 Let's see, committee together. Madam Clerk, would you call the roll, please? Yes, Mr. Brown, Dr. Bustle, Mr. McDowell. Yes. Let me thank each of you for being here today. We have our agenda before us. And of course, our first saying on the agenda today, of course, is animal services. I spoke with Dr. Bustle's last week, referencing animal shelter and, of course, said at council meeting that she'd like to place this on the agenda. And before we get started, I want to thank Robert and Victoria for being with us today. Thank you all so very much. Before we get started, before you do your presentation, Dr. Bustle. Yeah, thank you, Reverend McDowell. So in response to a lot of our constituents reaching out with concerns due to a recent news story about the animal services operations, it was important for us to have a little bit more of an understanding and in-depth discussion about the ways in which we are operating the shelter. I've had an opportunity to visit. I'm a big dog person. So I've also had the opportunity to meet Victoria and some of the changes that she's made recently to make the operations more efficient. And so really wanted to have a discussion around really what are our continued challenges? What are some areas that we have identified as a result of potentially some of the things that have been shed light on that we need to continue to work on to improve? And then I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the statistics that were shared were very alarming. And we're continuing to get messages from constituents across the city concerned. And I understand that the city responded to the story with some updated information. But that came out on a Friday. And so I wanted to give us some dedicated time with Reverend's approval to really discuss where are we and help us really understand where there could have been some real opportunities for improvement. Thank you. I want to say unequivocally, I want to thank members of our staff, of course, for appropriately responding to the articles that were written. I want to say thank you. Thank you for that, Madam City Manager. Thank you very much. Thank you for allowing this staff of ours to sort of dig into the weeds of the article and to respond to it. Robert, having said that, and I want to thank Dr. Bussells for that and for her concern for the constituent. Robert, if you would. I'm going to be like this morning, Councilman. I'm going to defer to a nicer person. All right. This is Victoria. Victoria, you're the nicer person. So if you would, please. Absolutely. Thank you. And Victoria, if you don't mind, I think the biggest concern I had was the claim that we are euthanizing dogs that are deemed normal. And I understand that there may be some different data points and opportunities for improvement on how we collect data. But at face value, that's pretty scary. Absolutely. There are some concerns on the table, and I'm eager to address them. I appreciate the opportunity to be here today to talk about our operations and our partnerships. And I'm excited to share a lot with you as well. So I think the most important thing to start this presentation with is no kill community. And what that really means, many of you have probably heard a no kill facility. We address it as a no kill community because no facility can be no kill without their community's involvement. No kill established in Charleston, out of Charleston Animal Society in 2018. And since then, the shelter has undergone assessments from multiple entities, one of them being no kill. Heard those assessments, changes were brought to the shelter under the former superintendent. New programs were implemented, such as T&R, and managed intake, and new positions were created to manage those programs. Managed intake is something that was, it was really huge. And it's something we still struggle with today. And you'll see a little bit more about that as we move forward. In 2021, there was new leadership. And at that around that time, we were making connections with Best Friends. That's a national animal welfare group. And we said, hey, we're struggling a little bit. What can we do to reach this goal, to achieve this no kill status? So Best Friends came out and spent a day with us. They toured our facility. They spoke with our teams. And they gave us a verbal assessment. At that time, they felt the biggest way that they could help us out would be to enroll us in their mentorship program. That was a program put in place for struggling shelters to pair up with shelters that were at that new kill status or close to. The grant was funded by, or the program was funded with a $100 grant that the fellow and the mentor could utilize to increase life-saving efforts. Since we've entered this mentorship, we have increased marketing efforts. We've implemented training opportunities to animal control, leadership, kennel. We've implemented enrichment, big and small. We're also exploring self-rehoming options for owners. The shelter should always be a last resort for surrendered animals. And last but not least, we changed our hours of operation. And by changing our hours of operation, we changed a lot of our paradigms. And that did result in some staff turnover. But that was so important for us to do because it was an opportunity for us to cross train across the board and also really enhance our cleaning operations and come into compliance with best practices so that we could be ready for the public when we open. Versus historically, the public came in from the minute that we arrived to the minute that we left. And it made in-house operations a bit disorganized. But ultimately, our goal is to be a no-kill community. And we can't do that without the help of our community and our local partners such as Animal Mission, Pimento Lifeline, Humane Society, and others. Next, I'd like to talk about the life-saving programs that we do have going on at the shelter. Next to adoption, Foster is our most important program because that is an opportunity for animals to get out of the facility. And you can see we have multiple components to our Foster program. Historically, we only operated under General Foster, and that would typically be puppies or kittens that were too young to go up for adoption. So we would immediately seek Foster outlets for those animals. In the recent years, we've expanded this program to FTA, which is Foster to adopt. That allows somebody to do a trial run with a dog. So if we have a dog that is coming up on a longer length of stay, the community seems hesitant, go ahead and take this dog home for 14 days, give it a trial run, and we can make a decision after that timeframe. We also have the Adoption Ambassador program that allows a Foster parent to foster an animal until they find it a home. So we're keeping in contact and offering the resources in the meantime. Volunteer is an up-and-coming program. We've always had volunteer efforts that they've been minimal. Currently, with our new volunteer program coordinator, we are creating orientations to ensure