The City can have a matter on the agenda; when no action is
taken, it is considered pending. If there continues to be no action or discussion,
eventually the pending matters will be removed. The matter can languish, as in
the case of a new Bay Village Kennel, for years. During Committee Session
Monday night (11/16) Council-at-Large Steve Lee asked Council to remove the
kennel as a pending matter. A resident asked to understand why, in all this
time, the city would not take an anonymous resident’s offer of money to build a
new kennel. She felt this was a wonderful opportunity for the city to show
compassion. Steve Lee responded that he didn’t know, he just knew that through
the years there has never been any discussion about it. The resident has to ask
again, “But why was that?” She did not get an answer. Thing is – Lee should
know the background – almost everyone else in the city knows the background.
And if, as a Council member he did not know, maybe he should not have asked for
it to be removed until he did know. Let’s say for the sake of discussion Lee
really did not know, there were those present that most assuredly did know the
answers to this resident’s questions; the Mayor, Law Director and President of
Council, and they offered nothing in terms of an honest response. As for Lee’s
comment about a lack of discussion on this matter for years, that falls
squarely on the City and Council. Friends of the Kennel have repeatedly
requested to discuss in a public forum.
During the Council Meeting, Nancy Brown, a resident and a
very active member of the community when it comes to animals, and someone the
police and the city rely heavily upon when an animal needs help, asked Council
President Paul Koomar to state for the record why the kennel was being removed
from city matters.
Koomar began his answer by saying Mr. Lee sent a request
that there hadn’t been any action on this over the years. Koomar said he has
had a number of conversations with the residents and Chief Spaetzel and they
continue to make good progress and things are working well with the existing
kennel. Nancy Brown stated from an operational standpoint they are. However,
the existing kennel he refers to was built over 25 years ago and was built as a
cable building. The 2011 offer (and you thought the microphone project took a
long time) of $50,000 or more, from a Bay family to build a new kennel is still
on the table. Ms. Brown said how fortunate we are to have this offer as other
cities are frothing at the mouth knowing this is there for us. Council was
asked not to remove the kennel matter from the agenda and give it due
diligence.
Koomar wants to have a discussion next week to get some
comments from the Police Chief and see if he feels we need a new kennel.
Loosely translated: Let’s keep moving around the responsibility for decision
making on this one. Hey – $50,000+ = a new kennel, it is a gift. Did we ask
anyone if we needed the gift of a wood sculpture? Does that sculpture serve to
care for and help anyone or anything? No, but the City accepted that donation
anyway.
Another resident spoke and said the Friends of the Bay
Village Kennel work hard and they work hard in ways that they shouldn’t really
have to. She felt this should be a responsibility of the city. “When it comes
to the animals here you just turn your heads and hope it goes away.”
If it weren’t for Nancy Brown and the Friends of the Bay
Village Kennel, the operations and maintenance of City ‘kennel’ would not be
doing so well. Taking advantage of the compassion of the residents that tend to
the kennel is not a way a city should treat taxpaying citizens who simply
cannot stand idly by when there is a need. Many always believed the standoff
over the new kennel was with the Mayor, now it looks like Council is not “being
a good shepherd of the needs of the community” in this case either. Taking the
time to bestow a thank you from Council to those that work with the police, the
animals and at the kennel falls short of what the responsibility of the City
should be in this case. To keep taking the goodwill and not even offer the
floor to accept a donation is poor form and petty. Is the City not embarrassed
to keep using these people and not even let them be heard? The City will bemoan
the lack of funds for this that and the other, but refuse a more than generous
gesture of a Bay family for something that speaks to the heart of many many
residents. It is hard to make sense of this one.
(November 18, 2015)
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