“We keep getting requests from these folks about raises, training and equipment. When you have one guy who is driving a 1997 pick-up truck with 250,000 miles on it, and he’s running 20 calls a day — then you have another guy who is driving a 2006 truck with 50,000 miles on it and he isn’t running any calls. Is that a good use of our money?” asked Commissioner Paul Johnson, who began the discussions dealing with animal control.
Chairman Craig Hunter said that every year the agency asks for more and more money, but he said, the agency needs to get by with the funding it is already getting from the county.
“Do we really want to keep throwing more and more money at them just so they can have a nice truck sitting outside of their building?” Hunter said.
Johnson agreed with Hunter saying, “The man out running the calls needs to be driving the newer truck and perhaps the man who is not needs to drive the older vehicle. You have to live within your means.”
He also told the board that he would like to see some of the money going to the agency to be used to fund training in the use of handguns, safety and in animal control.
“I do agree with safety issues, they want to increase their training. It’s the other issues I have a problem with. I did tell them at their last meeting, you had better take a look at your budget and think about cutting,” Johnson said.
Johnson and Hunter went back and forth on the issue of the officers carrying guns.
Johnson said that if he had it to do over, he would have suggested the agency would have bought .12-gauge shotguns instead of the .20-gauge guns it now has.
“Not every officer has a gun. Sometimes when a call comes in, they have to wait for another officer who has a gun to get there in order to deal with the situation. The .12-gauge has a more effective range.” Johnson said.
“They don’t need new guns,” Hunter said.
“They don’t have them,” Johnson retorted. “Every truck doesn’t have a gun.”
“That may be a good thing,” Hunter responded.
Johnson brought up the idea that animal control would like to have every officer certified to carry a handgun.
Hunter disagreed.
“I don’t want animal control to have side-arms.”
Johnson told the board that Animal Control Supervisor Bobby Gallimore doesn’t carry a gun.
“They are wanting to get trained. Take the incident in Pine Ridge, a pit bull got loose and charged. The officer had no gun, all he could do was kick it until another officer got there and was able to shoot it,” Johnson reported.
Hunter asked Johnson if the officers carry stun guns. Johnson said they do, but they are only effective at a close range.
Hunter told the board that he thought handguns for animal control officers would be a “big liability.”
“We don’t have the staff or time to do all of that,” Hunter said.
Johnson said that the training animal control is asking for is not all about new weapons.
“A lot of the training is not necessarily for guns, it’s rabies clinics and that sort of thing as well,” Johnson said.
In the end, the board agreed to ask animal control to keep its budget where it is now and to find ways to cut back where possible.
Contact Mondee Tilley at mtilley@mtairynews.com or 719-1930.
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