Monday’s county council meeting was attended by the most citizens of all the meetings I’ve been to. When I got to the speakers’ signup sheet, names were already halfway down the backside of the page. The citizens really came out to speak about the revised animal ordinance and it was a great sight! Obviously, the citizens wanted to be heard. However, the chairman chose this occasion to actually follow the council’s by-laws, by limiting the citizens’ desire to speak to just 10 of the 20 or so speakers. The typical council meeting has just three or four speakers that consume just 10-15 minutes of meeting time. Surely, this one rare occasion when a large number wanted to speak, we could have been given extra time to do so.
Regarding the revised ordinance, council did the right thing by sending it back to committee, and thank you for that. While the ordinance is needed to have rules and regulations, the value comes from enforcing the ordinance. I respectfully urge the committee and council to focus on enforcement.
The main problem is owners who mistreat and abuse animals, carelessly breed them, and allow them to roam our streets and neighborhoods. The at-large dog problem is where the solution needs to focus. Holding irresponsible citizens accountable is where the solution needs to focus.
One solution is to certify Director Shaw’s animal control officers as Class 3 officers so they can enforce the ordinance. She requested this months ago, so what is the status? This cannot be that difficult. Let’s also include steeper fines for irresponsible owners and hold them accountable. Let’s not solve a non-problem, and worse yet let’s not create a problem for our law-abiding citizens. Let’s focus on the root cause problem and fix that, please!
Don Goldbach
Fairfield District 2