With full time Dog Control Officer Jean Karn unable to work and out with a serious back problem to ensure that there is effective oversight of the Department in the short term until the full time Dog Control Officer is able to return to work, the Town Board approved a resolution that assigns full time Assistant Dog Control Officer Elizabeth Bertozzi to provide Department oversight on a temporary basis. Bertozzi will be compensated during this temporary assignment on step at 85% of the $51,511.00 salary.

If no board report was presented on this resolution prior to public comment on the pre-filed resolutions, I asked an individual to address the board in my name to ask the following questions for clarification:

Chowaniec: With the full-time Dog Control Officer out temporarily, what does that leave in staffing (full-time and part-time) and the number of hours of coverage to manage the operation. I understand it is only Elizabeth from Monday through Friday and two part-timers on the weekend, four hours each. 43 hours of coverage in a 168-hour week.

Dog Control Committee Chair Mark Burkard: Elizabeth will be taking over for Jean while she is out. With Captain (Police) Gummo, we are working on that. We have two part-timers working on the weekend as well.

Chowaniec: Who attends to the dogs after the first shift (from Monday through Friday) when the sole full-time DCO ends her shift? When Elizabeth leaves at 3:30 pm, who takes care of the dogs until 7:30 am the following morning?

Burkard: We have two part-timers on the weekend.

Chowaniec: No, during the week, when Elizabeth is the only one working. By law the dogs need to be attended to.

Burkard: We do have, if I recall, Captain Gummo or one of the police will come in. It’s the same that’s always been done. It’s not changing anything, but we are one person short.

Chowaniec: Has the requested tasks by Ag & Markets been completed, the project closed out, and the town received the $229,000 Animal Companion grant money for the new dog shelter?

Burkard: It hasn’t been fully completed yet. They tried to get in to fix the floors again. We are full, over capacity (with dogs). Tonight there’s a resolution, in conjunction with the SPCA that they will be able to take dogs from us. There are sweethearts (6) in our kennels that need adoption. Unfortunately with Covid people got dogs, didn’t treat them right, they may have been a little hyper, they go to work, come home and the dogs may have destroyed some things. Now they don’t want them. They let them out of their house; they don’t want them anymore. There are some sweet dogs there. If we can get the adopted that will help free things up.

Comments

Things are not the way they always were. Ms. Karn has been out nearly two weeks. In that interim Ms. Bertozzi has been working solo from Monday through Friday, overwhelmed attending to the dogs, cleaning the kennels, and attending to the daily operations and required managerial tasks.

If Captain Gummo or other police will attend to the dogs off-shift, that hasn’t happened yet. The two weekend part-timers work but four hours each. Currently, the dogs are being attended to only 43 hours of the 168-hour week.

DCO Karn put in for a third full-time Assistant DCO that would have covered the second shift but had no applications – not for $16/hr. and the risks involved. Supervisor Ruffino has repeatedly declared the department is overstaffed and spending too much money.

Mr. Burkard speaks of his second resolution, an arrangement with the SPCA that could result in the adoption of 6 dogs currently housed. Without the contract renewal in place (should have happened earlier) the SPCA is not obligated to accept Lancaster dogs for adoption. Municipalities are complaining that the SPCA is not accepting local dogs for adoption yet taking in dogs outside the district.

In the SPCA agreement, Mr. Burkard says the SPCA will take in dogs in for euthanasia. Not what I have been told. The town has become obligated to provide a service which could run from $150 - $300, unlike the previous SPCA service charge of $60.

The town does not want to become an adoption agency for myriad reasons. The rescue agencies and SPCA are full.

How little we hear in town board meeting reports on the status of the new dog shelter - how short staffed the Dog Control Department is, why the new shelter has tasks yet to be completed when it was opened in June 2022, why the project has not been closed out and why the NYS Animal Companion grant money has yet to be distributed. Why is the foul smell in the building continuing when ventilation was promised months ago? Where is the promised paved parking lot?