Q & A Posted from Jan. 11 Healdsburg Animal Shelter Board Meeting

As promised, posted answers by the end of January on Tuesday to questions submitted at a meeting.

Answers to more than two dozen questions are posted in a special section at

http://www.healdsburgshelter.org/about/questions/index.asp

"We appreciate all input and questions, and encourage ongoing participation not only in debate and dialogue, but in action through volunteerism," the special Q & A section says. "Positive engagement benefits our organization and our animals in so many ways."

At the same time, some residents said Tuesday the answers that are posted online do not provide what they were hoping for: 

"There is precious little information in the answers," said Mike DeCoss, one of those who attended the Jan. 11 forum.

Shelter volunteer Pat Ajemian of Healdsburg said the shelter financials should be open to the public.

"If you contribute to the shelter, you want to know where your money is going," Ajemian said in a telephone interview earlier this month.

About 100 people attended the Jan. 11 forum, which was open to the public for "comments only, no questions." Members of the public were then asked to leave, and the board held their regular business meeting in closed session.

According to the website, the board has decided to close all future board meetings to the public.

"Seems like the board is in full circle-the-wagons mode," DeCoss said. "It also appears that they are down to four members."

HAS's new facility sits unfinished and unoccupied on Westside Road across from the current shelter -- a fact that appeared to be a source of anger and concern for many at the Jan. 11 meeting.

Healdsburg attorney Toni Lisoni, who spoke out at the Jan. 11 meeting, said that she met later with some of the board members and they appeared to be open to discussion.

"The biggest deficit (at the Jan. 11 meeting) was that there were no real numbers (of expenditures on the new building)," Lisoni said in a telephone interview earlier this month. "There's no real accounting.

"I said, 'You need to give people what you know now,'" Lisoni said. "'Especially people who have given a lot of money.'"

Board President Kathleen McCaffrey has promised to release results of reports by Art Feagles, former CFO for Marin Community Clinics and the shelter's financial consultant, and professional animal shelter architect George Miers, the shelter's construction consultant, as soon as they become available.

The consultants' reports were not available the online postings today. On the website, in answer to the question, "How long before the facility construction will begin and the financial information is available?" the response was:

"The Board is working overtime with its consultants, including architects and financial advisers, to get a complete picture of what is needed to move forward to complete the new facility.  We intend to make this information public just as soon as it is available."

The shelter did respond to at least one request: A copy of the shelter board's bylaws is now posted on the website-- a move requested in writing by Ajemian.

"The bylaws should be available online or at the shelter," Ajemian said in the telephone interview earlier this month.

The Q & A section also gives a more detailed picture of changes in the board over the past year. According to the website, six board members resigned in 2011 -- four citing pressing personal and/or professional commitments and two resigning without giving a reason.

The website does not mention any of the six who resigned by name except for after he was voted out of his position as treasurer and project manager for the new shelter building, according to the website.

The current board is comprised of McCaffrey; Kim Lloyd, vice president; Sandy Walheim, treasurer; and Sandra Versteegh, secretary.

Shelter Executive Director Julie Seal said Tuesday she hoped that questions and concerns about financials on the new shelter building and the board's transparency and governance did not erase the shelter's successes during 2011 in raising the number of adoptions, lowering the euthanasia rate and in stabilizing the operations budget from a large projected deficit to running in the black.

Seal said copies of a brochure that lists the statistics showing the shelter's success were distributed at the Jan. 11 meeting and are available at the shelter. Information on the successes is also available on the website.

"I would like to continue to get the word out about the wonderful work and many achievements of the Healdsburg Shelter," Seal said Tuesday.  "I don’t know of another shelter that has had such great success in 2011 -- it would be a shame to lose sight of that."