The idea that "Mr. Frank" would take anyone on this board to court for liable is laughable. You can register under as many names as you want, but it still doesn't make what you say true. Your 'scare' tactics are ineffective and reek of desperation.

As many people as possible need to attend this meeting tonight. This is a show of support for the animal advocates that work so hard on your behalf!!! Ask the City Council to include your voice. All you are asking by voting for this
ordinance is to help your own City apply best practices and save money!!!

The sad truth of the matter is that tonight the vote will most likely be 2-7 or 1-8 against. The ordinance just barely passed the first reading to the shock of the animal advocates who felt all the hurdles in their way had been removed.

They were told it had no legal standing and that was corrected. They were then told that the commission could not be permanent and could not be administrative.

The commission was changed into a one year trial committee with the option to renew it yearly along with changing the language to make sure it did not sound
in any way administrative. The intent of the committee has always been advisory to the City Council so this posed no problem. The legal department now says there is no legal barrier.

So once every concern from every council member was addressed, the animal advocates were relieved to finally move forward, to finally be heard.

Now here is the deal as someone who has worked in the Council office and has worked on this particular piece of legislation, I can honestly say that this is a great way to get citizens involved in advocating for animals, best practices, and hopefully applying for much need grants in a financially strapped time.

The Health Department, which is clearly under staffed, has everything to gain from this and I know Harry Melendez would see that this would greatly benefit him as well if he could only get past his knee jerk reaction. This advisory committee could interact with the public to help shed
light on what the process is. Already, through this endeavor, Melendez has now embraced the TNR program of which he knew nothing about before.

Please, please, please, come out to City Hall tonight and ask the Council people why they don't want to support this committee that would be advising them on possible legislation they may want to pass to improve your City. This ordinance is purely advisory so they are really voting up or down whether they want to hear what you have to offer as a caring and cohesive group.

A vote no is like requiring dogs to be leashed within dog runs. It makes no sense.

Althea

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... y_city_council_fails.html


Amy Sara Clark / The Jersey JournalAnimal activists, including Kristine Murphy, center, without sign, listen as the Animal Control Ordinance is debated at Jersey City Hall on June 18, 2009.
About a dozen of people pleaded with the Jersey City Municipal Council to pass an ordinance to create of an Animal Control Commission to oversee the city's Division of Animal Control at last night's City Council meeting.

But despite their pleading, the council decided not to vote on the ordinance. Instead they decided to send a directive memo to Harry Melendez, director of the Jersey City's Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the Division of Animal Control Division, telling him to submit a plan for correcting the division's problems by August 1.

Ward E Councilman Steve Fulop first introduced the ordinance in April, shortly after the notorious Daisy-the-cat incident in which two animal control officers dumped an escaped pet in Lincoln Park instead of bringing her to a shelter.

Since then residents have been coming to City Council meetings to complain that Jersey City's Division of Animal Control isn't doing its job. Several residents complained of rude and unresponsive behavior from Animal Control Officers including one who said that at least two stay cats had been killed by a dog that Animal Control officers refused to trap.

Last night he said it didn't seem as though the ordinance was going to pass, so he went with the memo as a means of at least moving the issue forward.

Afterward, Ward E resident Kristine Murphy, who supports the ordinance, said she understood why Fulop essentially withdrew the ordinance and pushed the idea for the memo instead.

What she said she doesn't understand is why the council is so against creating the committee.

"I'm just so very concerned about why the council people are against this ordinance passing," she said. "To me it's sort of a no brainer."

"She added, it makes me think that there's something going on that we don't know."

No doubt someone is protecting Joe Frank and his employees. My guess is a patronage job, somebody's cousin etc.
It is amazing that the council would take no action. If a fireman was purposely starting fires you would pursue criminal charges. If the chief was ordering that fireman to start the fires then that would be a scandal. Joe Frank was ordering his employees to dump cats in Lincoln Park thus perpetuating a never ending cycle of strays and their offspring. Is that "animal control"? These people have a third world attitude about city services. There is not a progressive brain in their heads except for Fulop. They are laughing all the way to the bank. These dull, small-minded people are running your city and spending your money. Shameful.

From what I recollect, Melendez (who did not attend last night?s council meeting) has until August 1 to submit his plan of action to remedy the problems he believes are at hand with Animal Control. Who then will review this document to ascertain if it encompasses all of the issues recently made public? Once that is settled, he will apparently have six months to correct the deficiencies and abusive/neglectful treatment of animals. What if this does not occur? Will it be just another slap on the wrist and back to the drawing board for the animal advocates? Although I do understand the reason Fulop suggested this plan of action (this or nothing), there are too many lose ends not addressed at all.

