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AS-08APR2008Animal Services Minutes of Meeting April 8, 2008 The Coppell Animal Services Board met on April 8, 2008 at 8:00 p.m., in the Animal Shelter, 821 S. Coppell Rd., Coppell, Texas. The following members were present: Tom Sawyer and Tressa Broadhead. City Liaisons Heather Hedrick, Derrick Watson, and Margaret Macheca, were present. Item 1: Call Meeting to Order Tressa Broadhead, Board President called the meeting to order at 6:00pm. Item 2: Monthly Report by shelter manager, Heather Hedrick Heather reviewed the shelter statistics year-to-date. She also reviewed the Animal Services Board guidelines, services covered in adoption fees, the annual TDH shelter inspection, the rabies report map for Texas, and the pet care packet provided to adopters. Tom Sawyer mentioned that he thinks the Animal Services Board should consist of 5 members in order to have a quorum for votes, even if members are absent. Heather said that the subject had been brought up with the City and would be reviewed for the next fiscal year in October 2008. Item 3: Fundraising/Donations Tressa stated that shelter staff members are no longer allowed to participate in fundraising activities directly. Tressa provided details about the Animal Services garage sale which will be held on June 13, 2008 at the First Methodist Church in Coppell. Donations can be dropped off at the church anytime during the week prior to the event and will be stored inside the church. Tressa requested CPAC members to guard the items on June 12, overnight, after the items have been moved outside into the parking lot. Tom provided details about the CPAC garage sale which will also partially benefit Animal Services. This garage sale will be held on May 10, 2008 at the residence of Kyle Allen at 949 Gibbs Crossing. Donation items can be dropped in front of Mr. Allen's garage up to 4 days prior to the garage sale. Both garage sales will donate leftover items to charities. Item 4: LT Watson Derrick arrived to the meeting. He reviewed the discussion of Board Member duties and that fundraising for the shelter must not be associated with board membership or shelter employees. Decisions made regarding board activities must be made at board meetings. He also emphasized that the TDH inspection had gone very well and that Coppell's shelter is a model for others in the area. Item 5: Minutes A discussion occurred regarding the approval of the minutes for board meetings. It was decided that minutes will be emailed to all board members for approval prior to public posting. Item 6: Registration of Animals Discussion on the procedures for animal registration. The vets in Coppell do the majority of the City animal registrations. The City would probably not be willing to share the database with the vets in order to allow them to do their own data entry. Also, this might increase the amount of money they take from each tag, which is currently one dollar. Vet membership in the program is voluntary. A discussion of the possibility of sending out license renewal notices followed. The software, Shelter Pro, is new to the staff and as we become more familiar we may be able to do this. It was not done in the past due to software and staffing issues. We have and will continue to send notices to new residence through water billing. We may also consider sending renewal notices as a general announcement in the City water bills. Item 7: Open discussion Tom mentioned another fundraising idea, Doggie Bags. The program, which had success in Plano, involved city staff making "doggie bags" and selling them as a benefit for the shelter. The idea was tabled due to new fundraising guidelines discussed earlier. Tom mentioned that he would like to see CPAC supervising teen court offenders working off their community service at the shelter. He pointed out liability immunity that CPAC members would have as a non-profit organization. Derrick said that this is not a possibility for now because the City is too concerned about kids around the animals. Discussion followed as to the possibility of community service hours done without animal interaction. Derrick said he would bring the idea to Chief Nix for approval. Tom brought up the number of board members again for Derrick's benefit. Derrick noted that this is the first time the Animal Services Board has met regularly and that all aspects of the board would be reviewed at the end of the year. Item 8: Adjournment Tressa adjourned the meeting at 6:55pm. Minutes respectfully submitted by Margaret Macheca