Salina City Commissioners Monday will vote on hiring an outside industry expert to conduct an operational assessment of the Salina Animal Shelter.

Back on March 23rd, at the end of a study session four of the five commissioners indicated they would like to proceed with an assessment. At the time, Commissioner Doug Rempp was the lone dissenter, saying that in lieu of that the city should immediately start to seek a private  organization to take over operations of the animal shelter. Commissioner Dr. Trent Davis countered the assessment could potentially determine that it would be best to work with an outside agency. Commissioner Greg Lenkiewicz said “it’s an impartial set of eyes with no skin in the game”.

Staff issued a request for proposals for an operational assessment of the Salina Animal Shelter on March 30th, with a due date of April 13th. It resulted in four proposals.  The proposed costs of the various proposals are as follows:

• Animal Shelter Services, LLC $30,000
• Animal Resources & Consulting $15,000
• Matrix Consulting Group $28,500
• Michael Ragsdale – Consultant $25,000

Based on the scoring of the request for proposals, staff is recommending Animal Shelter Services, LLC.

Following a couple of failed inspections, one in 2023 and one in January of this year, the Animal Shelter, and Animal Services Manager Monique Hawley and Operations Superintendent Andrea Murphy,have been under scrutiny regarding shelter management and euthanasia practices.

The failed inspection at the shelter earlier this year found among other issues:

• Employees who had not been trained or certified in euthanasia were carrying them out
• Multiple animals were euthanized by a heart-stick lethal injection into the animal’s heart
• One cat euthanized via heart stick was never sedated

The Saline County Attorney’s Office has filed misdemeanor animal cruelty charges against both of them in a pending case.

The shelter has since passed a re-inspection.

City commissioners are scheduled to discuss the assessment proposals at their regularly scheduled meeting Monday afternoon.