News, Events and Information from Indianapolis Animal Care & Control

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

On Friday, January 8, 2010, a complaint was filed with the chair of the Ethics Committee of the Indianapolis City-County Council against David Horth, chairman of the Indianapolis Animal Care & Control (IACC) board. The complaint was filed by Greg Brush and Warren Patitz, representatives of two local animal welfare organizations. Mayor Greg Ballard was also copied on the complaint and a request made that Mayor Ballard dismiss Horth from his position on the IACC board.

Shortly after Chairman Horth's decision and announcement to stop government cable 16 coverage of IACC board meetings and subsequent overruling by Mayor Greg Ballard, an e-mail document was obtained with further evidence that Mr. Horth offered to be absent to cause the cancellation of the September 9, 2009 IACC board meeting.  The e-mail, obtained through the Indiana Access to Public Records Act, disclosed communication between Mr. Horth and Erin Pratt. Ms. Pratt is the assistant to then interim Public Safety Director Mark Renner and is also the appointed secretary to the IACC board. In the e-mail, Mr. Horth indicated that he was able to come to the September meeting, but he would stay home sick if there weren't "specific issues" to discuss. Shortly after that e-mail was sent, Ms. Pratt announced that the meeting was cancelled.

The September 2009 IACC board meeting would have been the last public meeting to discuss critically important issues regarding the agency’s operations under IACC administrator Doug Rae. Mr. Rae had been placed on probation by interim director Renner at the beginning of August and the probationary period ended at the beginning of October when Rae was subsequently fired. Critics of the firing contend that Mr. Rae had complied with the terms of his probation, there had been significant improvement in many areas of IACC operations and these improvements were going to be made public at the September board meeting.

David Horth was appointed to the IACC board by Mayor Ballard in 2008. The city ordinance requires a representative from the Humane Society of Indianapolis (HSI) hold a seat on the IACC board. Until recently, Horth served as the chairman of the board for HSI, and still serves on their board. In late July, 2009, HSI hosted a closed-door meeting between a small number of animal welfare groups, select city-county councilors and interim public safety director Renner to discuss dissatisfaction by those animal groups with Mr. Rae's performance as IACC administrator. Notably not invited to the meeting was Rae himself. In an article appearing in a September issue of NUVO, HSI was the only group to go on record as being openly critical of Rae.

While the specific reason for Horth wanting the September 9, 2009 board meeting canceled is currently unknown, the e-mail clearly indicates that Mr. Horth was acting in a way intended to prohibit the opportunity for open discussion and suppress a legally-mandated forum for the public to be involved in understanding and voicing their opinions on the operation of a division of their city's government. Taken into context with Mr. Horth’s recent attempt to keep IACC board meetings from being covered by government cable 16, a pattern emerges suggesting that Mr. Horth wants to keep the public’s knowledge of and involvement in the operation of the city’s embattled animal shelter under his control.

Download Media release with Ethics Complaint

Mayor Ballard's office dismissed Warren Patitz as chairman of the Indianapolis Animal Care and Control (IACC) board on Wednesday, September 23, just two hours before the beginning of the scheduled board meeting. The Mayor's office relayed to the media that stray dog calls remain a top complaint to the Mayor's Action Center since 2005 (Indy Star, September 24, “Ballard cans head of animal-control board”). This concern was cited despite a decrease in dog bites in 2009, and IACC fielding over 2000 more service calls under Rae's leadership than had been handled at this time last year.

But in the three-page document (“Improvement Process & Probationary Period”) outlining the terms of IACC Administrator Doug Rae's probation, not once is there the slightest evidence that Rae's superiors had concerns about the number of stray dog calls, their impact on public safety or the timeliness of IACC's response to the calls.

Even though the probation terms went into effect on August 1, on August 12, the Indy Star reported (“Animal shelter's chief put on probation”) that Mark Renner, acting director of the department of public safety had concerns that public safety may be suffering under Rae. No specific justification for this claim was offered by Renner in the article. But if this concern of Renner's was compelling enough that he would offer it to the media, why did it not appear in the “Improvement” list of action items given to Rae?

