Healdsburg Animal Shelter Board Asks for Support, Shies from Questions

With a “Commentary” in this week’s Healdsburg Tribune, the Healdsburg Animal Shelter again finds itself in the news after several months of behind-the-scenes, largely unreported changes.

The former once-monthly public meetings have apparently fallen by the wayside. The last public appearance of the HAS before the City Council, to whom it owes twice-annual update because of the City’s financial assistance for the Shelter, was in December.  And efforts to reach a spokesperson for the Board of Directors continue to be futile, at least to this point.

At the time of the December City Council meeting, then-chair of the Board of Directors, Bill Anderson, announced several people had left the Board of Directors that had been created only the previous May, including board co-chair Sandra Versteegh, former board president Kathleen McCaffrey and former board treasurer Sandy Walheim.

Art Feagles, Che Voight and Bob Wilkie were appointed to the board in their stead.  Only Kim Lloyd and Phil Staley remained from the earlier board; the board now has four men and one woman, Lloyd.

Anderson himself resigned a month later, saying he needed to spend more time with his job, and Feagles is now listed on the website as chairman of the board. 

Other resignations and departures from the Board of Advisors and volunteer staff continued to plague the Healdsburg Animal Shelter.  Area animal care organization such as Green Dog and Forgotten Felines have apparently benefited from pet-lovers who no longer are associated with the Healdsburg Animal Shelter.

One of these former HAS volunteers told Patch in confidence that she “looks forward to the day when I can return to HAS. Other past volunteers I’ve spoken with feel the same way, and we are all in a wait-and-see mode before we consider supporting the shelter.”

As well as personnel turnover, the Shelter’s ill-fated new structure on Westside Rd. continues to remain empty and in litigation. It was largely funded by a $2.9 million bequest from the late Rodney Strong and his wife.

The Commentary in the Tribune is a plea for more public support to continue its work. “Today we need community support – more than ever in the Shelter’s 53-year history-to keep the Shelter operating and fulfilling its mission,” it reads in part.  

“Whether or not the Shelter is to stay open and conclude the litigation will be determined by the success of fundraising efforts now underway and by the community’s response to this special request,” the commentary appearing in the Tribune continues. (Link may not work for non-subscribers.)

Efforts by Patch to contact board chair Feagle over the past couple weeks to discuss these and other community concerns have received no response, and the current executive director Judi Adams is referring all press questions to him. The Press Democrat reports similar difficulty in getting an official response.

Given that one of the differences between the pre-2012 Board of Directors and HAS staff was the so-called “muzzle order” that required volunteers and staff to sign a pledge not to discuss the Shelter with the public, it would seem the Shelter remains officially mute.

The Healdsburg Animal Shelter requests tax-deductible donations be made to Healdsburg Animal Shelter, P.O. Box 42, Healdsburg 95448.