Shelter future probably history

By Steve Estes

Alleged improprieties in spending practices aside, the future of the relationship between Monroe County and Stand Up For Animals, animal control provider for the middle Keys, appears bleak, says County Commissioner George Neugent.

County staff Wednesday morning intended to recommend to the Board of County Commissioners that the contract with SUFA be terminated in 15 days, but the item wasn’t placed on the agenda prior to the deadline.

Because of that, it took agreement from all five commissioners to add the item for action. Commissioner Mario DiGennaro said he would not grant that approval, forcing the item to be heard for discussion purposes only.

SUFA’s contract was extended for 90 days last month to give the county time to look at other options when the provider asked for a 24 percent increase to continue to run the Marathon and Big Pine Key animal shelters.

One of those options was an audit of the financial dealings of all three contractors.

Two weeks ago, County Clerk Danny Kolhage released some preliminary findings of the SUFA audit that alleges Director Linda Gottwald used shelter money to pay her personal rent and utility bills on more than one occasion. The audit also alleges that Gottwald used shelter money for airline tickets, to pay legal fees for another shelter she plans to open in Michigan and to pay a staff member to drive a county-owned vehicle to that location in Mighigan to deliver dogs from the Monroe County shelter, as well as other issues.

Upon release of those findings, county legal staff sought an injunction to freeze the assets of SUFA.

“We were concerned that funds that could be county funds were becoming comingled with (other) funds,” said Assistant County Attorney Bob Shillinger.

Because of the news that SUFA was opening another shelter in Michigan, Shillinger said they wanted the court to declare ownership of the various funds, “to make sure that county funds remain in the county.”

The audit isn’t yet complete, so Shillinger said the allegations didn’t extend to breach of contract or possibly fraud.

Kolhage expects to have the audit completed by the end of the month.

Shillinger said that the normal business of the shelter must continue, so he and shelter legal representatives have come to an understanding in principle that bills will be submitted to the clerk’s office for pre-approval and payment.

That agreement requires that Gottwald sign in agreement as well, “and the director has not yet signed off,” said Shillinger.

Kolhage also complained to commissioners Wednesday that his audit staff had attempted to retrieve financial documents from the organization and had been turned away by a shelter employee.

Gottwald agreed during the meeting that auditors could return to the facility and pick up any documents they required, calling the situation a misunderstanding. She said the staff was under the impression that the audit had ended, but would like to have some advance notice of auditors entering the property. When auditors returned early afternoon, the required documents were not at the facility.

“We’re talking about public records here and land owned by the county,” said Kolhage. “No one has ever said this audit is over. “We don’t have to give notice that we’re coming. This is a public facility.”

“I don’t ant to accuse anyone of improprieties. It might be a case of poor accounting. We don’t know anything yet,” said Neugent. “But if we find that county money was spent on the facility in Michigan, I would think at the least we’d want our money back.”

If nothing changes in the coming days, SUFA’s contract to run the shelters ends in 60 days, “and I believe that our (county’s) relationship with SUFA is over,” said Neugent.

County Attorney Suzanne Hutton received permission from the BOCC Wednesday to take emergency actions should SUFA employees walk off the job before the contract expires.

One of the possible actions in coming weeks, said Neugent, is to have the county’s Public Works Department take over supervision of the shelter with existing shelter employees, sans Gottwald, providing the daily operational manpower.

“I’ve heard they would like to keep their jobs,” he said.

Another avenue might be for the county to amend its existing contracts with the Lower Keys and Upper Keys animal control contractors to allow them to run the Marathon and Big Pine shelters until bids could be cycled through the system for a new contractor.

The latter process could take four months.

Staff will also bring back a slate of options for the BOCC next month, one of which promises to be immediate termination of the SUFA contract.

Regardless of the direction taken in coming weeks, “The Middle Keys will not be without animal control services,” said Commissioner Kim Wigington.

In fact, Wigington said she’d like to see the county seize the opportunity to increase services to Big Pine.

“I would like to see the level of service at the Big Pine shelter be the same as the level of service at the other shelters,” said Wigington.

Neugent agreed that the Big Pine shelter, which SUFA wanted to close to save itself money, would be part of any discussions going forward with any group.