How's about somebody dumps Joe Frank in the back of Lincoln Park in the middle of winter and leaves him there for days. And that goes for the knuckleheads on the moron council who voted no.

How great would it be to find them days later in a trap, freezing and smelling of mackerel. Although some members would have to be baited with booze, not fish.

A City is only as good as how they take care of the eldery and animals. JC is bad at both....What is the answer? These clowns gotta go!

There sure must be a hell of a lot of dirty laundry hidden at Animal Control and City Hall if they don't want to set-up any public committee to oversea this department and probably every department. I'd love to stick my nose in the Planning Dept and the area where contract approvals for public works are handed out - this area would stink to high heaven !

I saw that dirtbag Joe Frank picking up a cat that was caught in a cage yesterday in the yard behind mine. Im not sure if they put the cage there or if the owner set out the cage & he juss took it away. I wish I had more time yesterday to follow where he took the cat.

LoKo - did you check LHS?

If I contact LHS, would they tell me that he has been dropping off the stray cats from my area? Do you have a number I can contact them?

Plans to reform Animal Control are unlikely to end controversy

Thursday, September 03, 2009
By AMY SARA CLARK
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Prompted in part by the case of Daisy the cat being dumped in Lincoln Park, the Jersey City Department of Health and Human Services has a new plan for improving its troubled Division of Animal Control.

In a three-page memo issued Aug. 5, Harry Melendez, the department's director, said he plans to create an advisory committee to include some animal activists, and that he will extend the division's hours of operations from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., Monday through Friday, beginning in the middle of the month. Currently the office is open 8 to 4.

Animal activists have complained for years that the Division of Animal Control - which is supposed to be on call 24 hours a day - frequently fails to answer emergency calls on nights and weekends.

Residents also complain of alleged rude behavior from dispatchers and about a failure to follow departmental guidelines.

For example, last winter, two Division employees were caught dumping Daisy, a cat, in Lincoln Park, instead of taking her to a shelter - contrary to division policy, according to a city spokeswoman.

Downtown Councilman Steven Fulop persuaded the City Council to consider his proposal to create an Animal Control Committee to oversee the division. But Melendez argued that the committee would usurp his authority, and in June the council scrapped the idea and directed Melendez to come up with his own plan.

Melendez's "Animal Welfare and Population Control Committee" is to include animal activists, division employees, representatives from the Liberty Humane Society and the New Jersey Department of Health, and a veterinarian.

It will meet monthly, beginning this month. There is also a new subcommittee on feral cats, which has already met twice, Melendez said.

The director said he is contemplating adding weekend shifts, has hired a new employee to evaluate Animal Control services, and is looking into adding a phone menu to the division's phone system.

Fulop has complained Melendez's plan doesn't specify how employees would be held accountable for mistakes and doesn't address the problem of unanswered emergency calls.

David Norman, president of the nonprofit Hudson Animal Advocates, has called the plan "woefully inadequate" and agreed that creating a second shift wouldn't address Animal Control's lack of response, saying that daytime calls to the office are sometimes not returned.

Fulop and Norman both raised questions about the Liberty Humane Society's ability to act independently on the committee since the shelter is largely funded by the city.

Janet Russell, director of development for Liberty Humane, dismissed those concerns, saying her group has always acted in the best interest of animals.

Melendez didn't return phone calls or e-mails asking for a response to these criticisms.

AMY SARA CLARK can be reached at aclark@jjournal.com.



?2009 Jersey Journal
? 2009 NJ.com All Rights Reserved.

One year ago tomorrow Daisy the cat was dumped in Lincoln Park. Are we any better off now than we were a year ago with animal control?

So where does the city stand now on animal control issues?
I believe the City Council rejected Steve Fulop's idea of contracting with L.H.S.

It?s amazing how cats could survive in frigid weather conditions. Thank God that this little critter had a happy ending as well as Daisy.

Annie, a 13-year-old tuxedo cat, disappeared near Norfolk, Mass., during a snowstorm in early December on the day her family was moving.

Five weeks later there was still no sign of the cat and her family feared the worst.

They put up missing pet fliers and contacted Animal Control for help.

And this past weekend, their prayers were answered.

A report came into animal control about a cat rescued from a snow bank.

"Basically, when I picked her up, she had no signs of life. She was stiff, she was unconscious, cold to the touch and not responding to anything," said Hilary Cohen, a Norfolk Animal Control officer.

Despite the ordeal, Annie is expected to make a full recovery.


http://content.usatoday.com/communiti ... vives-after-thawing-out/1