation Dispositions

(How to track)



7. New Business Skip Trimble, Chair

- Why can’t citations be mailed via certified mail

or left on door?

- Discuss new ordinance re requiring finder of a

stray dog to locate owner

- Request that staff notify Commissioners in advance

of any animal issue to be presented or discussed

at any City Council Meeting or Council Committee

meeting

- Question and/or discussion of items in Staff Commission Update of 5/14/10

- Review Rescue Group Transfer Agreement


8. Public Comments


9. Adjournment


A closed executive session may be held if the discussion of any of the above agenda items concerns one of the following:

(I deleted this bit to save space - FP)

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Time for our quarterly ASC hide-and-seek...

Yep, it's that time again - time for us to try and figure out when and where our Animal Shelter Commission is meeting this month.

A couple of those who attended the last meeting took note of the June 17th date mentioned by Skippy. But if you surf over to the Dallas City Secretary's Web site, you won't find anything about the meeting. Scanner problems again?

However, we may have tracked down the elusive Commission, thanks to Larry Powell's blog. Seems there's been a change of venue:

THE BIG MEETING: Over the weekend we got a reminder from Elaine Munch, president of the Metroplex Animal Coalition and a member of the City of Dallas Animal Shelter Commission, urging people to attend Thursday’s commission meeting.

“This is your chance,” the note reads, “to let the City Attorney’s Office and the Code Compliance staff know what you think of the new ordinance passed on May 26.”

You may recall that the Dallas City Council OK’d a stray dog ordinance as a response to a man’s complaints about his stolen dogs.

Here’s the description, according to Elaine’s note: “This ordinance adds Section 7-4.12 to the Dallas City Code and makes it an offense if a person takes possession of a stray dog in the city and knowingly fails to make, within 72 hours after taking possession, a reasonable effort to locate the dog's owner by: (1) calling the telephone number listed on the dog's tags; (2) taking the dog to a licensed veterinarian for a microchip, tattoo, or other identification screening and calling the owner identified through the screening; (3) calling 311 to request that animal services pick up the dog for 614dasfrankie10 identification screening and impoundment; or (4) delivering the dog to the city's animal shelter for identification screening and impoundment. A violation of the proposed ordinance would be punishable by a fine not to exceed $500.”

This is seen by many as discouraging people from picking up stray animals and getting them into a safe haven – it falls into the category of “No good deed goes unpunished,” possibly to the tune of five hundred bucks and a conviction on your record for trying to do the right thing.

The council passed the ordinance without hearing from rescuers or from anyone on the animal shelter commission.

The commission meeting is scheduled for 1:30 pm. Thursday at Dallas Animal Services, 1818 N. Westmoreland, Dallas, 75212. That’s at I-30 west and Westmoreland, just west of downtown Dallas. There is usually plenty of parking at the facility.


Although I plan to double-check the time, date and venue tomorrow, it could make sense to plan to dress for hot weather. Seems the air conditioning at our newish, two-bond-issues-later shelter doesn't work very well.

WFAA carried a short report on the defunct a/c at DAS a couple of days ago, with media darling and ASC member Jonnie England there as usual. (Considering how frequently she appears in animal-related news videos, I'm beginning to suspect that she has a built-in Photo Op sensor. Or maybe a publicity agent.)

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Next Animal Shelter Commission meeting

From Larry Powell's blog:

-- Meanwhile, to keep people from forgetting, the latest City of Dallas ordinance affecting animal rescue – the one that was aimed at thieves but put rescuers at legal peril – will be on the agenda for the June 17 meeting of the Dallas Animal Shelter Commission. That’s at 1:30 p.m. at Dallas City Hall.

If you haven't yet attended one of these meetings, I strongly encourage you to do so. You can stand up and have your say after the mutual back-patting is over. Some of the folks really need to be kept in line. Or what the Australian Democrats would describe as "keeping the bastards honest" - a line that literally appears on a lot of their campaign posters.