In fact, the “Improvement” document was clearly completed on or after August 5, as it references a cover letter (which could not be obtained) dated August 5. The acting director penned an elaborate list with 15 items of concern, including improvement of internal communication within the division, ensuring that foul language is not used, post job opportunities and changes, and making sure policies are understood and enforced. It was an intricate and comprehensive list of micromanagement issues virtually down to the employee level. With such a detailed criticism of the shelter head's performance, how is it that only a week later, a new concern –a concern serious enough to bring to the media's attention– appears? Particularly when the Mayor's office reports that this is an ongoing problem (Indy Star, September 24, “Ballard cans head of animal-control board”).

This leads to the conclusion that either acting director Renner himself needs some “improvement” with his attention to detail if he forgot to include this crucial issue in his list of improvements for Rae's job performance, or that the recently presented arguments about the safety of the city suffering under Rae's leadership are little more than a poorly-conceived cover to to justify the firing of Doug Rae as the IACC administrator without any legitimate justification.

Mr. Renner's continued characterization of Animal Control Officers as “dogcatchers” shows that his understanding of the function of these law enforcement officers may be as superficial as the idea that a single statistic like the number of stray dog complaints (which have continued to diminish under Rae's leadership) is an accurate measure of the safety of the citizens of Indianapolis. It also begs the question of whether it should be Mr. Renner on probation.

Not only are the Ballard administration and acting director Renner doing IACC administrator Rae a shameful disservice by making him the target of undue criticism, but they are showing great disrespect and disregard to the citizens of Indianapolis by failing to deal with the situation in an honest, effective and transparent manner.

###

The document entitled "Improvement Process and Probationary Period" can be downloaded by clicking here

Time is running out to show your support for the improvements made and still coming at Indianapolis Animal Care & Control! The deadline for submitting returned signature pages is September 20th. If you haven't seen and signed the petition already, you may download a copy. This is a real paper petition, so please download and circulate within your office, church, family and social groups. The city leaders need to know how important it is to the citizens of Indianapolis that IACC continue to improve, and that Administrator Rae receive the full support of the city leaders!

About 11am, Sept 9, it was announced that the IACC board meeting scheduled for 6pm this evening has been cancelled. The Public Safety director's office announced there would not be a quorum, as two board members wouldn't be able to attend. When asked, board chairman Patitz said he had not received any notice that any board members would be absent, but for some interesting reason, their absence was reported by the PS office, who does not by law appear to have any direct authority over the operation of the IACC board as outlined in sec. 251 of the ordinance.

Bright and early on Labor Day, a small army of volunteers met at Indianapolis Animal Care & Control (IACC) to spay and neuter some of the shelter's animals. The shelter routinely spays and neuters animals that are being put up for adoption. Normally this is done by taking the animals from the shelter to a veterinarian under contract with the city. But on this day, the spay & neuter surgeries were happening within the shelter itself. In what is being described as a pilot program, local animal welfare partner Feral Bureau of Indiana (FBI) brought their own expertise to create a new team of shelter volunteers and accomplish something that would've never been envisioned or welcomed prior to the arrival of Administrator Doug Rae in January.

While the FBI's volunteers have years of experience with high-volume spay/neuter events, the group's mission focuses on providing surgery for traditionally under-served stray, feral and barn cats, as well as working with other shelter and rescue groups throughout central Indiana providing cost-effective spay/neuter for cats. But anyone who has visited the city's shelter will know that they have more than just cats.

Fortunately, Dr. Marcie Short, member of the IACC advisory board has ample experience with dogs in private practice. The real challenge was converting a large room used partly for isolation of sick cats into a surgery and recovery suite for dozens of animals. Through the incredible work of the volunteers, this was accomplished in just a few hours while the shelter was closed to the public over a holiday weekend, and surgeries began first thing Labor Day morning.

All the experienced people involved volunteered their time – even Dr. Short. Specialized surgical equipment was loaned courtesy of Allisonville Animal Hospital in Fishers, and the cost of the medications and supplies to conduct the surgeries was underwritten by FBI. At the end of the day, 8 dogs and 18 cats had been through surgery. For a group that routinely “fixes” 100-130 cats in a day, the IACC spay/neuter count isn't impressive. But the consequences of this day could be far-reaching.