that our volunteers are trained and they're being safe when they have animals out in the field. We're also implementing more structure to this program. Currently, some of the enrichment components to this program are doggy day out that allows a volunteer to come and check a dog out of the facility for a day, to get it out around town, get it some exposure, maybe even find it a home. Or if the volunteer doesn't have that availability, we're implementing slumber buddies, which will allow a volunteer to take a dog home for the evening, which is also a great enrichment opportunity because now that dog can come back to the shelter the next day, hopefully tired and showing better, which would increase its adaptability. Those are some of the larger enrichment opportunities that we have. We've also implemented things as small as peanut butter, frisbees, daily stuffed Kongs. And those are just minimal efforts that you can practice within your facility to increase enrichment. That also keep us in line with best practice. The shelter has a rescue program and coordinator as well. We do on a weekly basis network to around 200 partners on our rescue list, animals that are within the facility and eligible for transfer. Many times we have an animal that we knew our rescue's gonna scoop up right away. So we go ahead and promote that animal right away. And TNR. TNR was implemented in 2017 when the ordinance passed and that allowed us to release outdoor community cats versus euthanizing them, which is what was done when a feral cat came into the community. In 2021, we expanded the TNR efforts to all outdoor felines, whether they were feral or domesticated. So now we only filter young kittens or owner surrendered domesticated cats through our adoption program. And the reason that we did this is because it was suggested best practice, only 2% of impounded felines were returned to their owners. And at the end of the day, it reduced shelter over capacity and euthanasia rates. Since we've done that, our live release for felines is 93%. I didn't interrupt you. No problem. Yes, it is. Yes, sir. You say only 2% of impounded felines were returned to their owners, meaning it's not uncommon for an owner to have a cat that they let out during the day into the community. So what we do now is spay and neuter those cats and they get returned to their communities. We always encourage people to migrate 2%. Correct. Since we've expanded this TNR effort, the live release for felines is 93%. It's no secret that the challenge here are large breed dogs. Last but not least, we have marketing efforts. One thing that I learned very quickly is we weren't being transparent enough with our marketing. And by that, I mean we weren't telling the community, we're full. We're going to have to euthanize. We need your help. Can you foster? Can you adopt? Can you seek another outlet before surrendering? When you pick an animal up, can you avoid bringing it to the shelter? And you'll see here just a few of many of our recent promos. We run monthly adoption specials to reduce the cost of adoption rates. We also notify the community when we had a very high intake and we need an emergency free day. We are at capacity. We've also made flyers for exercising rehoming efforts. And of course we're available on social media platforms as well. So here are some numbers and graphs. You will see by looking at this, our current live release per hour formula is 82%. We also like to reflect best friends formula because we are in a partnership with them. The difference between our two formulas is we deduct owner request to use in Asia from our numbers. Best friends likes to calculate that in. It is still accounted euthanasia towards the shelter numbers. But even at best friends, you'll see here looking at a timeline, going back to the early 90s, our live release is 79%. So what is the best friend number currently? So our formula is 82% you said. Correct, that is reflecting an 82% live release rate. Best friends would reflect a 79% live release rate. These numbers will fluctuate months to months. At the end of the fiscal year, we give a number for that year overall. But I think what's important to focus in on here is it's not 90%, but 90% is not achievable or sustainable for many animal welfare organizations. And even though it's not 90%, this is the highest it's ever been. The efforts that we are exercising through these life-saving programs and these partnerships and community education and engagement are working. They may not be working at the pace that people would like to see them, but they are working. You will notice here an important and appropriate trend of how intake and euthanasia correlate with one another. When intake is up, so is euthanasia. So this comes to a really big question. How can you keep intake down? And this brings us to probably the most important concept in animal sheltering today, which is community-based sheltering. This is a term that's been around for approximately at least five years, maybe longer, but it's really being focused on heavily. What is community-based sheltering? It's keeping intakes down and it's a community effort, educating and explaining the why to your community, why we have the policies that we have and that we're no longer the dog catchers or the pound. People walk into our facility and they see things that still hold these titles, but we're trying to teach them, hey, our animal control officers are not in the field, just writing citations and picking up dogs. We're in the field to help the community today. So if you're out of compliance with ordinance, we're gonna get you in compliance. You have a healthy dog, you seem like a great owner. Here's a spay-neuter voucher, let's get your pet fixed. Here's a doghouse, make sure you have water out. We're educating and we're working with. Only when an animal needs true interference is animal control impounding. The fact of the matter is that shelters cannot be expected to absorb community problems and shelter teams alone cannot reduce euthanasia. Community members can help by spaying and neutering and microchipping their pets, self-rehelming and taking on responsibility that comes with picking up stray animals. So if you find a stray, knock on some doors, post to lost and found sites, be prepared to hang on to it for a day or two if you can. Shelters should always be the last resort and I think this is a new concept for the community because shelters have really historically always been the problem solvers or quote unquote, the dumping grounds. But also, I mean, we also know that there's been issues in the past with our own shelter of animals not being treated as humanely as they can. So we need to also be conscious of the fact that that is the mindset that people are coming in with. They haven't seen some of the new changes that are being made, they don't understand that yet. So I don't want us to, I'm really excited for some of the things that you're doing, but I also don't want us to forget that just a couple years ago, there were