No More Homeless Taxpayers
In the same meeting that our county commission voted to deny re-investing $98,000 generated by County Inmate Welfare programs for use in a new venture proposed by our long-serving Sheriff B.J. Barnes, it found that it was perfectly acceptable to award $75,000 of county taxpayer money to what was until two weeks ago for our board a virtually unknown organization that operates under the name, “No More Homeless Pets.”
Whether you agree with Sheriff Barnes’ novel idea or not, he did follow proper procedures for making his request and backed it with both data and his proven track record of successfully managing the Prison Farm to be a model for the rest of our State. Who is, “No More Homeless Pets” though? They came to the meeting with a dozen or so people brandishing cute little doggie hand puppets. The emotions behind their effort to limit the amount of homeless pets destroyed each year in our county does not offset the fact that their request for funds was not properly submitted before our annual county budget process was completed just a few weeks ago. Additionally, their current presence in our county is a P.O. Box and residency of “some” members of their board -- left unnamed in the meeting.
Though the group claims this $78,000 is an “investment” that will save the county $3 for every $1 spent and they agreed that their efforts would be audited, no one on the county board thought to put into place any mechanism by which this return on investment will be tracked.
Excluding no votes Arnold and Yow, contact our commissioners to find out how much of their own money they will be donating to this new charity in our county.