Beyond the initial and obvious benefit of the shelter's animals having surgeries at no cost to the city, and being available for adoption sooner, the entire event is being carefully analyzed by the group. The result will be a report discussing how this event can be re-created on a regular basis at the shelter by developing on a corps of specifically trained volunteers.

A somewhat less obvious, but no less important benefit is that getting more volunteers into the shelter also brings in more people to interact with the animals housed there. As was evidenced at this event, volunteers interacting one-on-one with the animals creates a bond that can often result in animals being taken into foster care by the volunteers, or even adopted.

Feral Bureau's CEO, Greg Brush comments that it is much too early to even begin to completely understand the full significance of the event. “It might seem to be simply about cost savings of spay & neuter, but the reality is that it enhances awareness and involvement of more people with the shelter's animals. People will see what those of us who work closely with the shelter are seeing – unique and wonderful things are finally beginning to happen at the shelter under Administrator Rae's leadership after too many years of mismanagement.”

Photos from the event can be seen by following this link

A new and chilling rumor has surfaced regarding Indianapolis Animal Care & Control (IACC). It's chilling because although it's unsubstantiated, it tends to pull together a lot of pieces of the current puzzle. Right now, IACC is under more intense scrutiny than any time in history. Reports are that administrator Rae is on a very short leash, having to account for every action and file frequent reports; Public Safety (PS) is sending muscle in dark suits in weekly or more often to interrogate staff over any and every detail. Although acting PS director Renner assures people who have been lucky enough to get a response from him that this is all part of "helping" Rae and IACC be better, the constant onslaught from the City-County Building is seriously impacting morale at the facility. Steve Quick is making sure that the union does their part too, and is continuing his campaign to cry fowl at the slightest provocation. Heaven forbid the vending machine in the break room runs out of Cheesy Crackers...it'll be heard at the mayor's office as Rae's latest failure.

So why go to such trouble? What could possibly motivate folks downtown to put a virtual stranglehold on their own division? Can you spell P-R-I-V-A-T-I-Z-A-T-I-O-N? Rumor mill from IACC is that Renner has an aggressive schedule to have the kennel operations of IACC under the auspices of a private contractor by January 1, 2010. Presumably, the field officers would then fall under the control of the newly created Code Enforcement division -- a move that was attempted and deferred earlier this year.

What's the precedent? We've already seen lots of discussion about privatization in the Mayor's Action Center, now the Indy Parks. What many may not realize is that nearly a decade ago, Humane Society of Indianapolis (HSI) ran the kennel operations at the city's shelter under contract. This eliminates a lot of headaches for the city, including several AFSCME union employees.Why would union president Quick like this? It's hard to imagine he would. He may be a dupe in someone else's plot, or perhaps there are more angles at play than the rumor mill has yet realized.

Suddenly, HSI's interest in participating in a meeting airing gripes about adminstrator Rae makes perfect sense. You may recall that at the end of July, outgoing PS director Newman and acting director Renner, as well as 6 councilors and some disgruntled animal interest groups (who, by the way, just announced they want $3M, including money from the city, to start their own spay/neuter clinic & HQ for their respective groups) had a secret meeting hosted and attended by HSI. Many asked why HSI would involve themselves in such an activity. The answer is now painfully clear -- the almighty dollar! One can but speculate what portion of the approximately $3.5M shown in the 2010 IACC budget HSI would expect to receive for managing the shelter, but I am sure they would make it worth their while.

Anyone who has ever put together a puzzle knows the satisfaction we get when all the pieces suddenly start to "fall into place". Unfortunately, this is one time when the clarity comes with a steep price to the citizens of Indianapolis. Losing the first --and only-- administrator of the city's shelter with actual sheltering expertise would be an incalculable loss to the animals and people of the city.

Don't like what's happening to IACC and want to do something about it?

