Minutes - 20030617 - Laserfiche WebLink

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his intent was. John Link said that he meant that if there were a need in the future, the Health Director might be able to take over the shelter. He said that he expects the Board may want to consider any number of changes in the operation of the shelter. He recommends waiting on the full report from HSUS. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he does not recall any issue with such controversy as this APS issue. He suggested several years ago to look at alternatives of providing appropriate shelter for animals. He does not plan to support this contract extension. He said that a contingency plan needs to be set up for whatever the Board decides to do, and six months is not much time. He thinks we should plan on building a new facility because in 2006 the County has to be out of the old facility. He is concerned about the tight timeline. Commissioner Jacobs said that he found a contract from September 1999 and it is significantly different than this contract. He asked Rosie Summers about this. Rosie Summers said that this is simply an extension and all provisions are still in effect from 1999. Commissioner Gordon asked if it was possible to do a three or four month contract extension and have staff come up with alternative ways of doing this during the summer break. Commissioner Carey said that all of the County Commissioners have concerns about the welfare of animals. He thought the HSUS was being commissioned to study to get a more independent perspective about the future of the shelter. This includes who should be operating it. He thinks that the Board should wait until they get the report from HSUS before they develop alternative plans. Commissioner Jacobs said that the Board could ask staff to begin working on identifying likely sites and the HSUS could give recommendations on the type of structure first. He thinks that six months is a reasonable time to extend the contract and to make a decision by the last meeting in December and ask staff to make a timeline for this process. Chair Brown said that she is hearing from the Board that it would like to have the Manager be prepared as soon as the HSUS report is received, that it wants to be able to make a move very quickly. Chair Brown said that there needs to be a public meeting in September far comments on the HSUS report. She is very concerned about the continuation of this contract. She thought it would be month-by-month. She thinks that we need to respond quickly to come up with other ways of management of the shelter. She agreed with Commissioner Halkiotis and said that she would vote against this. Regarding the site selection, there were two sites brought forward. One is on Eubanks Road and Chapel Hill said that there is space near their Public Works (new} department. She expects that HSUS will came back with a state of the art design far the animal shelter. Virginia has an excellent shelter, and she suggested taking a trip to see this animal shelter. Commissioner Gordon suggested that there cannot be symbolic votes and the Board has to came up with something that will work for everybody. A motion was made by Commissioner Carey, seconded by Commissioner Jacobs to extend the current contract with the Animal Protection Society (APS) for operating the Orange County Animal Shelter, with the funding amount subject to approval of the FY 2003-2004 budget, and to authorize the Chair to sign. VOTE: Ayes, 2 (Commissioner Carey and Commissioner Jacobs); Nays, 3 (Chair Margaret Brown, Commissioner Gordon ,Commissioner Halkiotis) John Link asked the Board about the expectation for operating the animal shelter. A motion was made by Commissioner Gordon, seconded by Commissioner Jacobs to move the extension of the contract until September 30t" (3 months) with amonth-to-month extension after that until December 31St