An issue between the DeKalb Animal Coalition and City of Smithville which has rocked on now for almost six months is an issue no longer. The Aldermen voted unanimously, during Monday night’s regular monthly meeting to cut ties with the coalition due to breach of the lease agreement and contract made in 2015. The city of Smithville is now in full control of the DeKalb Animal Shelter.

In October, the aldermen voted to immediately discontinue the pickup and acceptance of animals from within the county by their employees at the animal shelter, Megan Moore and Emmaly Bennett due to liability concerns and city expense of sending city employees out into the county for the purposes of animal control.

Smithville Mayor and Aldermen met with the County Mayor Commissioners in an informal workshop last Tuesday night, along with members of the DeKalb Animal Coalition, seeking common ground solutions on the DeKalb Animal Shelter. Animals outside of city limits have not been taken in at the shelter since October due to concerns of liability and costs.

The shelter had only six animals housed as of last Tuesday night’s meeting, which is a vast difference of its usual of 30 animals most days.

During the workshop, Alderman Brandon Cox explained what led to the city’s decision.

“The reality is the numbers we were seeing and the situation our employees were dealing with was over capacity, being overworked, and having not enough support,” Alderman Cox said. “That comes from a number of factors. Our original contract with the coalition was to provide one full time and one part time employee, etc., but essentially since I have been on the city council we have grown that from one full time and one part time employee to two full time employees and that is still not enough. I think the last numbers before the motion I made last year to stop taking county animals was about 67% of the animals at the shelter were from the county. Since the coalition and this building was built and improved upon the city has doubled its expenditures from roughly $60,000 a year to almost $120,000 a year for this particular department. There is a financial burden that the city has taken on behalf of the county and we are not really getting a lot of reciprocation from the county. My goal is to see if we can get something from the county to help carry some of that burden.”

County Mayor Tim Stribling said Tuesday night that if the county were to fund a shelter position that money should go directly to Smithville and the person hired become a city employee in much the same way as school resources officers are funded for the sheriff’s department under a funding partnership between the city, county, and school system.

After what seemed like a very productive workshop, a letter was sent last Wednesday to City Attorney Vester Parsley from the Coalition’s attorney, Sarah Cripps seeking to reassert what she contends is the Coalition’s authority under terms of a 2015 lease agreement and contract with the city.

Smithville Mayor Josh Miller said he was disappointed with Cripps’ letter, especially with it having been sent so quickly after the workshop. Several aldermen shared the same feelings.

“When I received the letter from the Coalition’s Attorney Wednesday evening I was very disappointed,” said Mayor Miller. “The letter does not feel like a good faith effort to resolve the issue we are facing. I believe the county, city, and coalition were making progress and moving forward from our workshop until the city received this letter.”

The mayor not only received the letter last week, but again on Monday.

Cripps, acting on behalf of the Coalition, reportedly tried to overrule the city’s ban and enforce the lease and contract Thursday as she interprets it instructing shelter employees to start picking up and accepting county animals immediately but city officials stepped in to stop it.

In her letter Wednesday to City Attorney Parsley, Cripps wrote that “The entity tasked with overseeing and managing the animal shelter is the Coalition, not the City of Smithville nor its agents, employees, and members of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.” Cripps went further in the letter, stating that the city must “cease and desist from all communication, with each and every employee or volunteer at the Coalition and to direct their communication either to her or to the Coalition’s Board of Directors as a whole with exception of issues pertaining to Human Resources.”

The city, which in 2017 began funding one full-time and a half-time animal shelter employee, now funds a total of two full-time positions and considers them city employees. The Coalition funds a part-time shelter employee. Cripps claims all those employees work for the Coalition, not the city, and must answer to the Coalition under terms of the Coalition’s lease and contract with the City.

“The Coalition is responsible for the day to day operation of the shelter and scheduling and overseeing all volunteers and staff according to the contract”, said Cripps.

“The preamble of the lease and contract provides in pertinent part: Whereas, the City will continue to provide said personnel and vehicle to assist in the day to day operation of the animal shelter to be erected by the Coalition.”

The contract further states that “The City shall continue to provide to the Coalition the full time employee, as well as the part time employee, and the animal control vehicle, to assist in the day to day operation of the animal shelter and will budget funds for the purpose from year to year, subject to approval of the Coalition,” Cripps continued.

In 2019 the city purchased with city funds, a 2006 Ford F150, made for animal control transports.

In the October meeting with the Coalition, city officials said the City of Smithville has more than done its part.

“In fiscal year 2015 (before the new shelter was built) we spent roughly $60,000. In 2016 we spent $63,071. In 2017 we spent $64,000. In 2018, not counting the $75,000 that we gave toward building the shelter, we spent $118,372. In 2019 we spent $103,000 and in 2020 we have spent almost $115,000 so we have almost doubled what the city has been spending since before the building was built and what we have been contributing,” said Janice Plemmons-Jackson, the city’s financial advisor.

“What we committed to originally was one full time and a part time employee, a vehicle and utilities. In addition to that you have some salary payroll taxes, insurance, retirement, repairs and maintenance, supplies, uniforms, the vehicle operation, and we do insure the building. They (Coalition) insure the contents, etc. So our costs have doubled yet we are getting no revenue (from the shelter). I don’t see a whole lot of what they are contributing other than they have got the building in place for us,” said Jackson.

The Coalition is also to receive fees generated through the animal shelter although the city has a right to view the Coalition’s financial records.

As a 501© (3) non-profit corporation, Cripps wrote that the Coalition was never intended or organized as a for-profit concern. Moreover (terms) of the lease and contract provide: “The Coalition will collect all board, adoption, capture, and impoundment fees and shall keep proper financial records to account for same. The Coalition will permit the City, at all reasonable times, to inspect and audit such records and shall make such reports of monies received as shall be required”.

Cripps addressed the council Monday night during public comments prior to the closed meeting, reiterating that the coalition planned to have the staff at the shelter begin county pickup on Tuesday morning.

“We intend to direct the staff and resume animal pickup,” stated Sarah Cripps attorney for the DeKalb Animal Coalition. “Now, if they don’t obey us, then we will take that issue up with them at a later date. We hope that they will see fit to do that, but if they do not, we think enough lives of animals have been lost from the city’s action, and we will start tomorrow to pick up animals.”

When arriving at the agenda item of the DeKalb Animal Shelter, Mayor Miller expressed his desire to come to a conclusion of issues at hand.

“I felt like, after the worship, we were going in the right direction,” Mayor Miller said. “Then Wednesday evening I got a letter. Like I said before, it did not feel like a good-faith effort to fix anything. And of course, I got that same letter again today. This is where we are.

“This needs to be fixed,” said Mayor Josh Miller. “It doesn’t need to be a six-month fix, it doesn’t need to be a 12-month fix. It needs to be fixed. It needs to be a permanent fix.”