• Attend the IACC board meeting on Weds Sept 9, 6pm in the assembly room of the City-County Building. 
• Write the Mayor:
  Honorable Mayor Greg Ballard
  2501 City-County Building
  200 E. Washington St
  Indianapolis, IN 46204
• Send/make a donation to the Friends of Indianapolis Animal Care and Control and make sure to note that you want to support the continuing improvements at the city's shelter under administrator Rae
• Write a note to councilor Ryan Vaughn, chairman of the Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee (oversees issues related to IACC) and ask him to support the good work happening at the city's shelter and oppose any efforts to dismantle all the great improvements made, and still coming:
  Councilor Ryan Vaughn
  vaughnforcouncil@gmail.com
  8212 N. College Ave.
  Indianapolis, IN 46240
  

Those of you who attended the Wednesday, August 12 IACC advisory board meeting saw a new face at the table: Erin Pratt. Ms. Pratt is the assistant to the director of public safety. Her role at IACC board meetings is not known, and not described in the ordinance. But at the August 12 meeting, she was The Silencer. She sat quietly throughout the entire meeting until the public comments. When a lady named Joanne Brizzett (sp?) stood up and began to speak, Ms. Pratt sprang into action.

I would recommend that you watch the video yourself. Move the little progress bar on the video player to 41:00 (roughly), although if you didn't attend the meeting, I would suggest watching the entire meeting.

Here is what I heard:

Joanne: "Good evening. My name is Joanne Brizzett, and um, I'm here to, uh, in response to the article that was in the Indianapolis Star this morning, and I would like to, uh, go on record as being one of many, hopefully those in the majority, who support your work..."

Pratt: "WHOA! I'm so sorry."

Joanne: "I can't say that?"

Pratt: "No you cannot."

Joanne: "I appreciate that, I'm sorry..."

So what did Joanne say that required her to be gagged by Pratt? She was offering her opinion, as is her right under the First Amendment. But for the official perspective, I asked Adam Collins who is the Corporation Counsel attorney assigned to monitor IACC board meetings and keep them within the legal boundaries as outlined by ordinance. Mr. Collins indicated that Joanne's comment was out of realm of comments the board could hear, based on the statement Mr. Collins made at the beginning of the meeting, where he outliined what was permissible. In the video, Mr. Collins' explanation appears at about 2:00 minutes into the meeting:

"Today, the board is authorized by ordinance to hear public comments regarding the decision of a public entity concerning the animals or any concerns about animals in general. Any concerns or comments regarding individual employment or personnel issues are not relevant to this board's authority, germane to the conversation. We request in advance that those types of comments not be directed to this board."

Let's assume for a moment that Mr. Collins' statement is an accurate description of the ordinance that governs the IACC advisory board. Did Joanne violate this rules? Let's look at what Joanne said before she was cut off:

Good evening. My name is Joanne Brizzett, and um, I'm here to, uh, in response to the article that was in the Indianapolis Star this morning, and I would like to, uh, go on record as being one of many, hopefully those in the majority, who support your work...

Was Joanne addressing an "individual employment or personnel issue", or was she expressing concern about animals? Well, since Joanne never completed her sentence, we will probably never know. Perhaps Ms. Pratt was placed in that position because she is gifted with the ability to know what people are saying before they say it? Perhaps she is a psychic? An exceptionally talented mentalist?

But wait, what does the law really say about the purpose and authority of the IACC advisory board?

Sec. 251-331.  Establishment.
The animal care and control board is hereby established to help identify the problems and needs of animal care and control in the city, to suggest answers and to recommend solutions to these needs and problems, and to educate the public regarding the care and ownership of animals

Okay, but I'm sure Mr. Collin's rules are mentioned a little further down. We'll skip over the part about board membership requirements, voting and quorum information in 251-332 & 333 (but please do follow the link and see the ordinance in its entirety):

Sec. 251-334.  General powers and duties.
It shall be the responsibility of the animal care and control board to insure that activities of animal care and control are meeting its mission statement, to help identify the problems and needs of animal care and control in Marion County, to suggest answers and to recommend solutions to these needs and problems, and to educate the public regarding the proper care and responsible ownership of animals, and to make reasonable efforts to ensure that sufficient funds are appropriated for the proper and necessary equipment and personnel, and upgrades thereof, proper and efficient performance of the services, and work required of the division consistent with the animal care and control board's policies and procedures.

