Agenda item to appoint five new members to Manatee Animal Services Advisory Board tabled until future meeting

MANATEE -- With five vacancies and a nearly year-long hiatus from meetings, Manatee County's Animal Services Advisory Board was set to begin its resurrection process at Tuesday's commission meeting.

But the agenda items for the County Commission to appoint five new members and approve an amended resolution for the Animal Services Advisory Board were pulled from the agenda Monday after concerns arose about certain people not being listed as potential appointees.

"We received concerns from several people who said they submitted applications," Deputy County Administrator Karen Windon said. "We felt that it was better to pull it and readvertise so everyone interested in serving had that opportunity."

The county plans to get the request for applicants out as soon as possible, Windon said. Applications will be available on the county's website, mymanatee.org. The agenda items have not been rescheduled as of Monday, according to Diane Vollmer, the county's agenda coordinator.

The concerns came from county staff, the public and commissioners, who received emails and phone calls, Windon said.

"We want to have a strong advisory board and that means considering all the applicants," Windon said.

Terms for five members of the seven-member board either have expired or the member had resigned. The last meeting of the Animal Services Advisory Board was in November.

Bill Hutchison, interim director of Animal Services, said they included all 14 applications received on the agenda for consideration.

"I processed every one that I have," he said.

The 14 applications came from: incumbents Lisa Barnott, Luke Berglund, Charles Hamiliton and Jean Peelen; as well as LaVonne Bower, Anne Bridges, James Cooper, John Marble, Joanna Maza, Susan O'Day, William Oser, Tejbir Sandhu, Katie Wiehl and Jessica Zemanek.

Manatee County resident Laureen Smith said she's spoken with other people who said they applied but are not on the list.

"There are a lot of others," she said.

Also on Tuesday, the commission was set to adopt an update of the advisory board's resolution that would "clarify the purpose, authority and membership of the advisory board," according to agenda materials. The updates were developed by staff and current advisory board members with review by the county attorney's office.

The changes "more accurately reflect the roles and responsibilities of advisory board members," Windon said.

Why no board meetings?

Recently, some commissioners and resident have been questioning why the advisory board hasn't been regularly meeting.

While the Animal Services Advisory Board served as a resource with "expertise that is often lacking in the rank and file of our agency," Hutchison said in an email reply to Commissioner Vanessa Baugh last week, it "devolved into a forum for the same actors that often dominate your BOCC meetings with their citizen comments."

In the email, which was also sent to the other commissioners and county officials, Hutchison said "there is no resistance to a resurrection of the Animal Services Advisory Board by anyone," and he believes they can get the advisory board back together by the end of October.

"I am not an ASAB member but rather a beneficiary of their collective work product and wisdom," Hutchison said in the email. "Both the work product and wisdom became secondary or ceased all together and was replaced by giving the same actors a forum for the same views they express at the BOCC meetings. In short, they were nonproductive meetings."

Recently, Baugh has been emailing county staff asking the status of the advisory board.

In an email dated Sept. 14, Baugh wrote, "I guess I just find it odd that all of these positions have expired and nothing new has taken place."

"The matrix report came out in February 2015 that is ample time to get this board back up and running," the email continues. "It is similar to the planning commission. I wonder if it was the same if we would not fill positions on that board either. We had the animal advisory board to advise us and not to have it seems ridiculous."

Smith, who has been inquiring about the status of the advisory board for more than a month, said the commission should look very carefully at who is applying.

"With all the problems and all the distrust Manatee County Animal Services has, why don't we get an animal advisory board that cannot be showing their bias toward animal services that includes not putting the contracted vet on. That includes not putting people who are so closely associated with Manatee County Animal Services that it might look like a conflict of interest," Smith said.

When the Animal Services Advisory Board was meeting, a lot of good recommendations, including what led to the adoption of the county's anti-tethering ordinance, came out of the meetings, Hutchison said Monday.

"Animal Services Advisory Board is a extremely valuable way for the county to get talent from the community that helps in its decision-making process," Hutchison said. "A lot of ordinances and animal welfare improvements have come from Animal Services Advisory Board."

Claire Aronson, Manatee County reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7024. Follow her on Twitter @Claire_Aronson.

This story was originally published September 22, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Agenda item to appoint five new members to Manatee Animal Services Advisory Board tabled until future meeting ."