Former Winslow City Councilwoman Judy Howell has been an advocate for an improved animal care facility and improved management of that entity. She delivered a forceful indictment of the way the facility is being run during the call to the public at the last meeting of the Winslow City Council. She provided a written copy of her speech, which follows.
“On Tuesday, Dec. 9, I called animal control to get a count of the animals in care. I was told by the worker she couldn’t give it to me, that I had to talk to her boss or call city hall. Animal Control supervisor called me back later in the day. He stated that was his orders he was given. He told me there were 20 dogs, seven puppies and four cats currently in care. On the same day, I called the mayor and a council member to see what was going on. They were dumbfounded to hear any animal control worker couldn’t give me general information.
“On Thursday and Friday, Dec. 11 and 12, I called five other Arizona towns (animal care facilities) and talked to the workers. They could not believe that the city would try to keep workers from giving out general information. All the facilities had no problem answering any of my questions. The general consensus of the workers I talked to was that the animal control facility is a public facility (just like a library). Open to all the public. Any worker at such a facility should be able to answer general questions from any citizen by phone or in person. If a citizen wants information on private personnel issues, or names and addresses of foster or adoptive families, or other confidential information, you would have to go through a formal process of the public records law, but not just for general information.
“The following is a list of questions or concerns that are considered general information and are questions that were answered for me by various animal control shelters throughout the state.
“The questions were: 1. The number of animals at shelter 2. Size of kennels 3. Inside or outside kennels 4. Heating-air conditioning 5. Number of kennels 6. Health issues. Parvo, distemper, isolation kennels for health issues 7. Number of animals in foster care 8. Number of animals adopted last month 9. Number of animals “put down” in the last month 10. Do they do Adopt-a-thons or what do they do to encourage adoption of animals? 11. Do they use volunteers?
“These are general information questions. Most of these questions can be observed by persons visiting an animal control facility. There would be no reason any animal control facility worker couldn’t answer these types of questions.
“We are a poor example of how an animal shelter should be run compared to other shelters in the state. The animal control facility was the number one concern of the citizens in a survey done approximately one and a half years ago. Yet, the animal shelter has been short-changed and is being done piecemeal, cheap as the city can. Why? Because the animals can’t talk, complain or plea for help. But I can and will.
“The city manager has made it perfectly clear that he is not going to discuss the animal control facility with me at all. I am to speak only to the animal control officer. I resent this, and feel we are back 10 years ago when harassment from the city manager, legal counsel and the city council itself was the expected result of addressing issues at the call to the public.
“If the council continues to let this stand, then the council again becomes part of the problem rather than part of the solution.
“My feeling is, if persons are in a public position, they need to learn to take criticism of their policies and leadership or lack of leadership without taking it personally. I know I used to work CPS and had to deal with a lot of criticism from the public, and I learned not to take it personally, and not to retaliate against a citizen.
“However, I am now a private citizen and the council and the city manager work for me and all of the citizens. We do not have to take a refusal to talk to us about an issue or to have roadblocks put in place to keep us from obtaining information in order to try to help find a solution to the problem.
“Winslow has many problems that could be solved with the help of the citizens. However, too many times this help is not there because of the attitude of the city administration, staff and the council members.
“I am asking the council to stop this game playing by the city manager and let’s try to work out a solution. Throwing up roadblocks, refusals to discuss issues and pure harassment is not the answer. We have been there before, done that and it didn’t work. That was 10 years ago. Let’s not regress back to old tactics!”