Well, I think maybe we're getting closer to finding Mr. Collin's rules...we must be because we're down to the last section:

Sec. 251-335.  Specific powers, duties and responsibilities.
The animal care and control board shall also be charged with the following specific duties and responsibilities:

I'm no attorney, but I am fairly well versed in the English language, and I don't see any such prohibitions that Ms. Brizzett violated. Nor do I see the place that says First Amendment rights are suspended, subject to the interpretation of The Silencer during IACC board meetings.

Write:

Mayor Greg Ballard
City-County Bldg, 2501
200 E. Washington St.
Indianapolis, IN 46204

Chris Cotterill
Office of Corporation Counsel
City-County Bldg, 1601
200 E. Washington St
Indianapolis, IN 46204

Remember when writing to be factual and professional. State your concerns and the people involved as clearly and succinctly (and respecfully) as possible.

Ghandi once said that how a society treats its animals is the best indication of its civility. The recent stories regarding Doug Rae of Indianapolis Animal Care and Control, particularly the segment I watched on WRTV 6 are peculiar in that no one can exactly pin down one good reason why he is apparently on probation. WRTV found lots of critics but no one, least of all Mr. Mark Renner, acting Director of Public Safety, can say exactly what Mr. Rae did wrong…that he re-staffed 2 positions? Well, he’s the executive director – if he can’t do that in his own agency without being placed on probation, it is a sad commentary of the state of the Public Safety Department in Indianapolis. Is it because he adopted out too many pit bulls? I’ve been a volunteer at IACC for about a year now and work about 20 hours a month on their adoption events, and I can tell you that if a pit or pit mix make it out of the shelter and into a loving home, then they are one of the lucky few. This has become all the more true after Humane Society of Indianapolis changed their policy in March 2008 wherein they began “picking and choosing” from among IACC’s animals, and required the general public to make an appointment and undergo counseling before being allowed to surrender an animal to the Humane Society. IACC does not have this luxury; they get what their officers bring in, no matter what.

There will inevitably be adopters and other people who have not or will not have good experiences with certain breeds but there is no way for IAC to control or predict that. They are underfunded and understaffed as it is. If Mr. Renner wants to change something, I propose the novel idea that he start including dog and cat food in the budget, instead of making IACC rely on donations and charities; as far as I am aware, not one other city agency has to rely so heavily on volunteers and donations. Additionally, I applaud Mr. Rae’s efforts to adopt out dogs that are so-called “bully breeds” after they’ve undergone temperament testing or are “rehab-able.” One recent example is Destiny, the pit bull I adopted out this past Sunday, who is a great example of a sweet, mellow dog who has since adapted remarkably to her new home.

The timing of this “probation” is also suspect in that, only a few weeks after Scott Newman resigned, Mr. Renner found the need to put Mr. Rae on probation, even though there were no apparent problems under Mr. Newman’s tenure. In fact, Mr. Rae was praised during the earlier part of this week for bringing the Animal Control response rate up 11% since the start of the year (see http://www.indystar.com/article/20090813/LOCAL18/908130398/1001/NEWS/Animal+control+responses+are+up+11++in++09). The timing is also suspect in that news of the story broke on the very same day that Mr. Rae was due to head up the IACC’s monthly meeting on August 12, 2009. One has to wonder if Mr. Rae and Mr. Renner simply had a personality conflict. If so, Mr. Renner should be ashamed of himself for misusing his (hopefully temporary) authority in this way. I’ve met and worked with Mr. Rae a number of times, most notably at the Mutt Strut, (where the Humane Society of Indianapolis raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and where IACC was allowed one booth). Mr. Rae stayed the entire Saturday and helped out us volunteers immensely. I would ask Mr. Renner to please let him do his job, which is already extremely difficult without a temporary boss looking over his shoulder. Instead, Mr. Renner should concentrate on boosting morale at IACC, where his current actions are undoubtedly only hurting matters, not helping them.

~Jennifer Wallander, Esq.