not great things happening at animal services and that was pretty widely known and that's a reputation that we have to change, which is why our data and how we deal with pets, we have to be on top of our game in terms of that. And I understand that we're dealing with all of Richland County, not just city of Columbia which adds another kind of layer for you all in terms of the burden of what you have to accomplish. And that will bring me to, yes. I'm sorry, I just want to piggyback for just a minute. That is an overwhelming national problem, isn't it? Yes, sir. According to shelter animals count and taking euthanasia up across the nation right now. My point, you're exactly right. My point is, while it's highlighted today, it's a national problem. And I think what you're working towards is solutions. And the viable solutions, of course, I think you just read off a few of them, community-based issues and concerns and things that are necessary for protected life for animals. It's a national problem. How do we take a national concern and take it and bring it to a city concern where we know that there are some real issues and what has been done, say what has been done in the past or somewhere else. And I think you're getting at what I think is at the heart and the crux of what community-based sheltering is all about. I think that's what I sense. I'm sorry. We're trying very hard to bring a lot of these concerns and these realities to surface. So this brings me to my next point that we are part one of two. We do contract with Richland County Animal Control. Currently, Richland County is over 60% of our intake. As of today, it's 65% of our intake and that number is only going up, as you can see, from the past two fiscal years. In 2021, Richland County was 61% of our intake and in 2021-22, they were 63% of our intake. Can I ask you a question? So the 98 animals that came from Richland County, does there a breakdown on those? Are those mostly just people who reach dogs versus lost dogs or what is it? I'm not returning dogs to, but I'm saying giving up the dog. Sure. Last week was a very difficult week at the shelter. It was a little higher than usual as far as intake goes, but it is not uncommon. We did take in from Richland County alone 98 animals. 32 of those animals were brought in from citizens within Richland County. So it could have been an owner surrender, which an appointment was made for. It could have been a citizen who found a stray. 66 of those animals were brought in through Richland County Animal Control. I'd also like to add in that Richland County Animal Control is a non-participator and the live release side of what we're doing at the shelter. Once the legal stray holds us up, those animals are then the shelter's responsibility to move through life-saving efforts. So euthanasia is higher, is higher in Richland County as opposed to in the city. Is that what I'm hearing? Euthanasia will increase with intake. And we have a very high intake from Richland County. So probably, yeah. But those are, okay. I guess just to get to some generalized facts. Sure. Large number is owner surrender? Majority of these environments are from animal control. Okay, so pick the animals. Correct. There are situations in which animal control responded and decided to pick up an impound. Okay. And most of the reason that- I mean, it could be signs of abuse. It could be dehydration. It could be neglect. It could be a ton of different reasons why they had picked up, right? Or they got into a fight with another dog. Those are justifiable reasons for impoundment. That is not always the case for impoundment. We all have struggles in the community. Again, it comes back to educating that community and doing everything we can to avoid impoundments when necessary. Just to compare last week from the city standpoint, intake was 40 animals. 14 of those animals were brought in through animal control officers. So again, when intake is up, euthanasia is up. And let's talk about some of those decisions because I know that there are some concerns circulating this topic. First, I'd like to point out that euthanasia decisions are always made by and only by leadership and or vet teams. Animals overall health, mental state, and safety are going to be taking into consideration. Rarely is space the soul determining factor. It is a contributing factor in many cases. For example, let's circulate back to last week. One of those days, it was Wednesday. We had 12 animals come to us between 4 and 5.15 p.m. You're at the very end of the day. You don't have a single open run. So now we're in crunch time where we have to evaluate the animals who have a long length of stay, signs of mental deterioration. What is their overall health status? Are they heartworm positive? These take resources. These are the reasons the decision is made, but it was motivated by the fact that we just took in 12 animals without notice and we had new space. I'd also like to point in when these animals come to us, we are obligated to hold them for their stray period. And we take that very seriously. So we have animals on the truck, whether they're aggressive or not, we have to make room for them. For our city ordinance, section 466, impoundment of pet animals, animals with infectious or life-threatening illness or too dangerous to hold, maybe euthanized upon intake. So help me understand then the claim that 448 dogs didn't make it past five days. I need help understanding that claim as well. So that's 47% of euthanized dogs. It was claimed that we did not hold them by law for five days. So is that implying that maybe they had issues and they were euthanized or is there... I need more details to the statements as well. I need a breakdown of the numbers also. Were they only requested euthanasia? There was not a breakdown in those numbers. It still seems pretty high. Our rates, what would be the rate that you have calculated in terms of our euthanasia currently? In terms of dogs that are being euthanized over the last month or so, do you have that number? I have that our current, if you break down our current euthanasia rate of dogs is 25%. And is it possible that a dog could be euthanized the day that they enter the facility? So again, per this ordinance of a dog, and I'll give you an example. On Sunday, we picked up a German shepherd that was in very poor shape. That dog actually did not survive the ride to the shelter. However, when you have a dog that was just hit by a car or has a medical condition and it's not doing well and we don't have the resources to alleviate that pain, we do have the right to euthanize that animal. But please be aware that we always scan for a microchip and if there is traceable identification or a tag, we are going to make every effort to reunite that animal with the owner or see if we can get the owner to pick it up and take it for emergency medical treatment before we make a decision to euthanize. We are also within right to euthanize animals that are considered too dangerous to hold, but that rarely, if