51黑料

Now former shelter workers are flagging the lack of experience as a problem.

鈥淲e were having people come in to run a shelter who have no business running a shelter because they have no experience,鈥� said Clinton Wall, a lead animal control supervisor who resigned last month.

鈥淵ou need management that knows animals. You need management that knows that building and is knowledgeable about what comes in and out of that building,鈥� Wall added.

51黑料 County has struggled with several controversies since taking over operations of its shelter in February from the Animal Protective Association, which ran the facility for two years. Now county staff has to bring the shelter up to state standards by the end of the month to obtain a license as required by Missouri law, after failing three times this year.

A spokesperson for the shelter said the staff there 鈥渋s excited to continue moving forward with fresh leadership voices.鈥�

鈥淲e understand the concerns brought forward by the County Council regarding the lack of practical experience in some recent hires,鈥� shelter spokesperson Mitchell Finnegan, who was hired in March, said in a statement. 鈥淗owever, these positions have been filled intentionally to address the noticeable gaps in leadership, management and oversight that have long existed inside the shelter.鈥�

The APA was lauded for cleaning up the facility and boosting adoptions, but withdrew from its contract with the county three years before it was set to expire.

Trouble resurfaced quickly: In April, just a few months into county management, the county announced a dangerous parvovirus outbreak. On May 2, the county health department said in a news release that it had euthanized 19 dogs that had shown symptoms and tested positive for the virus. On May 9, the shelter鈥檚 medical director quit.

Meanwhile, the county was trying to obtain its state license. It needed to score perfectly on state inspections, with no violations.

But it failed, three times, due to cleanliness problems and overcrowding, among other issues, inspectors said.

Now the shelter has less than two weeks before Missouri Department of Agriculture inspectors come back.

鈥楧oes he have shelter experience?鈥�

Staff rosters at the facility recently released by the county show, of the 44 staff who work at or oversee the shelter, 19 鈥� or 43% 鈥� started this year. Another four started in 2024, and six others started in 2023.

The County Council has been questioning shelter and health department officials for weeks about departures and a lack of experience there.

At a hearing in late May, council members questioned the shelter鈥檚 top executive, Division Director Malik Johnson, who was hired on May 12 for $108,000 per year.

Johnson came from the giant financial adviser Edward Jones and previously worked for U.S. Bank. His experience is in 鈥渙perations and strategic vision,鈥� but he has no shelter experience, Johnson said at the hearing.

鈥淚 can understand your concern,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 have direct shelter management experience, but what I see in the shelter is lacking is operational experience, holding the folks accountable and executing a strategic vision. So that鈥檚 what the shelter needs, and that鈥檚 what I bring.鈥�

Councilman Dennis Hancock, a Republican from Fenton, questioned health department director Dr. Kanika Cunningham about why the department wouldn鈥檛 hire someone with shelter experience.

鈥淲hen you鈥檙e in the middle of a crisis, if you鈥檙e going to bring somebody in, bring somebody in who can handle that kind of a crisis,鈥� Hancock said.

Cunningham said the application pool was 鈥渕inimal,鈥� and she chose Johnson because of his leadership experience.

Hancock asked Cunningham about another shelter employee, acting Chief Operating Officer Billy Rucker. Rucker was hired in 2022, and worked for the health department as a community health manager in 2023, according to county payroll records. He was appointed to his new position on April 18, making $82,000 a year.

鈥淢r. Rucker, does he have shelter experience?鈥� Hancock asked.

鈥淗e does not,鈥� Cunningham said.

A rift with management?

And at a hearing last week, council members questioned two longtime employees who no longer work at the shelter: former operations manager Lee Jackson and Rebecca Rainwater, former office services manager.

Jackson worked at the shelter from 2000 until he retired recently after he was placed on administrative leave. He told the council he wasn鈥檛 given a reason for being placed on leave. The county previously blamed Jackson for writing a shelter euthanasia plan that drew public scrutiny.

During his time at the shelter, it never failed to obtain a state license, Jackson said. It also never saw an outbreak of parvovirus like the one this spring.

The council questioned Rainwater next. She said she worked at the shelter for 25 years until she was demoted to another health department division in May.

鈥淭hat was not my wish,鈥� Rainwater said. 鈥淚 was told it was either a voluntary or involuntary demotion and was encouraged to make it voluntary to make it look better on my record.鈥�

At least two other staffers have quit the shelter in recent months. They鈥檙e worried about the welfare of the animals and the people who work there.

Laura Stallard, a former animal control officer who left the shelter earlier this year, said it鈥檒l be hard to run a successful shelter without an experienced staff.

The staff might not know all the cleaning procedures, important for preventing viral outbreaks that can be deadly, such as distemper. Handling aggressive dogs is dangerous for inexperienced staffers, and also dangerous for the dog. If workers don鈥檛 know how to help relieve shelter stress, dogs who show signs of anxiety and aggression 鈥渁re going to stay that bad or get worse and get euthanized,鈥� Stallard said.

And Wall, the animal control supervisor, said there鈥檚 a rift between new management and long-time staffers. He decided to resign after working at the shelter for more than seven years because he felt he was being pushed out. He also said he was told he didn鈥檛 need to participate in management meetings anymore, and he wasn鈥檛 getting along with senior leadership.

鈥淭he writing was on the wall,鈥� Wall said.

Meanwhile, current staffers are preparing for the state鈥檚 next visit on June 30 by doing mock inspections, said Finnegan, the shelter spokesperson.

Shelter leaders have been in close contact with the Department of Agriculture 鈥渢o ensure standards are clear and met,鈥� he said. The shelter has already corrected problems the state found in the facility鈥檚 last inspection, Finnegan said.

If the shelter doesn鈥檛 qualify in the next inspection, it has 90 days and two more inspections.