COM 0054.008 2000-2002 - Laserfiche WebLink

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i=' = •01 F~~ ~ P~ 1 u6 HAWAII ISLAND r'~ SO@IE'IY January 31, 2001 Dear Councilman Chung, On January 23, the Finance Committee met to consider a resolution for a technical performance evaluation of the Hawaii Island Humane Society (HIIiS) Councilman Tyler pointed out that the Legislative Auditor's report on animal control had fingered the County as culpable for most of the inadequacies of animal control, and he wanted the evaluation to focus on the County rather than HIHS Action on the resolution was deferred for two weeks As President of the HIHS Boazd of Directors,l would like to amplify on our testimony before the com?mttee First, the board of dvectors supports the three major recommendations made by the Auditor, including the recommendatton that we undergo a performance evaluation of our contracted services by an unbiased and creditable animal welfare organization We view this as an opportumty to receive an oblecnve evaluation and recommendations from experts in our field And, we support Councilman Tyler's suggestion that the evaluation include the County's role in animal control We would like to point out, however, that any new study of animal control is going to stazt by spending more money to re,dentify the problems already documented in the Legislative Auditor's report Why not fix those problems before initiating further evaluation Please consider the following 1) It doesn't take a technical evaluation to figure out that ~f the County believes the solution to animal control Ges in giving more citations, then they must immediately address the lack of cooperation from the County Prosecutor's Office in getting our humane officers badged To cite just the latest example, six of our employees have been waiting to be badged for over suc months, when the entve training could be completed in one day Currently, there aze no badged officers in Konal 2) It doesn't take another evaluation to respond to our long-standing appeal to revise the ammal control laws that we operate under 3) It doesn't take another evaluation, nor does the County have time to wait for another evaluation, to realize that we are severely underfunded HIHS cannot subsidize the county contract again with our own funds as we have in this fiscal year At the end of last fiscal yeaz, we were overtaken by huge increases in employee benefits, in the price of fuel, and in repair costs for our aging fleet of trucks Rather than lay off employees and cut sernces mid-way through the year, we aze spending over $100,000 that should be going to our other programs We are a nonprofit, and we cannot afford to do this again C Comm. No, ? _ F31fe NTo~. ANI 745225 Queen Kaahumanu Hwy • Kadua-Kona, HI 96740 • Telephone (808) 329-1175 • Fax (808~3f9-T l:s Fr Q 5 ~l~~l Keaau (808) 966-5458 • Kamuela (808) 885-4558 Ref. Date