ever happens because we understand the importance behind the legalities and stray holds. So it didn't matter. The breed is the aggression of the dog. Breed is never taken into consideration for euthanasia decisions. Okay. Okay. So this does tie into owner requested euthanasia and I apologize for being able to answer some of these questions. I would need to see a breakdown of numbers as well. These numbers that have been recently displayed may have included owner requested euthanasia. And we like to say that is a service that we provide to our community when it's appropriate to do so. Many times it is owners who have animals at the end stages of life. Sometimes it's owner who is dealing with a dog that has behavioral issues and signs of aggression and they've worked with trainers and this dog is not improving and we have a bite history. That would be a liability to adopt out for us. So in many cases, we will honor these decisions. We actually take pride in the ability to assist owners in alleviating their pet suffering when they don't have the resources to do this at a private clinic. Those procedures can be very costly. And our euthanasia mindset, euthanasia has never performed lightheartedly. It's not fun. Nobody got into this industry to euthanize pets. We have a very hardworking and dedicated team in the shelter that understands why this is necessary but they're able to still look at the reason that they're in our facility and doing what they're doing because the good does outweigh the bad in our industry. And there's a lot of good. In regards to recent press, there were investigative efforts that are in question to facts behind several allegations pertaining to medical treatments not being performed, not holding animals for stray times and again, no breakdown of numbers. Yeah, and I guess that's what I'm still, I'm a data person and I'm still struggling with. So based on the information that was foiled from the city for dates between January, I think January to February, it seems like the euthanasia rate was pretty high for dogs. According to our data, it says that 1,026 dogs were euthanized in that time. And the total number of dogs is about what, 1,240. That's an upwards of 80% euthanization rate. So. Is that for the fiscal year? No, that is, I'm sorry, yes. It was for 122 to 223. So it'd be important to look at what our intake was. And you were usually taking in anywhere between 4,852, 1,000 dogs euthanized is a high number, but you also have to look at the 4,000 that may have been saved. And these are the efforts that we're working to increase. Again, we can't do it without the community's involvement. We have got to get intake down. That is the biggest challenge. That is where we need the compliance of our partners. That is where we need the efforts of our community. If intake is down, euthanasia will be down. Sorry, go ahead. No, I'm sorry, go ahead. Talk to me a little bit about the intake because this is where I'm also trying to understand at intake, some of these dogs that were euthanized were listed as normal, but then they were euthanized. So that doesn't sound like a good thing. So what happened there? So in our software, we use chameleon. It's a very common shelter software. There is an intake screen and that's where you document the vaccinations that the animal was given, what the temperament of the animal was at the time, the weight, the heartworm status, et cetera. There is a field in that screen that I believe is titled condition and it can be normal or abnormal. The rule of thumb is if you have an abnormality, usually if a medical evaluation is not done. It's not treatable. Not necessarily, no. The rule of thumb is if there's an abnormality upon this process, you would notate abnormal. The field is rarely used, if ever. We actually had a conversation with our veterinarian and she thinks she's the only one who uses the field because she's filling that in when she's doing medical assessments. An intake evaluation is not a medical assessment performed by a veterinarian. It's just showing that the intake evaluation process was complete and the animal is vaccinated. So many times that field may be left normal even if there was an abnormality. Our process for documenting medical concerns at intake goes through what we call a sick sheet. Any abnormalities are documented and submitted to our veterinarian for assessing. So that field may say normal but it truly doesn't hold a lot of weight. We have actually reached out to our chameleon team members to have it removed because we can see the issues and confusion that it has the ability to cause. I think what I would do if our y'all is going back to Dr. Bussell's point. Unless you have data, you're stuck with emotion. So if I were you, what I would do is drive the decision-making strictly on the data and then be able to report the data in a very functional, simple, data-driven way. Otherwise, I mean, there's no way to come out of this without having different ideas in your mind about what's going on, there's no way. I mean, and we all have different, our brains work differently and without a sheet that says 1,212 euthanizations and here are the factors that went into this and 21%, 17%, 12%, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's what you have to have. Otherwise, you've got what everybody in here wants to infer from what you're saying. So that's your trick. It's not being said because we're not in the day-to-day or some of these decisions might be happening verbally. Even a better point. So the answer is you have to embrace the data and you have to probably improve the check-in process to give better data concerning the animal as it's brought into the facility. And we have a step in place when we're making euthanasia decisions for no time. Be able to report it very simply. Look, I think what y'all are doing is super important for our community. What y'all are doing is selfless and I commend you for doing it. However, you've got to be able to tell your story. Talk about it. How many times we've said this so far in the last few months, you have to be able to tell your story. If you can't tell your story, someone's going to tell it for you and that's pretty much what happened. Yeah, and pretty much the data is not telling that story. It's not telling the story. And I mean, we can say that something was normal and not normal, but at the end of the day, like what you're saying makes sense, but at the end of the day when someone sees a form and it says normal, the story that's being told to everyone that's not watching this or not involved is that we are killing normal dogs. And I have a problem with that because that's not true. So I'd like to note that there are times, again, last week, for example, where we are euthanizing normal dogs purely for space. That is usually a last resort at the end and you have no open runs. You have to make space for those animals because legally we do have to hold them. So that's making a decision. That is making a decision that has to be made at that