51ºÚÁÏ

Councilman Mike Archer, a Republican from South County, said council members didn't receive enough information from health department officials at a wide-ranging hearing last week.

Council members sought answers about a recent outbreak of parvovirus at the shelter, the shelter's failure to obtain a state license and the recent departure of the Animal Protective Association, which ran the shelter for two years.

"If we're going to get to the bottom of what happened here, we need these people here," Archer said at Tuesday's meeting.

The people who will be summoned include:

• Lee Jackson, shelter operations manager
• ¶Ù°ù.ÌýDoug Pernikoff, the shelter's former veterinary director
• Landrus Burress, deputy director of public health
• Rebecca Rainwater, animal care and control office manager
• Sarah Javier, CEO of the APA
• Kim Brown, chief operations officer for the APA
• Olivia Kovac, shelter animal population manager
• Dr. Marissa Bowers, a shelter veterinarian
• Olivia Bennett, an inspector with the Missouri Department of Agriculture
• Matt Rold, coordinator for the state animal health division
• Dr. Kanika Cunningham, health department director

Cunningham said at last week's hearing that the county's human resources department has opened an investigation to determine how an outbreak of parvovirus spread in the county animal shelter in April, leading to the euthanasia of 19 dogs.

But she didn't have details about the shelter's protocols or how they failed. And Council Chair Rita Heard Days, a Democrat from Bel-Nor, became frustrated when a veterinarian wasn't present to share more information about protocols that could have prevented the outbreak.

In mid-May, the state of Missouri rejected the animal shelter's application for a license, required by law to operate, after the shelter failed three state inspections since February. The state cited violations for holding dogs in cages too small for them, failing to clean up feces in play yards and allowing bugs in food storage areas, among other problems.

The nonprofit APA, which also runs its own shelter in Brentwood, left the shelter in February. The APA was lauded for cleaning up the facility and boosting adoptions. But in August, the nonprofit said it accomplished its mission and would withdraw from the county contract, three years before it was set to expire. Records later showed its departure also stemmed from the county rejecting APA invoices for items such as meals, team outings and dog training.

°Õ³ó±ðÌý gives the council the ability to subpoena people and records.

In 2021, for instance, the council issued subpoenas for County Executive Sam Page's work schedule during an investigation into Page's side job that council members said violated county charter. Page, an anesthesiologist, said his medical work was conducted during his "free time." The council sought records from Mercy Hospital and Western Anesthesiology Associates in Creve Coeur.

Some council members said the subpoenas represented an overreach of the legislative branch's powers. Mercy and Western Anesthesiology argued in court that the council committee lacks the legal authority to enforce its demand for records, and that the demand infringes on employee and patient privacy, as well as confidential business records.

The case was later dropped after voters in 2022 approved a measure barring the county executive from having a side job.

In 2019, the council’s ethics committee, led by then-Councilman Ernie Trakas, voted to issue subpoenas against the owners of Northwest Plaza, Robert and P. David Glarner, as part of a council investigation of former County Executive Steve Stenger's pay-to-play schemes. The Glarners sued to block the subpoenas, which included the threat of arrest for failure to appear before the committee.

The council eventually withdrew the subpoenas after the county and the Glarners agreed to renegotiate the terms of the lease.

The council has not yet scheduled the next hearing on the animal shelter.