New ASAC Members Motivated

The recent Animal Shelter Advisory Committee had one regular agenda item on it, an orientation for new board members given by an Assistant City Attorney.  Shelter Chief Morgan Chegwidden created the agenda, saying she wanted to give Committee members ample time for that discussion.  

Two members expressed concern about the limited agenda, believing their representation mattered for a shelter facing multiple issues.

Morgan became Shelter Chief in summer 2017 and has seven years experience onboarding new ASAC committee members.  This was the second meeting for new appointees.  

The August ASAC meeting saw new members asking questions about items that could not be discussed as they were not on the regular agenda.  Morgan said those would need to be saved for a future agenda.  It's hard to save them for a future meeting if they are not included in the minutes, which they were not.

Items not discussed in last Thursday's meeting include:

1. Recent closure of the shelter for dog intake due to distemper outbreak 10-11-24
2. The rapid increase in animal to human bites over the last two fiscal years
3. Status of preparation of temporary shelter
4. Timeline for seeking bids for shelter renovation (Council originally approved financing in March 2023, funds received in April 2023)
5. Shelter capacity 
6.  Enforcement of ordinances 
7.  Budget 
8.  Barriers for the public to access shelter services

Items 5-8 were the "off topic areas" raised by new ASAC members in the August meeting.  

Morgan stated the committee's sole aim is to ensure compliance with Texas law, making it sound like discussing the arrangements with Concho Valley PAWS off limits.  That ignores the committee's history:

On October 17, 2019 the ASAC met to tackle agenda item "new RFP for an expanded scope of services for shelter adoptions."  One ASAC member turned to PAWS Executive Director Jenie Wilson and said, "You are going to bid on it again." A motion was made to approve the RFP as presented. PAWS Wilson seconded the motion, then said "Oh, I shouldn't do that." Assistant City Manager Michael Dane said the Committee needed to give the appearance of an arm's length handling of the process.

That was two years into Morgan's current job.  

In 2021 Morgan "educated" the ASAC on the history of the Community Cat ordinance, which is not Texas law.  She was not the Shelter Chief when that ordinance was adopted and had virtually no contact with the only area rescue that stepped up to serve as a Community Cat sponsoring organization.  Morgan's storytelling was generally unanchored from reality.

Last week the public heard the real story behind highly attended ASAC meetings that failed to reach a quorum.  "The people that did not show up (Chair and Vice Chair) were very aware of the public comments that were coming."

I imagine new ASAC members may never get a chance to talk about issues important to area citizens, City Council members, veterinarians and people who want to walk their neighborhoods and not be approached by loose dogs (much less physically attacked).  That's a growing but unreported problem in our community.

So much is not being talked about.