time because you can't put the animals back in the community and you can't turn away the animal control agency that you're trying to do. It has to be made with some emotions attached, of course, but the realistic part of that is from four to whatever time that he is euthanized dogs to make sure and ensure that at least we are in a quality position where we can't handle $12, $14. Correct, we have to take the animals in and in doing so we have to make space for them. My additional point would be by, again, by embracing the data versus running from the data, what you're able to do is to tell the right story. You may get to a point where you come back here, maybe you report every six months or a year, you come back and say, our number one problem is space. Okay, well, then that's something that we don't want. But we can change, right? I'm just saying, but the way we're doing it now is you're leaving the story up to every individual. So, and I would just strongly recommend that we have a embrace the data and it is what it is. Exactly, and when I say embrace, there's gonna be things in that data that we don't like either. And then that's an opportunity in conversation to talk about accountability and talking about different ways in which we can do things. But right now we are at a rock and a hard place because we don't know what the truth, you know? And there's not no good data. The best way to embrace the community is with facts. Well, I think the facts, I'm sorry, Robert, you're just giving me this. Oh, I think the embrace, the truth, of course, is to do what we realized to, some of the things you've already talked about today, that embraces some truth, some truth, no question about that. I think it's necessary for us to, we know what the needs are, we know what we can do and what we can't do. And in order to do that, I think realistically, we tell our story in a marketing kind of way and you've done this, you've done some of that. I think data is important, but I think little pooch is also important and important in such a way that we understand, realistically, that we don't have the runs and that's not data driven. That is a realistic look at what's available for our animals. So I think you're on target and I think that there's a real critical need for us to look at Columbia, but to look at what has happened down the road in other places and how we continue to embrace that reality. I don't want to get into anything other than embracing animal services. I mean, I think you're doing a good job. I think Peter is absolutely right, it's a thankless job, but I also think that if we are going to move in a direction where there's results taking place, you are. Thank you, ma'am. And Reverend, I would just ask if it works for you all having just the same way we do our quarterly updates of homeless services at the health committee, perhaps we could have some quarterly updates of you coming in in terms of some of these things that you're reevaluating for process-wise because I think one thing, we can debate the numbers all day. One thing that I think we all agree upon is that the way we're collecting data, the way we are defining different variables in that data is not working in terms of being able to portray an accurate story of what's happening at animal services. And so I'd like to see kind of how we progress over time with some of those changes and then where we as city council can help assist. I mean, you and I have talked about how I think animal services badly needs a new facility. You all are, your offices are literally in kennels and that's not fair, right? And so that, and I've talked to Robert about that as well and I want to be very supportive and make sure that you all get those resources. But I think that this is a really hard lesson on making sure that we are being very vigilant and not having conversations in hallways. And I know things get stressful but really emphasizing to staff how important it is to document so that we're not in this place again. Well, I think it could be consensually agreed that once every quarter have a loan that there'd be some update in terms of what you're doing, Victoria. What the shelter is doing. Very open to that. We did have a visit today from our current mentor as well as best friends to reevaluate, see where we are and see where things are in the mentorship. There are some suggestions forthcoming that we would like to discuss with council. And some of that does relate directly to the way that we would like to share this data moving forward and the further exposure that we would like to give. I think all of us buy into that. Of course you do. We really do. We buy into that. And then from the editor on top of all that's been said, I truly do agree with data sharing. We also have to be strategic in how we, and who and how we partner with people so that they are truly no attention so that the information is also not being portrayed by individuals who are not truly, as they say, wanting to give the overall picture of something being negative when if we're really trying to be helpful, then we all need to be being factual in the information we share. So the staff knows, I'm very concerned about partnerships and volunteers and so forth. So let's all be very cautious about how and with whom we share information. I mean, that's extremely important. I think it's extremely important in the open and not with a mask on, no pun intended. I think it's very necessary. So if we could consensually as a committee decide to look at this once a quarter, however we determine how long that might be, it would certainly be good, I think strategically to look at what you're proposing and what you have here, the marketing piece, all of the data sort of pulling all that in and looking at where we are in three months or in the next quarter. I think that three months is a great timeline to see where we are, that works for you all. Thank you, we would be willing to do that. I would like to tie into the comment that you made, Dr. Bustles. Thank you in relation to our facility. We have recently undergone a space study. We did select a architectural firm out of Colorado who came and spent several days at our facility to look at our spaces and how functional they are. They took time to speak with each of our department teams to find out what the daily struggles are. And they gave us a very thorough report that we would love to discuss and pass along to upper management in regards to where our facility needs improvements to take care of the staff who are taking care of the animals and also make sure that the facility is overall. And I'm glad you brought that up because I will note to ACM Shealy and Robert that I know you mentioned that there was turnover and we've had some discussions in the past about some of the ways in which there have been maybe some personnel kind of issues. Hopefully we can talk about ways in which we can get that morale up again. And maybe that could be something that you all take a look at because to city manager's point, making