Dogged by a need to get this right

Dogs are loyal and kittens are cute, but unless they vote or pay taxes, none of that may matter in deciding whether to replace the aged, cramped Citrus County Animal Shelter.

Perfect for today, right? Except I wrote those words in 2016 for a Chronicle story preceding the County Commission’s vote for a new animal shelter.

Ten years. Ten years we’ve been banging the drum on this thing. Ten years that county employees have suffered under unspeakable working conditions at a facility that the elected leaders ignore like yesterday’s newspaper.

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I stopped by the shelter the other day to drop off some dog food, and took a look around. What’s known as the “upper” kennels, the building in the rear, was dedicated in 1991. I was there and wrote a Chronicle story about it. Everyone was so excited about this beautiful addition.

Well, guess what happens with 35 years of neglect?

I gave today’s blog a lot of thought. What could I say that hasn’t already been said? I’ll just go with what I know.

And I know this: Whatever blame that citizens have about a $20 million price tag, or complaints about how we got here and where to go, that lands at one place and one place only:

The County Commission.

Yes, the names have changed, but the inability of our county government to perform what most people think is a routine part of the job has permeated throughout this ordeal.

Simply, it was messed up right from the start. Today, we get to see what happens when the government is inefficient. Forced to vote on an unpopular price tag.

For some odd reason, the County Commission has long believed if we need a new Animal Shelter, citizens have to reach into their pockets to pay for it. Right off the bat in 2016, commissioners said yes to a shelter but said the county wouldn’t pay for it.

What kind of bizarro Whac-A-Mole logic was that? The county has a statutory obligation to provide animal services. Everyone agreed the current location was not only in rough condition, it sits on property the county envisions for economic development.

How the heck does a government project land in the lap of citizens? See, that was the problem right off. The County Commission immediately abdicated its responsibility.

And because it’s an animal shelter and not, for example, a new Courthouse, we all went along with it.

So local groups started fundraising. As time went on, it became clear that the best fundraising wasn’t going to get the millions needed for a new shelter. The County Commission started looking under the seat cushions for spare Animal Shelter change, then came up with the idea of using proceeds from the sale of county property for the shelter.

And that’s how Betz Farm weaved into the Animal Shelter discussion. And then weaved out.

How convoluted. Planning a major project without a definitive process to pay for it? What…we’re going to sell some trees and that’ll buy us a new shelter?

Again…no other county project is funded like this one. Can you imagine commissioners telling judges, “Um, we’ll get around to adding courtrooms after our next bake sale?”

Yet that is exactly the approach the County Commission has taken with the animal shelter.

We’re going to hear a lot of rhetoric today. Oh boy. The sky is falling if we build this shelter. Taxes will go up. It’s too expensive. Let’s cut back. Explain this. Explain that. 

Look. I’m not dismissing the high cost. I get it. Some perspective, though: In 2014, CCA offered to build a new animal shelter near the county jail at a cost of $2.8 million. The county would pay for it with a bump in the inmate fees.

The county said no thanks. Too expensive. I kid you not.

Two years later, the County Commission was on board with a new shelter so long as citizens paid for it. When that didn’t work, the board devised a whistling-in-the-dark approach based on the well-worn premise of a sack of dough dropping on the Courthouse lawn.

So, here we are. It’s $20 million. No one likes that number. But it gets the job done.

Have a terrific Tuesday, friends.

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