Indianapolis, IN

Those who read the one-sided story by Heather Gillers in the Star Wednesday morning would've been certain that Indianapolis Animal Care & Control (IACC) was literally falling apart. It must be so, if the head of the agency is put on probation. I mean, in 2008 when investigators confirmed that the agency was violating Indianapolis law and their own internal policies and animals were being abused and mistreated there was no probation for Adminsitrator Steve Talley or Kennel Manager Kirsten Vantwoud. Obviously things must be worse at the shelter now?

Clearly, for AFSCME local president Steve Quick to take time out of his job with the department of Public Works to stage a press conference at the shelter and parade the media back into the euthanasia room, and present a series of union employees with their tales of horror at the shelter, it really must be unspeakably bad there, right?

Something is definitely wrong, but it's not at IACC. Those who attended the advisory board meeting Weds night saw Administrator Doug Rae introducing his now-filled managerial staff -- a group of energetic people who sure looked like the most optimistic bunch of city workers you are likely to find anywhere, and a staff who believe that they can fulfill their boss' vision of making IACC a place that doesn't make animals suffer and die, but gives them every possible chance to live and be someone's dearly loved pet.

Anyone who thought that taking a sadly dysfunctional shelter run by a "string of politial hacks" and turning it into a something good was going to be painless must live in a fantasy world. The division has had 9 leaders in 13 years, none of them with any more experience operating a shelter than the average pet owner. The division has been all but strangled by a bully of a union president whose in-your-face style says he is more interested in dominance than seeking to "work together, to promote cost-effectiveness and efficiency, and to promote harmony through the expitious and peaceful adjustment of differences that may arise from time to time" (excerpted from the 178-page AFSCME Master Agreement).

At Wed night's board meeting, the shelter's operating statistics were quite positive, especially compared to the same time in 2008: Volunteerism continues to set records since Rae arrived, already surpassing their yearly goal of 10,000 volunteer hours for all of 2009; Adoptions up 45%; Euthanasia down 13%; Animals returned to owner up 6%. The only statistic that didn't reflect improvement was the number of animals transferred to rescue groups which is running 68% of last year. Not surprising since the position that coordinates such transferred was only filled three weeks prior to the meeting.

Staff reported that of the 153 animals adopted at the incredible July 4th adoption event, only three had been returned. This 1.9% return rate is in sharp contrast to wild speculations by critics that 50-80% of the animals adopted were returned to IACC or other shelters. We also learned that bites are down. Another apparent contradiction to the statements of nay sayers, including acting director Renner who expressed concern in the Star story that public safety was suffering under Rae's leadership at the shelter.

Mind you, Doug Rae isn't crowing about the positive numbers from the shelter. He still see a great deal of work yet to do before IACC is the shelter he committed to re-creating when he was hired by then director Scott Newman in January. His vision of the shelter is one with on-staff veterinary professionals, faster response to calls from the public and a shelter that sees more like 80% of the animals leaving the shelter alive than July's 36%.

With so much positive change and overhwhelming public support, why is the acting director of public safety, Mark Renner, putting Doug Rae on probation? We know that Renner was present at the secret meeting at Humane Society of Indianapolis with councilors and a small group of disgruntled animal interest groups. We know that the union has been filing grievances almost non-stop since Rae began holding staff accountable for their work and for the care of the animals. We know that some animal interest groups are disgruntled. Maybe because they liked the way things were before, or because they have their own agenda for IACC, which has nothing to do with public safety or saving animals, or maybe they just hate the very focused, plain-spoken Rae. Since these critics are concealing their true objections and instead presenting a smoke screen of baseless rumors and random gripes, we don't know.

The most likely explanation for Adminsitrator Rae being placed on probation points to acting director Renner himself and perhaps gives us some insight into his character as a leader. Doug Rae came to town to do a nearly impossible job, and was the only person who is remotely qualified to do it, hands down. He is doing the job, but as the saying goes, no pain, no gain. There has been plenty of pain, much of it from the union. Renner is a lawyer, and prior to being hired on as the deputy director under Scott Newman was a court commissioner in Marion County. You wouldn't think that to be the profile of a man who buckles under the pressure that could absolutely have been expected to appear as the shelter is reformed. Still, this seems to be the case.

The citizens of Indianapolis can only hope that a permant replacement for Scott Newman is chosen soon to avoid the damage that Renner seems to be poised to do.