sure that we have people that are truly bought into the mission of this work and have a good understanding of why we do it. And the fact that we'd not just do it for the city but for the entire county, we have to build up that in our employees. And so I would ask that you all look into ways in which we can make sure we're keeping some star employees that are excited to be there but also feel comfortable to come to Victoria or to you or to Robert and say something's not working. Like that's the most important thing to me is we always have room for improvement. Things do go wrong. Things have gone wrong at the animal services but we want to have an open enough dialogue where we can fix it. Victoria, hi Mike. That transparency, Dr. Buzz was exactly on point. Robert and I met with our team out there last week. We had a really good discussion. We talked about recruitment and retention and the city manager and those efforts to help our staff and how much we value them. But also that transparency piece and so they know that our doors are always open and that we want to hear from them and hear how things are going. I can tell you, they really are a great, passionate group of employees and Dr. Bonovich is doing a great job to move that side. And we really do have a strong team out there but we specifically wanted to let them know that they were supported and they do have an avenue to reach out and we can share their concerns. Thank you for that. Thank you. Thank you. Victoria. Are you through? We just had two special cases if time allows to share with you on our last slide here. These are two very different cases and it really kind of paints a picture of the efforts that we do exercise at the shelter and how we are appreciative of the community that is willing to work with us. The first case off to your right is Talitha. She is a dog that was at the shelter for over 300 days. We were hoping she wouldn't hit 365 days but we were prepared to give her a celebration anniversary party if she did. She is currently in a foster to adopt home. During her stay at the facility we never saw signs of mental deterioration. We never saw changes in behavior pertaining to aggression. She remained dog friendly through dog play groups and we kept her. So this is an important moment to say length of stay is not the determining factor. Many times we get the question of how long does an animal have? And again, that intake and that animal's disposition over time is the ultimate answer for that. Off to your right here we have a dog that we've named Rosewood because she has gained a lot of attention in the Rosewood community where she was recently picked up. This is a dog that came to us. Age should be anywhere from 13 to 15 years of age. She has heartworm positive. She has multiple masses over her body. She had infected ears, infected eyes. She did not have good mobility. She's very stiff. The only thing that we could do was keep her comfortable because she was stable. We followed that straight hold law and kept her comfortable. Folks from the community reached out. I want to adopt her. I want to give her good quality of life. And despite our opinion, which is this is a dog that is suffering and she should be humanely euthanized we've worked with these individuals. The first citizen took our medical notes and went over them with a veterinarian and determined he did not have the finances for this. The second citizen did the same and through her veterinarian also determined this dog should be euthanized. We adopted Rosewood out today to that individual who was planning to proceed with euthanasia as the now owner through her own veterinarian. So I just, I want to bring to light a little bit that there's always a high debate. We're all animal people. We're all strongly opinionated but we're all in this for the same reason. We love animals and we want to help them. And we will in any case, good or bad do what we can to increase life saving. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you, Victoria. Any concerns? Any concerns you all make? Well, one of the things I think that we're going to do, Victoria, consensually I think we're going to decide that every quarter or have a longer takes because there has been some collaborative conversation about a new place and identifying that place and how that might work. It's way into the progress of animal services. But even before that, I think that there needs to be a conversation about are these goals doable? And if they are doable, things you can do, let's do it. Things we can't do, let's try it again. But thank you so much for being here today. Thank you. I want to thank you and your staff for all of the things that you do. Thank you. All right, Robert, you're quite silent. You okay? All right. You're right. I want to, Peter, I'm still in the water. Okay. Let me let him get some water before we start this next conversation. And I promise you, this is just this next conversation, of course, is a conversation, an inquiring conversation because we've talked about this in the past. I want to wait until Daniel get down here. It might be a song. It's just water. Come on. I don't hear ice in there. I know everybody's thinking about it. Maybe two years ago, I think, Pam. We had a conversation. Of course, my particular lean and has always been a health narrative that impacts our city. And how best can we do that? One of the models that we looked at was a model adopted in New Orleans. The New Orleans health narrative, of course, said a lot of things to us. And of course, gave us some real good things to talk about. And one of the things I wanted to do today was to allow Pam to share that model with members of the committee, just to share now. And of course, later on down the road, perhaps looking at it as something doable. Yes, sir. Ms. Benjamin, I'm sorry. Yes, sir. I remember you're right. About two years ago in 2021, the concept of having some type of either a chief health officer or some type of health initiative was put forth from you and several other members of council. And as you said, this effort was to look at health disparities in our different areas throughout the city, help manage and reduce some of those chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, and to assist you all as a council and us as a city in trying to navigate and help make our communities healthier. And so from that, we were asked to do some research to determine what was out there, what are some best practices? What are some other communities doing on this stage and combating health related issues within the city? And so, yes, we saw several examples of a community health initiative model. Where the community- Not a health officer. Right. We sort of took that off of the table. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And because, of course, different communities are structured different ways. Some communities, their health departments are a part of the city and city government. And of course, we were not in that situation. We don't run a health department as some other communities do. And so we did pull some research. And as you mentioned, Healthy Baton Rouge or Healthy BR was a community initiative that we looked at and looked at possibly modeling. That community initiative model really partners with those people out in the community who are doing this type of work. As you all know, the city of Columbia and Richland County, there are lots of organizations that are there to help address health disparities, crime disease management, and help provide guidance to city leadership, whether it be some of the things that you've already done. For example, Reverend McDowell, we partnered with DHEC in November of last year. And you all, as a council, declared November Diabetes Awareness Month. We had a press conference and we had people from DHEC here that are out in the community doing work to help people manage diabetes and help reduce the number of diabetes we have in our community. So that was the model really, is to continue to reach out and partner with those organizations that are out in the community that are doing this type of work. The Healthy BR initiative has a little bit more activities. This was put out through their mayor's office. But in essence, it is addressing some key elements that are involved in their community. And of course, they've done a health assessment and we've had organizations that have done health assessment and they've determined which of the health issues are the biggest issues for the Baton Rouge community. Diabetes was one, or obesity is one of them. And heart disease was another. And what they've done is they've created activities around those biggest health issues and then they have either had fares or they have had walks or like you did in November, declaring a month as a diabetes awareness month and then had activities around those months. Or they've also partnered with other people such as the Alliance for a Healthier South Carolina which we are, we're becoming a member of that. And they are an organization that is an Alliance of 50 healthcare providers who come together and try and build a framework in order to help communities improve their health statistics and health circumstances. So us being a member of the Alliance, us looking at partnering with Prisma, us providing funding for activities, those types of things are the things that really fall under the umbrella of a healthy community initiative. So, we are certainly at the point where we want to do whatever is the council's wishes to continue these partnerships and continue building a program. And so we certainly want your direction as a committee on that and to give us some of your thoughts on how extensive you want this to be or how you just wanna, for example, dedicate three months out of the year towards a health initiative. That's what I was gonna ask. How much of this do you think is community awareness or people's awareness of health issues and how much of it is real lack of healthcare accessibility? I think it's a lot of accessibility. I mean, cause I see this a lot. I mean, it's a much larger problem in the city for sure. And I see this, and there's also in the south, I think specifically, there's this lack of interest in going to a doctor no matter what. So I'm just wondering, and I see that our business all the time, we have people that refuse to go to the doctor until they're so sick that they have no choice. And then they've already set a pathway. If it's not bad, something's super serious. I was just wondering if we could, I like the awareness part. I really think that in my mind, awareness is a lot of this, but there's also, there has to be a post-awareness something that I think we have to embrace. I don't know exactly what that something is. I was gonna say at the health committee that Rev is also a part of, we had the Alliance for Healthier South Carolina, which is a very, I would say, well-established coalition of our major health players in all of South Carolina came and told us about some of the resources that they can provide. And so my suggestion, Rev, would be to start leveraging that to see if there are any initiatives that makes sense for us to either put our name on and start helping with, or maybe they can help us in creating something that we wanna focus on in terms of our work in the health space. But I think it'll be very important for us to narrow the lane into something that we can do with immediate impact for the city because public health is so broad, right? So, and we don't wanna just get lost in the sauce in terms of trying to solve something that just goes back to a lot of systemic issues like access and historical disparities and things like that. But that's what I was, let's go ahead, Rev. Go ahead, go ahead. But also, this one I was gonna say, so, and I think diabetes is a great one. There's, I can't even guess how many people today have diabetes and don't know it. That's right. And there's several reasons they don't know it and we know what they are. And that's why I was saying that it feels like through awareness we can come follow it up and I'm glad you brought this up with the real action to then help people with that habit. And we see this all the time, people, people end up with something and they usually don't deal with it until it's too late. Peter, you're exactly right. And that initially, Miss Benjamin was our intent as we started this conversation. Just remember, and I think each of you know this, 29203 is the amputation capital of the state and the nation. So we're not just talking about, we're not just talking about health issues as it relates to diabetes, but we're also talking about health issues in 29203 as it relates to hypertension and other catastrophic diseases that impacts our city. Our intent, of course, when we initiated this concern was to make sure that not only awareness was going to be at the top of the list, but also to put together resources to help. One of the things we talked with DHEC about is the possibility of going into areas like 29203, looking at the diabetes issue and doing some real streaming, streaming there. It is very important that not only do, and Peter, I think both you and Dr. Bussells are on target as it relates to the awareness piece. The other side of that, and we could perhaps do this collaboratively, but my suggestion, of course, we've got some material from New Orleans and what took place. I would certainly like for members of that committee, of this committee to have that document, to look at that, to see how we can best form and agenderize what it is health is all about. I think you know, I think you know, I think each of you know a healthy city is a safe city. And right now, our city is not healthy. And that's what we're endeavoring to do. So Ms. Benjamin, if we could, we don't wanna make any decisions, but at least I wanted to put this on the table today to make sure each one of our members had a copy of what we've already went through. Yeah, it'd be great to maybe pull some activities that would make sense for us to