October 3, 2013 Minutes
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MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF CHURCHILL COUNTY COMMISSIONERS 155 No. Taylor Street, Fallon, NV Fallon, Nevada October 3, 2013 CALL TO ORDER The regular meeting of the Churchill County Board of Commissioners was called to order at 8: 15 a.m. on the above date by Chairman Erquiaga. PRESENT: Carl Erquiaga, Chairman Pete Olsen, Vice-Chair Harry Scharmann, Commissioner Ben Shawcroft, Civil Deputy District Attorney Wade Carner, Civil Deputy District Attorney Eleanor Lockwood, County Manager Alan Kalt, Comptroller Kelly G. Helton, Clerk of the Board Pamela D. Moore, Deputy Clerk of the Board ABSENT: N/A PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: The Pledge of Allegiance was recited by the board and public. VERIFICATION OF POSTING OF AGENDA: It was verified by Deputy Clerk Moore that the Agenda for this meeting was posted in accordance with NRS 241 . ACTION ITEMS: AGENDA: Commissioner Scharmann made a motion to approve the Agenda as submitted. Commissioner Olsen seconded the motion, which carried by unanimous vote. MINUTES: Commissioner Olsen made a motion to approve the Minutes of the special meeting held on September 26, 2011; the regular meeting held on September 5, 2013; and the regular meeting held on September 18, 2013 as submitted. Commissioner Scharmann seconded the motion, which carried by unanimous vote. PUBLIC COMMENTS : Chairman Erquiaga inquired if there were any public comments on issues that were not listed on the Agenda. Michelle Ippolito said she is here as President of the Fallon Animal Welfare Group. She had a prepared handout that explained more about what she is talking about today, which was distributed to the board and public and which included a brochure for the group. She is here because she spoke with the Churchill County Planning Director last week and he informed her that he and the Sheriff were drafting a bill that would limit the number of dogs and cats that Churchill County residents are allowed to have. The group works to adopt out cats and dogs and they are against any bill or law that would limit the number of pets that a family could have. Also, their group does not have a shelter facility and they are dependent upon volunteers Minutes of the Churchill County Commissioners' Meeting October 3, 2013 Page 1 who foster animals in their homes for the group. They are especially opposed to any law that is going to make it even more difficult for them to recruit people to foster the animals. They are also opposed to pet limits for a variety of other reasons: these laws are totally arbitrary, nobody has ever determined what the optimal number of pets is for any one person or family, and these laws are ineffective. Cases of animal abuse and animal neglect are not going to disappear because we limit the number of dogs a family is allowed to have. She knows that the Sheriff gets complaints all the time on things like dogs running lose or dogs barking that are not covered under state statutes, so she thinks it would be better if we draft some ordinances that target these specific problems. Someone suggested to her that a pet limit law might help in curbing puppy mills but she doesn't think that would happen either. She does know that, back in 2011 , the State Legislature adopted a couple of statutes that particularly and specifically targeted puppy mills. To the best of her knowledge, this Commission and our City Council have yet to implement those statutes. If that is a concern, she would start there. When she spoke with Mr. Johnson on the phone, who was very generous with his time, he said he thought that a pet limit law might also help in curbing or deterring animal hoarders. Animal hoarding is an illness. Included in the packet of information she provided to the board, there are some really good online resources that discuss hoarding but, unfortunately, it is pretty grim because the experts do not know what causes it and they do not really know how to treat it. The recidivism rate is something like 100%. People who suffer from that problem are not going to change their behavior because we have passed a law here. Finally, in that packet of information, she has some suggestions ofthings that we could do that would really tum things around in the county and would really emphasize responsible pet ownership, which would start with spay and neuter programs. If we can make it accessible and affordable, while educating people so that it is the norm, and get into the schools to start educating people on responsible pet ownership when they are young kids so that by the time they have family pets, perhaps they will behave a little differently than their parents do. She is against pet limits for all of the reasons she has enumerated and she hopes the information in that packet will help the board if it is ever faced with a proposed pet limit law. Chairman Erquiaga said he had no questions but stated that he did not believe that any of the board have seen a draft ordinance but they will get with staff and see what is going on. Ms. Ippolito said she spoke with Mr. Johnson last week and he said they were drafting this and were contacting other counties to see what they do and he is the one who suggested that she come here today and address this board. County Manager Lockwood said, as the Commission is aware, a couple of months ago, there was a person in the community who had come before the board who indicated that he was having a real problem with one of his neighbors who had a couple of animals who were incessantly barking every time he went out into his yard. She knows that, from many discussions with this particular individual, we have contacted other communities to find out what they have put in place in regard to, as this particular resident refers to it, nuisance barking. She had asked Michael Johnson to start contacting these various communities to find out if anything had been put into place that was effective and that cost little money. She cautioned Mr. Johnson and has had several discussions with the Sheriffthat, speaking the words of former Commissioner Frey, "you can't regulate people's behavior". She cautioned Mr. Johnson by stating that, as we move forward with Minutes of the Churchill County Commissioners' Meeting October 3, 2013 Page 2 the research, we need to research effectively, we always need to focus on what the issue at hand is, and then, if there is something effective that addresses what the issue is, she thinks the Commission may have an appetite to start considering it. As the speaker has said, the Sheriff has indicated to her that they do receive a large number of complaints on issues associated with hoarding animals. This is still in the very early stages of research. There is nothing being drafted at this point. We are still looking at other communities. We are ever mindful that the county does not have an animal control department but we support the City of Fallon. She will continue discussions with the Sheriff and Planning Director to try to identify what the specific issues are, if we can do that, and come up with some effective regulations and then start socializing it amongst the residents before we come to the board with any ordinance. Chairman Erquiaga explained that, during public comment, the board cannot take any action but the board appreciates her bringing this to the board. If, at some point, there is some sort of ordinance, there will be ample opportunity to comment and voice your opinion on that at a couple of readings. Ms. Ippolito said she hopes the board has time to look through the packet she provided so that, if such a proposal to arbitrarily limit the number of dogs and cats families are allowed to own does come before you, you have had some other viewpoints and you have gotten some other information. She thanked the board. Agnes Floto said she also brought in some material, which was provided to the board and public, one of which was an article. She is also with the Fallon Animal Welfare Group. She would probably be considered an animal hoarder by a lot of people because they look at a person that has more than a normal amount of animals because they do not understand what harding is. As Ms. Ippolito stated, animal hoarding is a disease. She was born and raised here and there are people like herself that have spent their whole lives helping animals that are abandoned. She talks to people all the time who think the solution for overpopulation is dropping cats or dogs at the river because they think they will hunt and provide for themselves, but they don't. They get chased, they get scared, they get eaten by other dogs, and they come to people like herself who will help them. She doesn't count the number of dogs and cats that she has fixed, spayed or neutered, found homes for, or kept because she couldn't find someone to take them. They are well fed. She also provided a copy of her husband's letter. She has spent, over the years, multi-thousands of dollars to fix animals, which then cuts down on the population. We need to address that issue with education and help people to understand that you do not dump an animal and think they will be found out in the desert or that they will hunt on their own because they do not.