ECCAS begins search for new director

Published 9:20 pm Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Star Photo/Curtis Carden                           Carter County Mayor Leon Humphrey, second from left, speaks with attendees during Tuesday's Animal Advisory Board Meeting.

Star Photo/Curtis Carden
Carter County Mayor Leon Humphrey, second from left, speaks with attendees during Tuesday’s Animal Advisory Board Meeting.

Passions exuded from members of the community Tuesday evening during the regularly scheduled Animal Advisory Board Meeting held at the Carter County courthouse.
With the building’s conference room near full capacity, board members held a two hour discussion period to explain the situation currently underway at the Elizabethton-Carter County Animal Shelter.
Tuesday’s meeting spurred a sizeable turnout after a decision last week by Carter County Mayor Leon Humphrey to relieve ECCAS Director Stacey Heiden of her duties.
Prior to the start of the meeting, the board’s chairman Mike Barnett took the floor to give his appreciation to the volunteers at the shelter and work that needs to be done for the animals.
“That’s what matters to me,” Barnett said when talking about the cats and dogs. “I care about the animals and that’s the only reason I’m still part of this board.”
Humphrey told attendees during the meeting that the firing was due to information compiled over the past eight weeks after an independent company, the University of Tennessee and the mayor’s office visited the shelter to check on the status of the facility.
“We did a top to bottom review,” Humphrey said. “I thought I knew what was going on. It is my job as mayor to make sure we can make the shelter the best we can, and we will.”
ECCAS is currently having no intake on felines, unless on a case-by-case basis, after a recent outbreak of cat-parvo that, six weeks ago, was taking the lives of three of five cats a day. The mayor added that at this time, there were no deaths and that the shelter would look to ‘open the gates’ for intakes in two to three weeks.
Humphrey stated a search is underway to bring in a new director for the facility. Susan Robinson, with the mayor’s office, will serve as interim director until the vacancy is filled.
“There have been some rumors about the position,” he said in regards to speculation of Robinson filling the role full time. “We’re going to bring in a new director but we’ll have Susan fill for the time being until we get the advertisement out and have the interviews to make sure we bring in the right person. We can not continue the way that we are going to make this shelter successful.”
Humphrey stated that plans are in place to begin building 13 different 10-by-20-foot areas for dogs outside, along with one 20-by-20-foot enclosure and three 10-by-16-foot areas, estimated around $16,000 to $18,000, which the mayor stated the county has available. Along with the additions for the dogs, the cats are expected to see an expansion on the room around 1,000 square feet.
“We’ve learned a lot,” he added. “We’re going to do a better job of documenting our finances, intakes and marketing animals and following the right protocols. I’m not one to multi-manage, but there were a lot of things going on that I didn’t know about and it falls on me and I accept it. We know what’s going on, what’s wrong, and we’re going to fix it by placing the right protocols and procedures in place.”
Barnett added that the board would look at implementing a six-month evaluation for the new director and said that he appreciated the mayor’s effort, but wanted to make sure the board was included on all events happening at the shelter.
“I’m not withholding any information,” Humphrey said. “The decision was made based on what I experienced and I stand by it” The mayor added he provided what information he could at this time while items still continue to come through the pipeline.
As the meeting went on, various attendees asked questions about adopt-a-thons, the status of spay-and-neuter. The mayor added that as of this time, no adoption events would be underway until the situation with the cats was addressed.
At the end of the meeting, the mayor fielded a response from a volunteer who stated that all the shortcomings shouldn’t fall on one person, referencing the director’s termination.
“It was an at-will termination,” Humphrey said. “There were shortcomings, I even said I was guilty. But we’re going to fix this and make the shelter the best it can be for our community and for our animals.”

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