do here. Can we do that? Certainly can, we'll provide you with that information. And as Dr. Bussell said, a lot of these organizations whom I've spoken with, it is about just leveraging and having our name associated with them and being a member of their, like the Alliance. It means a lot for them to be able to show that we've got cities and other communities that are a part of their organizations and that helps them bring awareness to it. And it helps our citizens know if we're associated with something, it must be something that's good, it must be something that's good for our community. And the Alliance does a lot of activities in the Midlands. So I think whoever, I believe you are representing us on that. I think if there's activities that come up that they are doing, it might be worth coming, it may be better for this to come to the Health Committee. I don't know what you prefer, but. It could be a collaborative. And seeing ways in which we can put our name on that and then send it out to our kind of constituents to start participating. Yeah, I think it's important. I mean, I love the concept that Colombian cares. Absolutely. That's really what it's about. And if they really just follow the process between awareness and I love the concept of community engagement after awareness and then you really look at the real health care initiative. Yeah, action. Absolutely. Within the community, I promise it'll be effective. Yeah. So Ms. Benjamin, if we could do that. Yes, sir. I mean, it's two options. Either you care or you don't care. And I'm not one of those persons who don't care. I want to care for folk. And of course, I think each of us in this room care for everybody who perhaps are having some vicissitudes with their health. So thank you, Pam. Yes, sir. Thank you, Ms. Benjamin. I will share that. Madam city manager. Mr. Chair, I was just going to let you all know as you're having the discussions and you're combining the possibility of activities with the alliance and others, the mayor and I just literally finished a meeting before this one with one of the execs from Prisma Hill. And so I know y'all have been talking with mayor recommending about some of his initiatives with them. Obviously they are the trauma hospital of the midlands. They are the hospital system that serves those in poverty and indigent care. And so they are very in tune now, I think to some efforts that they want to collaborate with as well like blue zones. And you know, and what I think everyone is saying is the same thing. We kind of know the issues like now what are the action items for me. And I think just naming it something and then all these activities falling under it. I'm really picking some of these. I don't want us to duplicate efforts. If there's something like, Brad was already doing diabetes month, awesome. If we decided to pick another month, if the mayor is doing something, you know, I have a couple of ideas of things that we can literally put our name on and invite the city to come out. And it would be a great way to collaborate with existing. But I think if we can call it live health or Columbia cares or whatever we decided to call it as a way to kind of put a framework on all of our public health related activities, I think that's the way to go. I think Columbia, I mean, all kinds of different. Yeah, whatever we're going to do. And I mean, you can help decide what you want that to be. But I mean, gee whiz, look at when all of the sisters wore red in chamber for heart, for heart, heart disease. Look, there is a cadre, there is a cadre of things that we can do. The thing that I'm most interested in and I keep saying this and Peter just, you just gave me something to say again. We need to make sure we tell our story. Comes every discussion comes out of that. Every discussion, hey look, we're going to tell our story. And I'm sure our staff is going to tell its story. What we are pushing for now is for our community to tell its story. And your story can be a story, not, it doesn't necessarily have to be a resolutional story, but a story that touches the lives of people. So that's what we want to do, Ms. Benjamin. So if you'd allow us to do that, thank you very much for sure. Now the very last thing that I do want to talk about, thank you, Pam. Yes, sir. The very last thing I do want to talk about, of course, is a proposed moratorium on honorary street naming and facilities. We know that there has been over 50 plus street naming. And I think I probably have done probably 60% of those. Like 90%, you have no streets left, sir. So the Fox, the Fox is in charge of the n-houses. So you're putting a moratorium on yourself. Yeah, so we need a, we need a, we need a moratorium. I can very well say to you guys, that the majority of street naming, honorary street naming in our city, I've done that. And I wanted to sort of shoot low, but they sort of pushed those numbers up. But we've got a list of all those things. I think as a committed, we need to once again, look at that process. You have within your packet an application. And I think we need to do some real, have some real discussions about this, have some real discussions about how we debt folk to be honorarily named for a street. And of course, when I say name in a street, what you're essentially doing, and Robert, you printed a lot of those things for us. What we essentially do, we're not actually name, rename in the street. What we're doing is putting a topper on top of the street. And there has been some conversation about process. And we wanna make sure that the process has been vetted by this committee and of course, to council. So if we could have continued conversations on that, I think we'd be all right. So Rev, you'd like for us to review this policy and come back to the next meeting. Yes, we have. Okay. Would you please? Fantastic. So we're not taking any requests from you? No. Okay. We're not taking any requests right now. Now I understand, TK, that there perhaps may be an amendment on a sign that was done some months ago and an amendment that would perhaps change the location. Other than that, I think we're okay. Okay. Yep. I'm not aware of that. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Sounds good. Well, I'll tell you about it. Thank you. Okay. Anything else you might have. Let me thank you all for being here today, Victoria. Thank you so very much. We will be in touch with you. And of course, in three months time, we'll figure out some time parameters and have you to come back and say a word to us. Thank you. Motion to adjourn. Anything else? Second. Are you planning to meet on July 25th? That's your next meeting. No, we're not doing it for you. We don't do that in August. Okay, in August. Thank you. Is that all right, Ms. Clarence? I did it. Madam Senator. Just wanted to chat. Madam Senator, are we all right? No, chat is for me. All right. Thank you. All right, it's been moved that we adjourn. Is there a motion? Second. Second. Thank you all so much. Thank you. Thanks, Rowe. That was good. Thank you.