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Rosemary Summers made reference to page 23, which is a list of the items that <br />HSUS would include in the evaluation. <br />Chair Jacobs said that they appreciate the concern that the public has expressed <br />about these issues. These matters were first brought to the Board in August and now <br />they are ready to go forward with a consultation service. This is very fast by government <br />standards. <br />A motion was made by Commissioner Brown, seconded by Commissioner <br />Halkiotis that all the materials from the first agenda item, the Piedmont Wildlife Center, <br />go to the staff with a recommendation back from the Manager on the next steps. <br />John Link said that some of the steps would be to pursue more information from <br />Dr. Schopler and his associates. <br />Commissioner Carey said that we should get the Manager's recommendation on <br />this wildlife center. He thinks that if we are going to consider a new funding scheme for <br />the County that we look at this in the grand scheme of all of our funding. Dr. Schopler <br />should be encouraged to go through the regular process to get funding and to compete <br />with all other funding requests for next year. He cannot see the Board making a <br />decision outside the budget process far this issue. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis said that he is trying to be real positive about this and he <br />has received a lot of mail with all kinds of anonymous accusations. He finds all of this <br />troublesome. He hopes that all of us as adults can sit down and put aside personalities <br />and behaviors and do what is best for the animals. Earlier tonight somebody mentioned <br />that we measure our society by the way we treat our animals. He said that we get a <br />monthly report from our Sheriff on whether or not our prisoners receive sufficient things <br />to eat, whether or not they get a fresh razor every morning, etc. He thinks that it is sad <br />that we are lasing the focus in this. He is perplexed and he hopes that same kind of <br />preliminary conversation could take place with the Manager and a couple of <br />representatives from the two sides of the issue. He said that having two wildlife centers <br />in the same County does not make sense. If one can do it better than the other, then the <br />other should let the better one do it. He said that this Board of County Commissioners <br />has funded and breathed life into the Dispute Settlement Center and Andy Saks has <br />helped many people to work through issues. He said that if the Board did not care about <br />animals, they would not have made the contributions that they have made over the <br />years. He still needs to know whether or not the APS Board is committed to having a <br />wildlife center. This needs to come back through the Manager to the Board. He added <br />this to the motion. <br />Commissioner Gordon thanked all the people for coming. She is struck by the <br />passion that was shown for the animals. She thinks that the County Commissioners will <br />do the best they can for the animals. <br />Chair Jacobs asked John Link to bring something back before the winter break <br />about the wildlife center. <br />VOTE: UNANIMOUS <br />Regarding the independent study, Commissioner Brown would like to take the <br />time to look at all of the information. She does not want to make a decision tonight on <br />this bigger issue. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis thanked Rosemary Summers far the initial presentation. <br />He said that, based on her recommendation, he would be supportive of moving forward <br />with the contract with the HSUS. <br />